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Walton Academic Bowl Lore

Interesting Tidbits of Information from the Years...

Greatest team ever? If you go solely on the Nationals' records, then the 1994-1995 team of Vicki Rubin, Erika Brown, Wayne McGowan, captain Joseph Abraham, Jim Ludlam, and Ryan Martin has that honor, being the only Walton team to win the Nationals.

At Chicago Nationals in Lake Forest, the best finish by Walton was a second place finish to Dwight D. Eisenhower High School of Shelby Township, Michigan in 1990. Peji Ghanouni was the captain of the team.

Greatest JV team ever? As far as we can tell, the uncontested honor goes to the 1994-1995 Junior Varsity team of captain Vicki Rubin, Eric Wachter, Jeff Briks, Jimmy Zha, and David Romine. Amazingly enough, the team only lost ONE game the entire season, giving them first place at James Island, Dorman, Brookwood, and State. Their loss occured at the Dunwoody tournament semifinals, leaving them with a very respectable third place.

Joseph Abraham is the only person to have been the regular Varsity captain two years in a row. He is also the only junior to ever have held that position.

Scott McClellan has the honor of being the only Walton veteran to have won All-Star All-American Honors at the Panasonic Tournament in Orlando. The prestigious award is only given to one player in each geographic area (ours being the one of the most competitive, the Southeast) and includes a scholarship.

Greatest player ever? There is no absolute consensus, but the most likely candidate at this point is Scott McClellan, whose knowledge was so absolutely phenomenal that he almost always took home All-Star honors from tournaments (and, as mentioned above, was the only Walton All-Star ever at the Orlando tournament). His knowledge was so deep that the year he wrote the questions for the Walton Academic Championship, many teams scored zero in a round (sometimes there were ties!!!) and in the finals neither team topped 100 points. THAT DEEP! Needless to say, he was not rehired to write for WAC ever again. His notebooks, which are currently in Mrs. Martin's possession, are considered the Kabbalah of academic bowl knowledge, and are only for the MOST advanced players to study with at her discretion. Even then, only a fraction of its information ever comes up in national tournaments. Tournaments collectively. Not for the faint of heart. Again, THAT DEEP!

Vicki Rubin declared the official book of the 1996-1997 season was Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth. This controversial gem of post-modern young Jewish male angst was the source of endless laughter and blathering unsuccessful attempts to read excerpts from the text on many an overnight trip. Don't ask. You can only understand by reading it (or at least reading the right selections).

As far as records show, there has never been a pair of siblings that have each been regular first-string Varsity players and/or each appeared on High-Q or Nationals.

As Wayne McGowan would like to tell everyone, the reason why he has that goofy face on the famous Nationals victory photo is because Joseph Abraham and Jim Ludlam held the trophy by the top, causing the base to fall out, and thus causing Wayne to look like that while saving the base.

That same eagle trophy now resides in a special enclosed case in the middle of the front entrance to Walton High School.

Jim Ludlam holds the record for most High-Q appearances with a total of 18, all of which were wins. Six games per season (four regular games, plus two playoff games) times three seasons.

What happens to the High-Q money? If Walton wins either of the two checks, the winnings are split evenly among the players (usually five) -- $2000 total for second, $4000 total for first. So usually $400 per person for second and $800 per person for first. However, this money is scholarship money, so WSB-TV freezes the winnings until they enter college, after which it is sent to the college. Generally, the money is never seen unless the player does not go to college or if they already have a full-ride at college and the college is nice enough to give it back to the student.

Jim Ludlam and Brian Udoff have both won the most money in High-Q, each with $2400. They are also the only two to have played for Walton in three seasons. Brian only appeared once in his sophomore year.

The 1999-2000 High-Q team is the only team in the history of High-Q (as far as we know) to ever have done a complete sweep of all 20 questions in the third round of the game show. The 1999-2000 High-Q team consisted of captain Gnsh Strmn, David Choi, Greg Fanoe, Thomas Morton, and Vanessa Zboreak.

Chip Beals' 2000 Nationals Tournament in Malibu, California is the farthest distance the team has ever travelled to for a tournament.

George Walton Comprehensive High School's official team uniform is....we don't have one. The team has fiercely resisted all attempts at an official uniform for many years. Oftentimes the players can be stubborn, resisting even on formal occasions (High-Q excepting).

In regards to uniforms, the exception is High-Q, where players always dress formally. The most notable events were the 1998-1999 and 1999-2000 High-Q Finals, where all the male members of the team wore tuxedo tops with khaki shorts. This trend was started at the 1997-1998 High-Q Finals by Scott Dorfman and has been the source of endless corny jokes by Chuck Dowdle each year.

For a good laugh, read the graffiti on the High-Q set when you have a chance. It has been an endless source of inspiration (!?) for anyone who happens upon it.

Faulkner Hat-Trick: at the Thomas Jefferson High School Tournament in 1998, Robin McGill, captain Brian Udoff, David Choi, and Greg Fanoe were given a bonus in which, given the summary of a novel by William Faulkner, name the novel. Number of Faulkner novels the team collectively had read: zero. Blindly guessing Faulkner titles without confirmation of correct or incorrect answers until the conclusion of the entire bonus, all three answers were correct. 30 points worth of guessing and dumb luck!

Scott McClellan is supposedly a direct descendant of Civil War Union General of the Army of the Potomac George McClellan, who was appointed and relieved of command by Abraham Lincoln. He subsequently ran against Lincoln in the Election of 1864 and, of course, lost.

Woodward Debacle: in the 1997 Woodward Tournament, one of the first in the 1997-1998 season, the same questions were being used simultaneously for the JV and Varsity tournaments. Amazingly, both finals for the tournaments were Walton versus Vanguard, and in each final, Vanguard overwhelmingly won. Mrs. Martin was so impressed with the Vanguard Varsity team that she felt that they were going to be an extremely hard team for anyone to beat that year. As it turned out, two weeks later, the company that wrote the questions informed Woodward and Walton each that, by accident, they had sold the questions before the tournament to several schools around the nation. And out of those schools, Vanguard was the only one that attended the Woodward tournament. As it turned out, the Vanguard kids went back to their van, where they had happened to be practicing with these questions the night before, and read up the questions before they were read. However, the Vanguard coach refused to return the two trophies to Woodward unless they lost a rematch with Walton. We refused to drop to their level. Regardless, they were stripped of their title by Woodward. The trophies were never returned.

Vanguard Sequel: Due to the poor planning of the Furman University tournament the same season as the Woodward Debacle, the tournament directors had virtually no questions. Vanguard volunteered to donate questions which they "guaranteed" were still untouched, in exchange for an automatic berth in the playoffs. Almost half the teams declined and left.

Vanguard Prequel: The Vanguard coach attempted to moderate a round of play at the Jacksonville Tournament in the 1996-1997 season. The game in question was Walton versus another team entirely, but a Walton loss would have ensured that Vanguard would knock Walton out of playoffs in the total standings. Walton refused to enter the room under these conditions, to which the Vanguard coach attempted to start the round without us. A thoroughly vociferous amount of complaining to the tournament director finally got the Vanguard coach kicked out of the room. Walton went on to win the round.

The Accident: Due to a freak situation involving a Coke and a camera flash, the rental van being driven on the way to one of the tournaments in the mid-1990s ended up flipping into a ditch by the side of the highway. Luckily, no one was badly injured, aside from a few minor cuts and bruises. The blow to Walton would have been immeasureable had anything much more serious happened. Several to-be captains, to-be star players, and to-be valedictorians were inside the van at the time. For shock value, Chris Johnson, whose shirt was torn and caked with blood, refused to change into another shirt, mortifying several teams Walton did later play in that tournament. More information was graciously provided recently by Barbara Ludlam, Jim's mother:

"I have really enjoyed your academic bowl history and I think I may be able to fill in some information about 'the accident.' It occurred in mid-March, 1995, on the way to the State Tournament held that year at Statesboro High School in Statesboro,GA. The varsity team left WHS early Friday morning and mid-morning I received a call from Wayne McGowan asking me to come get them as they had had an accident on I-75 between Atlanta and Macon and the van could not be driven. Wayne assured me that no one was seriously injured so I asked if they wanted to go on to Statesboro. Wayne felt that everyone was shaken and wanted to go home. I said that it would take me a hour to get there so they could think about it and decide when I got there. I was concerned that Jim hadn't called me but Wayne assured me that he was okay and helping with the accident report. Lori Brown got a similar call a few minutes later and by then the team was thinking about continuing. When we reached the Flying J truck stop the team had decided to head to Statesboro and compete in the tournament. They proceeded to win the State Tournament! The picture in the photo archives is incorrectly labeled as State Tournament in Milledgeville. It was actually taken in the media center of Statesboro High School and that is why Lori Brown and I are in that photo. Team members attending were Chris Johnson,who received a nasty abrasion on his shoulder from the roadway as the window he was sitting next to broke in the accident, Joseph Abraham, Jim Ludlam, Wayne McGowan, Ryan Martin, Erika Brown, Courtney McGee, and Steven Yockey."

The Accident, Legend: It is rumored by Mrs. Martin that a student from another team muttered, "I wish that were Walton's van," as their van passed the accident.

The Almost Accident: On the way home from the 1998-1999 Heart of Georgia Tournament, the car driven by Nick Black and containing Brian Udoff was accelerating at close to 100 mph. In the same lane, about 500 feet ahead was another car just about 20 feet behind an oil tanker. As Nick approached the car, he tried to turn into the other lane when the steering wheel decided to lock up. Rapidly approaching the car just behind the oil tanker, Nick finally yanked the wheel over until the car turned. When it finally did turn, the car crossed three or four lanes of traffic, nearly side-swiping a pickup truck. No one was hurt, luckily.

Upon winning the Berry College Bowl for the nth time in 1997, the trophy broke apart shortly after being awarded.

The 1997 JV State Catastrophe: Ask Mrs. Martin.

In Savannah for the 1997 Savannah Country Day Tournament, Lane Seabolt climbed many of the streets's bridges from underneath.

Nick Black's first tournament on the Varsity first-string team was at the 1997 Questions Unlimited Nationals in Washington D.C.

NMR saved Walton in the finals of the Mercer Invitational Tournament in 1997. Brian Udoff only answered one question the whole game - What does NMR stand for? A: Nuclear Magnetic Resonance. Thanks to that toss-up, plus the resulting bonus, Walton defeated Dunwoody by a mere ten points.

However, at the Heritage Semifinals in 1999, Brian was not fast enough to get the last question about Gargantua and Pantagruel. Therefore, Brookwood, with the aid of the bonus to that question, beat Walton by ten points.

Sarah Scopel never lost a single game of two-player Game Boy Tetris on any of the trips.

Wayne McGowan's nickname was "teddy bear."

Mark Walberg apparently was the celebrity host of one of the Texaco Nationals Championships in 1994. No one seems to know what he was famous for, though, since this is Mark Walberg and not Mark Wahlberg of Marky-Mark and Boogie Nights fame.

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