Selected Team Name Origins

Gremlins are Gremlins

This was a line of dialog from Quantum Leap

The picture used in the gallery was of an enormous plate of spaghetti, from A Child's Book of Dreams, written by Beatrice Schenk de Regniers and illustrated by Bill Sokol.

The name comes from a phrase that a member of the team is notorious for asking everyone he meets, and is a phrase which he in turn picked up while on a camping trip with someone who asked it several dozen times a day.

Our team name references a widespread series of Burger King jingles that have circulated for the past year. Here's what it sounds like.

The name comes from a phrase that a member of the team is notorious for asking everyone he meets, and is a phrase which he in turn picked up while on a camping trip with someone who asked it several dozen times a day.

The name comes from a phrase that a member of the team is notorious for asking everyone he meets, and is a phrase which he in turn picked up while on a camping trip with someone who asked it several dozen times a day.

Apparently, strawberries and raspberries are not actually berries, they are "accessory fruits". So the name expresses disenfranchisement and despair.

An old joke

If you want to know, just ask Jack: “Jack Is da Bomb's derivation is fairly simple. Jack is my name, and "da Bomb" was a nickname I gave myself that was (semi-)accepted by my classmates in middle school. To this day, I am still convinced that I am, in fact, da bomb.”

The Masters are a group of Geology majors.

If you want to know, just ask Jack: “Jack Is da Bomb's derivation is fairly simple. Jack is my name, and "da Bomb" was a nickname I gave myself that was (semi-)accepted by my classmates in middle school. To this day, I am still convinced that I am, in fact, da bomb.”

Charles Guiteau was the assassin of US President and Williams Alum James Garfield. Neither died by chocolate.

One of the more lighthearted moments of the Covid-19 pandemic happened when Texas Lawyer Rod Ponton borrowed his assistant's computer only to find that her daughter had installed a filter that caused him to look like a white kitten while appearing before a judge in a civil forfeiture case. While struggling to remove the filter, he told the judge, "I'm prepared to go forward with it. I'm here live. I'm not a cat."

When a police officer approaches the car after Phil Conners and his drunk friends have crashed into a Groundhog Day billboard, Phil rolls down the window and orders some fast food. His companion requests flapjacks, so Phil inquires, "Too early for flapjacks?"

If you want to know, just ask Jack: “Jack Is da Bomb's derivation is fairly simple. Jack is my name, and "da Bomb" was a nickname I gave myself that was (semi-)accepted by my classmates in middle school. To this day, I am still convinced that I am, in fact, da bomb.”

On episode 10 of Season 3 of The Good Place, our heroes find themselves in The Good Place's mailroom, with only a two-inch thick door separating them from eternal happiness. Eleanor declares that they are "Four Oreos Away from Paradise" (an oreo being about a half an inch thick)

Band Geeks is an episode of Sponge Bob Squarepants

A common phrase found in many Wikipedia articles.

If you want to know, just ask Jack: “Jack Is da Bomb's derivation is fairly simple. Jack is my name, and "da Bomb" was a nickname I gave myself that was (semi-)accepted by my classmates in middle school. To this day, I am still convinced that I am, in fact, da bomb.”

The name refers to Pratt-2 and Dennett-2 entries

A riff on Area 51

Ferris Bueller impersonates Abe Froman in order to be seated at a fancy restaurant in Chicago

Dream Warriors is the subtitle of Nightmare on Elm Street 3

Ken Bone was a guy in a red sweater who asked a question at the second debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. He later turned out to be a bit of an Internet creep. Bone once chimed in on a Reddit thread called "PreggoPorn" to refer to pregnant women as "beautiful human submarines."

Obergefell v. Hodges is the landmark case in which the Supreme Court made same-sex marriage legal nationwide.

The full name of this team lists the contesnts of the survival kit from Dr. Strangelove

Trash Pandas is a term for raccoons, and it was used in the recent movie Guardians of the Galaxy volume II.

This team of contest veterans reunited with the express goal of winning the 99th contest in order to run the 100th. Five players on this team were also on We Begin Bombing in Five Minutes, winners of the 1986 overtime contest that was heartwrenchingly decided by just 0.066 points when the other team incorrectly guessed “Tonga,” thus kicking off thirty years of trivia about the tiny island country. It is therefore fitting that “Taha Noa Noa” is Tongan for “one hundred.”

See Spring 2015.

A protmanteau of words from several past winning teams with which GBWT shared members.

A return of Polar Vortex, with reference to the upcoming Star Wars movie, Rogue One.

A variation on “Freaky Friday,” the 1972 Mary Rodgers book in which a girl and her mother magically switch bodies, as well as the two film versions.

Andrew Best: "In the moment of name choosing, I fed my thought data into the machine of the mind, and observed the outputs. "Ice cream buffet" was among the outputs.” Teammate Diane Kim suggested the phrase “Mocha for Boserx,” based on one of Best’s jokes about not getting into grad school and becoming a barista instead. Best adds, “BOSERX is a vanity plate I once saw. Its permanence in my mind is accounted for by the recursiveness of the machine of the mind. Feed data to a consciousness, and it reproduces that data." Because the team enjoys ice cream, coffee, and habitually staying up late, the combination of thought data won the day.

Aaron Goldstein concocted a mixture of Sprite and Coke, dubbing it “Spoke.” Someone else said it should be called “Scrote.” For their debut contest, the team used the name “Murder She Scrote.” For their next game, the team brainstormed dozens of other scrote-related names, settling on three: “Grand Budapest Scrotel,” “Scroteinger's Cat,” and “Honey Bunches of Scrote.” This led to the official compound name “Grand Budapest Scrotel 2: Scroteinger's Cat,” with the “Honey Bunches” one used as the main screen nickname. However, the team ultimately preferred the nickname to the official one, and that’s the name they used when running the 99th contest. (Oh yes, the various references are the Angela Lansbury mystery series “Murder, She Wrote,” the Wes Anderson film “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” quantum physicist Erwin Schrödinger’s famous thought experiment, and the cereal Honey Bunches of Oats.)

The original members of the team were from the entries on the fourth floor of Mission. They were also fans of musician R. Kelly’s preposterous “Trapped in the Closet” series of songs and videos.

The TV sitcom “Arrested Devlopment.” One of the show’s running gags is that brother-in-law Tobias Fünke is oblivious to his own latent homosexuality, yet keeps inadvertently revealing it. In one episode, he vows to rededicate himself to his totally heterosexual marriage. To celebrate his resolve, Tobias gets a vanity license plate to tell the world about “a new start.”

Before the previous contest, team members John Bihn and Joe Iafrate had already been making plans to field a trivia team. Returning for Winter Study, the shift in the polar vortex stranded Bihn near the Detroit airport for two days, while Iafrate got to Williamstown four days behind schedule. Thus their original name: “Trapped in the Polar Vortex.” The following May, they retained the vortex but added the Star Wars subtitle to reflect that it was their second contest together.

A group of freshmen in Mills 4 took to calling themselves the “dirty birds.” Some of them were still together in sophomore year, including two of the dirty birds, and dubbed their new living space “the nest,” since that’s where the dirty birds roost.

The Kantian philosophical concept that an object or event already has existence as a thing in itself, independent of the senses, as applied to the style of singing that originated in the Central Alps.

This one-man team took his name from the TV sitcom “Scrubs.” When the hospital’s janitor desires to win the heart of Dr. Elliot Reid, whom he knows only as “Blonde Doctor,” he assembles the three cohorts he calls the “Brain Trust” to formulate a romantic plan of attack. One suggests setting fire to Reid’s apartment. Another says he has an idea that will require a tugboat. Dissatisfied with this wise counsel, the janitor erupts, “Tugboats and arson, that’s all I ever get from you guys!”

A mournful tribute to the 23-year-old Honda that team member Mark Conger planned to donate to charity the day after the contest. It is pictured in the image at the top of the Winter 2014 contest page.

To see the derivation for this team’s name, scroll way, way, way down to their first win in Winter 1973 . But please remember to pause halfway through, and be sure to hydrate. The 33-year gap between wins for BOMO is a Williams Trivia record.

If you want to know, just ask Jack: “Jack Is da Bomb's derivation is fairly simple. Jack is my name, and "da Bomb" was a nickname I gave myself that was (semi-)accepted by my classmates in middle school. To this day, I am still convinced that I am, in fact, da bomb.”

Team MVP Jack Tagye explains: “Jack Is da Bomb's derivation is fairly simple. Jack is my name, and "da Bomb" was a nickname I gave myself that was (semi-)accepted by my classmates in middle school. To this day, I am still convinced that I am, in fact, da bomb.”

The cartoon series “Rocky& Bullwinkle.” The recurring villains are Boris Badenov and Natasha, a pair of spies from the Eastern bloc country of Pottsylvania, who speak and plot in broken English. The team name describes one of the evil duo’s primary goals.

The Ohio Players were a popular R&B funk band best known for their nearly naked album covers and for having two number 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 (“Fire” and “Love Rollercoaster”). Meanwhile, this team had players, and they were in the state of Ohio. Whether they were mostly naked is not known.

Items that can be won at the end of a race by a player who drives very fast -- but not quite the fastest -- in various Mario Kart video games.

The members of this team had previously played many contests throughout the 1980s as “Phasers on Stun,” winning twice. Personnel changes to the team in the early 1990s inspired a name change to “Phasers on Stun: the Next Generation” (and two more wins) before they all stopped attending contests. After resuming play almost twenty years later, they made one more update to their franchise team name.

A voodoo relic capable of absorbing large amounts of evil (and as such very helpful) for those playing one of the Monkey Island video games.

From Tolkien’s Middle-Earth. They are a particular community of dwarves also known as the Longbeards, who live in a vast underground network of tunnels, halls and mines beneath the Misty Mountains. A film of the team playing for eight hours straight would make a pretty good Peter Jackson movie.

The Large Hadron Collider is the world’s biggest particle accelerator. By reversing two letters in its name, you get a slang term for an erection. In 2009, this team had played as “The Large Hard-on Collider and the Tiny Black Holes.” A year later, they returned. “Harder Better Faster Stronger” is a popular song by the electronic duo Daft Punk. The veil is beginning to lift, as the pieces of the puzzle come together...

An ichythological play on words, based on the common dismissive phrase “just for the hell of it.”

Six semesters earlier, in their Trivia debut, the players on this team used the name "It May Be Quiet on the Western Front, But It's Rowdy As Hell Out Here in EAST." Elissa Brown explains the rest: "For one reason or another, we never launched another true trivia effort until our senior year, during Winter Study. A reunion team of sorts. After spending the beginning of the contest anguishing over team names, we hastily decided to do a mutated version of our first contest's name; thus, Silence in the Hub (this year we were based in Hubbell)."

Competing less than two days before Barack Obama's historic inauguration, the team saluted the many Washington parties scheduled to follow. Plus, balls. Heh heh heh. Balls.

The team plays in Minnesota. The nickname for their headquarters is the Pigpen. Q.E.D.!

Max Gutman explains: "The team was originally formed by students of the Williams-Exeter Programme at Oxford 2006-2007 for the [January] 2007 contest. The location of the team (Oxford) was combined with a reference to the television show "Arrested Development." Near the beginning of season 3 of the series, George Bluth's brother Oscar has been wrongfully jailed and attempts to prove his innocence to the world through his blog "ImOscar.com." Thus, I'm Oxford dot Com was born."

The Bucket List is a movie about two old codgers who make a list of things they want to do before dying, or "kicking the bucket." For Des Devlin, this was his 48th consecutive contest. For Dom Grillo, it was #45. They're old. They were a two-player team. One thing they wanted to do before their imminent deaths was to finish in second place. Something they DIDN'T want to do was to actually win the contest as a two-player team. Four months later, they would accomplish this unwanted feat in their 49th and 46th games, respectively.

The three words that best describe the Grinch, according to the song "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" from the holiday classic "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." This team had more words in its name (3) than players (2).

Ephraim Williams (1715-1755) was a military commander. He later donated his estate for the purpose of creating a safe haven for Williams Trivia.

How did we get such an interesting albeit at times mispelled name? Well our team consisted of a mix of Jesus Christ Superstar fans (a JC Superstars Sing-along Drinkathon having ensued the weekend prior to Trivia), Lehman residents, and one special individual who wants to do very indecent things to Caiaphas... At first we were simply going to be the JC Superstars! But then someone pointed out our location and suggested The Lehman JC Superstars, which seemed kind of lame, until somone got the brilliant idea of using a pun somewhat related to our previous name. Finally, certain sentiments towards Caiaphas (the high priest in JCS), Hence Laymen JC Superstars: Take Me Caiaphas! was born... -Ana Correa

There may be no more sensible explanation than their own Question #1: "What do you call super amorphous amphibious mammals of the subfamily Lutrinae who live in the vacuum surrounding the star system closest to our own?"

There may be no more sensible explanation than their own Question number 1: "What do you call super amorphous amphibious mammals of the subfamily Lutrinae who live in the vacuum surrounding the star system closest to our own?"

Source - Max Gutman explains: "The team was originally formed by students of the Williams-Exeter Programme at Oxford 2006-2007 for the [January] 2007 contest.  The location of the team (Oxford) was combined with a reference to the television show "Arrested Development."  Near the beginning of season 3 of the series, George Bluth's brother Oscar has been wrongfully jailed and attempts to prove his innocence to the world through his blog "ImOscar.com."  Thus, I'm Oxford dot Com was born."

From Strong Bad Email #75, "Funny". Strong Bad spills ketchup on the computer while answering an email, and tells The Cheat to use "Awesome Sauce" to clean up the mess.

A combination of the celebrated novel by Erich Maria Remarque, and the social culture of the Odd Quad.

Source - When you're a freshman, they call it entry incest. But by the time you're an upperclassman, there's a much more fun name for it. What is this practice, common in coed hallways across campus?

One of the fishing lures on the poster that's positioned directly at eye level above a urinal at the Water Street Grill. Inspiration strikes in quiet moments.

Roughly translated from the German as "Your Mother is a Geek Army (Staff)." Selecting the name was an organic process, as reported by team members Sandy Ryan and Lynette Yorgey. Ryan: "Lynette and co. showed up at my apartment en masse, and were waiting outside for me to let them in, and a couple of my neighbors were looking askance at these suspicious characters -- not certain they should let them in -- so I threw open the door and cried, "Enter, geek army!" to freak the mundanes. And it sort of stuck, and people had fun with it -- saluting and whatnot -- and there you go." Yorgey: "...yeah, pretty much we were like "Oh, we should be Geek Army!" Then "In another language!" Then somebody said it in German and we all rolled around on the floor laughing. Then we added staffle, because it made us laugh *even harder*." Malcolm Gin reports that it was further felt that "staffle" would more properly convey the subtleties of a team working together. The brief semantical battle between "vermacht" and "staffle" was ended with the decision that since it was German, the team could just make up a compound word. (Muddying the linguistic swamp, BabelFish claims "vermachtstaffle" translates to "bequeathed-graduate.") Meanwhile, the IRC portion of the team were tireless advocates for including the phrase "Your Mom" somewhere. Everyone ended up being satisfied.

From the middle school trick of asking someone if you can write "Pen15" on their hand, then watching their horror as they realize the result looks a lot like "Penis." "Pen15" is also leetspeak for "penis." Since the team was in Philadelphia, playing the University of Pennsylvania's "Penn Bowl," they changed the first part of the phrase to reflect their location. Alas, the team never had 15 players, and as Dave Letzler observes, "Sadly, this was only the 14th incarnation of the annual "Penn Bowl" quiz bowl tournament." This also marks the first time in recorded history that anyone has ever exaggerated numbers regarding a penis.

The Rory, an award handed out "For the Most Gratuitous Use of the Word 'Belgium' in a Serious Screenplay", according to Douglas Adams, in 'Life, the Universe and Everything'.

A point upgrade to the Rule 6 team, presumably therefore maintaining backwards compatibility with the previous API.

Chosen by former members of Mortal Kombat Intelligence Squad (5th place, Winter 2002/03); and Mortal Kumquat (3rd place, Spring 2003), to continue the theme. It reportedly also had some relation to an in-joke involving lesbians.

From a fake news story on NPR's "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" program. One of the Hindenburgs (Greg Pliska) was profiled as a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon who was using helium-filled breast implants. In response to complaints, the imaginary Dr. Pliska is alleged to have said, "I don't understand why everyone's so upset. I'm using helium, not hydrogren. It's not as if I'm creating human Hindenburgs!"

Eastern Europe's favorite cat and mouse team, from "The Simpsons." A new kid's show, hosted by Gabbo the ventriloquist dummy, trounces Krusty the Klown in the ratings. Krusty's troubles deepen as Gabbo buys the rights to the "Itchy & Scratchy" cartoons. Krusty can only compete with this low-budget, high-propaganda substitute.

From a production of the ancient Greek tragedy "The Bacchae," which had recently been directed by one of the team's members. The name comes from a mispronunciation of a line by Agave, delivered while carrying the head of her son Penthius on a stick: "Bacchae of Asia..." As the team put it, "the mishearing is, well, something that might happen if you had aphasia."

Reportedly, the longest film title ever. Definitely the longest team name ever to win Williams Trivia. The movie apparently consists of a reedited version of 1968's "Night of the Living Dead," made humorous with new dialogue and music.

Anyone with the endurance to sift through unwanted and unsolicited email spam will eventually receive the top secret computer link that enables them to increase his or her penis size "up to" 8 inches. Would this MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN THEIR LOVE LIFE? Would they ENJOY SEEING THE THRILLED LOOK ONHER FACE? Would they be kind enough to provide a VALID CREDIT CARD NUMBER (for confirmation purposes only)?

Something Seth Brown made up around 11:30, when the team was scrawling possible names on the blackboard. It's an obvious reference to the "freedomfries" debacle spawned by Congress in early 2003, when they decided to "punish" the nation of France for not siding with the U.S. attack on Iraq by officially changing the name of the fried potatoes served in the Congressional cafeteria.

The name is based on the "Happy Days" spin-off series "Joanie Loves Chachi," with a revolutionary Soviet twist. The sitcom lasted 8 months on the air during three separate runs in 1982 and 1983, before the principals slunk back to "Happy Days" in failure and shame. There is also a rock band by this name. The band's website brags of their "deft hard-pop-rock songwriting" and "high energy live shows." Our Joanie Loves Trotsky only performed one high energy live show, which lasted 8 hours. It was deft, hard, and best enjoyed while eating Pop Rocks.

A blurb from the back cover of the videotape of the risible "Sinbad of the Seven Seas," featuring the incomparable acting talents of Mr. Lou Ferrigno. But as team member Brent Yorgey points out, "The funny thing is that the movie does NOT culminate in a spectacular final battle on the surface of the moon -- in fact, as far as we are aware (having watched it many times) the moon does not make any appearance in the movie whatsoever."

1951's "Rabbit Fire" cartoon. This Looney Tunes installment began the classic "wabbit season/duck season" trilogy. Amoral Daffy Duck is only too happy to lead intrepid hunter Elmer Fudd straight to Bugs Bunny's hole. Facing death by shotgun, Bugs diverts Fudd's murderous intentions by informing him that rabbits are out of season. An outraged Daffy sputters, "That, sir, is an inmitigated frabication!!" Alternating claims of "Wabbit season!" (by Daffy) and "Duck season!" (by Bugs) ensue.... until that Oscar-winning rabbit switches gears by claiming that it's WABBIT season. Bugs' seemingly suicidal strategy pays off. The ever-contradictory Daffy automatically switches sides, shouting, "I say it's duck season, and I say "Fire!" The luckless water fowl immediately suffers the first of seven direct gunblasts to the head that he will absorb in this one cartoon.

This team's name pursued a direct and unimpeachable logic, without ever making much sense. Apparently, the team had pre-determined to call themselves "I've Got ______ Up My Nose." Come contest night, it only remained for them to choose the appropriate object for nasal insertion. "Spain" emerged victorious.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Spike, a former Big Bad, has a computer chip implanted into his brain that prevents him from attacking humans; thus, he is a "neutered vampire." Kitten poker is just what it sounds like: poker played with kittens as the stakes. The line is one of Buffy's typically pointed putdowns.

Taking its inspiration from the 1870's western saloon sign ("Please don't shoot the pianist, he is trying his best"), the team decided to insert "violist" because, in their words, "violas are rather funny." Like its previous incarnation "I've Got Spain Up My Nose," when taken as a whole, the new composite name refers to little besides the team itself. The team, with reinforcements, would win the next contest as "Joanie Loves Trotsky."

One of the most memorable aspects of Michael Jackson's 1983 hit song and 1984 video "Thriller" was its concluding "rap" by the master of horror, Vincent Price. It went as follows:

"Darkness falls across the land; The midnight hour is close at hand.

Creatures crawl in search of blood to terrorize your neighborhood.

And whosoever shall be found without the soul for getting down

Must stand and face the hounds of hell, and rot inside a corpse's shell.

The foulest stench is in the air: the funk of 40,000 years.

And grisly ghouls from every tomb are closing in to seal your doom.

And though you fight to stay alive, your body starts to shiver,

For no mere mortal can resist the evil of the thriller.

AHH HA HA, HA HA HA!"

(Not a bad description for Williams Trivia in general....)

Simply enough, this team included among its membership one pregnant geologist. The rest of the name is an homage to a previous Trivia team of no major note, "We Have a Wench and We're Not Afraid to Use Her," which finished in 5th place seven years previous.... truly one of the more bizarre reference points for anyone to "update." Later in the contest, the team switched to "We Had a Pregnant Geologist, But We're Afraid She Had to Leave in a Hurry." But NOT because her water broke; she'd merely gone to sleep.

A reference to three members of the team itself. "Holy Sack" derives from a random outburst by Ned Wydysh, while watching Craig Iturbe play the classic 8-bit Nintendo game Duck Hunt. The team's resident vomit specialist was Peter Deutsch. Although the name is plural, the team in fact had only one resident vomit specialist, unless you count Preston Hillman who was not actually on the team but lived next door in Sage.

A reference to Steve Wollkind, '01. For some reason, between 1998 and 2000, he became the butt of so many "your mom" jokes that "Steve's Mom" became a universal touchpoint for the WARPie contingency on campus. Steve himself would have played on this team, if not for 9am GREs the morning afterwards.

From the packaging to "Pokemon Snap," a gentle videogame in which you must try to photograph the Japanese supercritters (as opposed to blasting them to smithereens). The only two identifiable English words in the entire instruction handbook are "Pokemon Labolatory"..... neither of which QUITE manage to qualify as an authentic English word, at that.

Part Jedi mind trick, part tasty dessert, this concoction was seen in a "Star Wars Cafe" cartoon that had appeared in The New Yorker shortly before. The team would change its name every hour to other Force-feedings; namely "Princess Leia Cake," "Flan Solo," "Tart Vader," "Yoda Pop," "Java the Hutt," "Boba Fetuccine" and "Wedge of Cheese Antilles."

Alas, the only "source" for this team name is the fevered brain of teammate Des Devlin. He made it up, wrote it on the board, and most of the other players thought it was funny. At least they DID, before realizing that they would become the only championship team in Trivia history to run an entire contest without being allowed to speak its own name over the air. In the larger sense, the name's based on the enduring Caldecott Medal-winning children's book by Robert McCloskey. It's a fucking classic.

The eyecatching sales claim leading off a print advertisement for a scientific contraption called the "Polytron." The ad also boasts of the Polytron's other violent assets, from its impressive "tissue disruption by mechanical shearing and cavitation" abilities to its "foam-reducing generators." This ad was briefly discussed in a 1993 Dave Barry humor column. However, the specific wording in the original ad reads "Only the Polytron reduces an entire mouse to a soup-like homogenate in 30 seconds." In their trivial zeal, this vermin-pulping team inadvertantly shaved 29.7 seconds off their time.

From the satirical Wisconsin newpaper The Onion (www.theonion.com). In a story titled "CLINTON ADOPTS NEW 'NO FEAR' FOREIGN POLICY," a pumped-up, fuel-injected, poppin'-wheelies Prez was depicted as a gung-ho drag racing maniac. While challenging Boris Yeltsin to a motocross duel, a cliche-spewing Clinton also taunted other international dignitaries to "eat my dust." But Clinton's belligerent "Don't Mess with the U.S." attitude toward foreign policy could perhaps be best summed up with the above team name. Radical!

A bizarre pyro-colonic rebuke to the professorial buttocks of Mark Taylor.

Two years earlier, WCFM began running a classical music program by this name. By the wildest coincidence imaginable, the two co-hosts of that program also happened to be members of this Trivia team. The team changed its name every hour to other classically-tinged peculiarities, including "'Tie Shostakovich 'Round the Old Oak Tree"; "Pull My Schoenberg"; "My Moussorgsky is 12 Inches Long"; "Debussy (For Her Pleasure)"; "Faster Beethoven, Kill Kill"; and "Baby Got Bach."

From the MTV show "Sifl and Olly," hosted by two laid-back sock puppets. A regular segment of the program is "Calls From The Public," in which Sifl and Olly try, and occasionally succeed, to address the concerns of their audience. During one such conversation (approximated below), a subdued yet distraught youngster beseeches the pair to explain why his family's beach outing turned suddenly, horribly tragic:

Caller: "The seagulls took my sister. They took her. Why did those seagulls take my sister?"

Olly: "I don't know, dude."

Caller: "The seagulls. They took my sister. The seagulls. Why?"

Sifl: "We weren't there."

Caller: "They.... they took her."

The Old One offspring of a song from the Disney Movie 'The Lion King'. The first team-concocted name not to refer to something specific since "Phasers on Stun: The Next Generation," or really, "The Cunning Linguists."

From the "Simpsons" episode in which a Japanese cleaning product's logo looks just like Homer. In the TV ad, "Mr. Sparkle" announces that he is "disrespectful to dirt," before berating three women: "Get out of my way, all of you! This is no place for loafers. Join me or die. Can you do any less?" Despite its incoherence, the women duly "accept the challenge of Mr. Sparkle." The team, with reinforcements, would win the next contest as "A Dead Postman Doesn't Deliver Much Mail."

The name has its genesis in the movie trailer for "The Postman." Kevin Costner, world's greatest actor, in a scene of obvious gravity and emotional intensity, stares probingly into a young man's eyes, and asks (no, *implores*) "How much mail can a dead postman deliver?" The "Bob Ross" team pondered Costner's existential query, weighed the rigors of mail delivery in a post- apocalyptic wasteland, and came up with their answer. There has been some question of trailer misquotation (see "The Grand Duchy of Fenwick" in 1971), but screw it.... winners make the rules.

Robustly sung by several members as they walked into the room, this misheard lyric from Blur's "Song 2" (perhaps better recognized as the "WOO HOO!" song) won the day over more referential nominees. (Incidentally, the lyric is actually "I got my head checked/ By a jumbo jet.")

Old commercials for Crest toothpaste. Toothopolis was an enameled utopia, but only because of the constant vigilance of the Crest Patrol. The Patrol raced to the scene of any attack by the evil Cavity Creeps, in gleaming white trucks that sprayed Crest through power hoses. But the defeated Creeps always seemed to return. Whenever the Creeps pickaxed their way through Toothopolis' pristine barriers, their terrifying war cry was "We Make Holes in Teeth!"

The TV version of "The Weekly World News" once ran a videotaped brawl between bridesmaids battling to grab the bouquet. One of them was quoted expressing her pain about the whole violent incident, but especially her resentment towards the instigators, "certain unnamed persons in taffeta." The team would win the next contest as "Gentle Tongue-Tongue, He Weeps, For He Has But One Tongue with Which to Taste an Entire World."

The Tick cartoon. Villain Dr. Mung-Mung creates a hideous beast made entirely of tongue muscle named Tongue-Tongue, then inserts his assistant's brains into the drooly behemoth. However, by Evil Scientific Law, the brain of Tongue-Tongue must then be switched into the alternate, vacated body. The above quote occurs when the Doctor feels empathy for the plight of the Tongue-Tongue brain, now trapped inside his pudgy assistant.

The "Bob Ross" prefix came from the team's debut name a year previous, "The Artist Formerly Known as Bob Ross." Pimpbot 2000 is a recurring jive-soul cyborg who spits out computer-harmonized blaxploitation talk on "Late Night With Conan O'Brien." A "Bob Ross" preface was also used in Spring '96; by the 4th edition of this team (Mr. Sparkle), they'd dropped the recurring "Bob Ross" monicker.

The Mojo Nixon and Skid Roper song, "Elvis is Everywhere," a raucous celebration of all things Elvis. At one point, Mojo extols Elvis' primacy over the sea, with the jubilant demand, "Elvis needs boats!"

From the bottomless source of a gajillion team names, "Monty Python and the Holy Grail." This was one of the formidable opponents "nearly stood up against" by somewhat brave Sir Robin.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, page 92 in the current edition. It runs as follows: "The Encyclopedia Galactica defines a robot as a mechanical apparatus designed to do the work of a man. The marketing division of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation defines a robot as 'Your Plastic Pal Who's Fun to Be With'. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy defines the marketing division of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation as 'a bunch of mindless jerks who'll be first against the wall when the revolution comes.'" Amusingly, that makes two winning team names in as many paragraphs of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. (The previous winner being Your Plastic Pal, in Winter 1992.)

One of the many, many, many, many fine film credits in the career of "Simpsons" B-movie superstar Troy McClure. The team, with reinforcements, would win the next contest as "We Make Holes in Teeth!"

A Mike Tyson press conference. Following Mike Tyson's laughably easy 91-second championship win over Michael Spinks (in which Tyson took a total of two punches), this was his statement at the post-fight Q&A session. Kind of undiplomatic, until you consider that BEFORE the fight, he'd said that he wanted to hit his opponent "so hard that I make the nose bone go into his brain and kill him."

This upper freshman team had debuted in 4th place the previous contest as "Shiny Happy Tupperware of Doom." So "Sinusoidal Tupperware" was an obvious update. But.... where did EITHER name come from, then? Team poobah Brian Wecht reveals the truth: "Nowhere, really. Just something we made up as ignorant frosh. I think it might have been invented on the spot in lieu of something that actually made sense. Or perhaps it just sounded good at the time."

From the TV series "Frasier." David Hyde Pierce says it all: "My name is Niles Crane, and I'll be hosting the show tonight. My brother Frasier is a Freudian, whereas I am a Jungian, so...."

The Tick cartoon. The Caped Chameleon, a reptilian hero who turns whatever color he's next to, runs into a problem while fighting the Idea Men. He's clinging to a wall covered with plaid wallpaper, and he "Can't -- do -- Plaid!" (The thud comes as he falls off the wall.)

A line of dialogue from the February 5th episode of "Saturday Night Live" earlier in the year. The SNL host was Patrick Stewart, and the sketch was "Love Boat: The Next Generation." The team would win the next contest as "Elvis Needs Boats!"

The Rush Limbaugh radio show, though also cited elsewhere. When a caller asked Rush what his opinion of gays in the military was, the XXL DJ replied that the army was NOT designed as a social experiment. Rather.....

An unsavory lunch selection allegedly brought to school by Calvin in the "Calvin & Hobbes" comic strip.

The Krusty the Klown komeback special episode of "The Simpsons." Bart and Lisa recruit Bette Midler (who has adopted a highway and is picking up rubbish on it) to help Krusty in his comeback. A thug commonly seen on the show drives by, tossing a beer can out the window. Bette takes off running after him, easily catching up to his speeding car. As she approaches, he spots her in his rear view mirror and exclaims: "Oh No! Bette Midler!" She then whomps him but good.

The inane laugh of MTV's Butt-Head (or perhaps Beavis, depending on your choice of inflection), this anti-name was chosen for its annoying subverbal properties. The team would win the next contest as "How DARE They Challenge Us with Their Primitive Skills?"

This assortment of players bore even less resemblance to any classic Phasers on Stun team than the one just a year previous, with but one original Phaser remaining. (However, this win gave POS:TNG the highest success ratio of any team name ever-- two attempts, two wins.)

Everybody's favorite monosyllabic green behemoth fighting the good fight, from a Peter David issue of "The Hulk," circa #390. The team would win the next contest as "Your Plastic Pal Who's Fun to Be With."

The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy books. This is the official slogan of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation, describing their particularly annoying bunch of friendly, helpful robotic aides. (See "Mindless Jerks" in Winter 1995.)

Secretly-recorded sweet talk from the Maestro of Love himself, Prince Charles of England, to his mistress, Camilla Parker-Bowles. Charles also mused aloud about being reincarnated as Camilla's tampon, as an entire nation joined Princess Di in woofing up truffles.

Approaching its second decade as a competitive team, Phasers on Stun experienced understandable attrition. By 1991, there was a sense that although the bloodline of the team ran continuously backwards to Phasers' origin, it was no longer accurate to claim the franchise name for that particular conglomeration of players. Hence the updated name. See Spring 1992.

The romantic aftermath of a Muppet Labs experiment gone horribly wrong.

A line from "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country", which had opened the day of the contest. Imprisoned on the Klingon prison planet Rura Penthe, Kirk finds himself in a fight and hopelessly outmatched by a large, ill-tempered, young alien. Desperate, he kicks out where a human has knees, and the alien changes colors and collapses. While Kirk is patting himself on the back for figuring out that knees are the same everywhere, another inmate informs him of his anatomical error. Those weren't knees. "Not Everyone Keeps Their Genitals in the Same Place," Captain.

A note of intent written on the blackboard by one team member to greet all who arrived. The rest of the blackboard was soon filled with name suggestions which were wiped out one by one. When the name chosen by the team ("My Nipples Explode with Delight") was rejected by the same person for "disgustingness," it was already past midnight and only the original note remained un-erased. About half of the team would split off, join a subset of Phasers:TNG, and win the next contest as "Phasers on Stun: The Next Generation."

The British SF comedy "Red Dwarf." Slobby series lead Dave Lister finds his Confidence and Paranoia have been embodied in physical form. Lister's Confidence accompanies him outside the Red Dwarf starship to accomplish a mission, then urges Lister to try opening his helmet up and really experiencing deep space. Lister is of the firm opinion he'd rather keep breathing. Confidence isn't afraid to open up his own helmet, though -- after all, as he says in his soon-to-be-last words, "Oxygen is for losers!"

From the "Monty Python" TV series, a game show called "Prejudice." Home viewers were invited to submit useful ethnic slurs directed at the citizens of Belgium. With "Let's not call them anything, let's just ignore them" and "Nothing could be more derogatory than Belgians" taking 3rd and 2nd place, the above entrant is the clear victor. The team would win the next contest as "Five is Right Out."

Monty Python and the Holy Grail again. To combat the Killer Bunny Rabbit (a sequence which also inspired the Winter 1984 winners' name, "Nasty Big Pointed Teeth"), King Arthur and company retaliate with the Holy Hand Grenade. This super-destructive relic comes complete with monkish ceremony, and lengthy religious operating instructions which can be boiled down to: "Count to three and throw. Do not count to four. Also do not count to two, except en route to three. Three is the number. Five is right out."

From the second-season "Simpsons" episode "Bart Vs. Thanksgiving," which originally aired two weeks before this contest. (It's the one where Bart burns Lisa's centerpiece.) This is the chalky admonition Bart repeatedly writes on the blackboard during the usual opening sequence.

Another Python sketch. This one involved the diabolical Pirahna brothers, Doug and Dimsdale. It was based on the real-life Kray brothers who ran organized crime in England during the 50s and 60s. In Pythonland, Scotland Yard eventually assigned their top man to the Pirahna case -- one Harry "Snapper" Organs.

From the syndicated TV series "The War of the Worlds," representatives of Earth seek to negotiate with the invading Martian forces. This is Mars' official diplomatic reply.

Raising Arizona. The perennially incompetent criminal played by Nicholas Cage is being chased by the police after a bungled 7-11 robbery. He runs into the path of an oncoming truck, which brakes just in time not to kill him. Cage jumps up and, wielding a pistol, commandeers the truck. Seeing Cage with a L'Eggs stocking covering his face, the driver's first remark is . . . you guessed it.

A Warner Brothers cartoon featuring Sylvester P. Cat and his son, Junior. Sylvester's son was genteel, and usually ended up humiliated by his father's antics. In this cartoon, Sylvester mistakes an escaped kangaroo for a humongous mouse. Sylvester ends up wedged through a fence, immobilized at the waist. Junior begins expressing chagrin to his dad's legs, feet, and hairy buttocks, before realizing, "Silly me -- that's not the talking end." (In defense of the sputtering papa pussycat, you'd think Junior could cut the poor guy a break-- it's not as if the two of them didn't do the exact same "giant mouse" storyline in FIVE separate cartoons.)

From the Monty Python "Cheese Shop" sketch in which a customer's attempts at obtaining any variety of cheese whatsoever are invariably rebuffed. After multiple failures, the shopkeeper tries to point out that though his store is not the best-stocked, it is very clean. The disgruntled customer offers the above assessment of the shop.

The Godfather. Following one murder, the two hit men for the Corleones leave their victim behind on a deserted stretch of road. One of them asks which evidence to dispose of, and which to leave behind in the car with the corpse. The next line of dialogue provides instructions and the team name.

Ralph is one of the various mammals listed in the absurdist credits of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail." The team would, with reinforcement, win the next contest as "Harry 'Snapper' Organs."

In a 5/3/87 "New York Times Magazine" profile, Democratic Presidential candidate Gary Hart dismissed womanizing rumors by challenging reporters to follow him, and see what a boring, squeaky-clean life he led. Simultaneously, two "Miami Herald" reporters had taken Hart up on his ill-considered dare. Within 48 hours, they had uncovered his affair with Donna Rice. The ensuing scandal drive Hart from the race. On May 6, Hart was asked point-blank if he had "ever committed adultery." The above was his response. Two days later, it was used by the "Evil Empire" squad, the freshest-on-the-vine team name ever. The first contest-confrontational team name to win ("How Dare They Challenge Us . . ." being the second).

From the Monty Python "Cheese Shop" sketch, in which a customer's attempts at obtaining any variety of cheese whatsoever are invariably and maddeningly rebuffed. After unsuccessfully running through more typical options such as cheddar, gouda, limburger, et al, John Cleese eventually requests this esoteric variety. This same team would employ a SECOND name taken from the same Python sketch, one year later (see Spring 1988).

The Flintstones. While out shopping for brontosaurus burgers and buns, Fred is mistaken for an international spy by agents of Dr. Yes. He and Barney are kidnaped and brought to an island hideaway. Eventually, the Bedrock buddies make their big escape. They race down hallway after hallway, subduing a succession of Dr. Yes' huge henchmen with a martial art maneuver learned from watching James Bondrock flicks. Each karate maneuver is accompanied by the triumphant cry, "A Judo, A Chop Chop Chop!"

From "This is Spinal Tap," Nigel Tufnel plays a slow, sweet piano melody in E, "the saddest of all keys." The composition reveals a reflective side of Nigel, one not ordinarily associated with the troglodytic metalhead. However, the above is the melody's working title.

A Monty Python skit. A prospective customer in a bookstore asks for a number of odd titles ranging from "David Coperfield" (with one "p"), to "A Sale of Two Titties," to works by Charles Dikkens, the well-known Dutch author. Finally, the request is made for a particular installment of an adventure series featuring Captain Gladys Stoat-Pamphlet (and her intrepid spaniel Stig)..... the one chronicling their exploits among, yes, The Giant Pygmies of Beckles.

A fanciful name inspired by the complete core meltdown suffered by the nuclear power plant in Chernobyl, USSR two weeks earlier. The team would win the next contest as "We Begin Bombing in Five Minutes."

From an August 1984 sound check. President Ronald Reagan warmed up for a radio broadcast with a boffo joke: "My fellow Americans, I am pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes." The remark is later reported by the press and doesn't get such big laughs. (Fortunately, the Soviet Union wasn't listening that day, but the Currier Ballroom team was.)

The cheery slogan for Jolt! Cola, the system-jarring, tooth-tingling, unofficial beverage of Williams Trivia. The team would win the next contest as "I Don't Have to Answer That Question."

Although the Road Runner's dialogue was forever limited to two words ("beep" and "beep"), Wile E. Coyote had a small amount of full speaking roles. In a few cartoons, starting with 1952's "Operation: Rabbit," a talking Wile E. tries to switch his diet from bird to hare-- specifically, Bugs Bunny. Wile E. used his cave/laboratory to construct devices to annihilate Bugs, including a pressure cooker, cannon, and flying saucer. All fail spectacularly, thanks to Bugs' counter-assaults. Wile E. lastly tries filling carrots with nitroglycerine, while inside a small shed. As he does so, the sheer brilliance of his plan pleases the carnivore so much that he muses whether he should change his business card from "Wile E. Coyote, Genius" (as it is at the start of the cartoon) to "Wile E. Coyote, Super Genius." But even as Wile E. chuckles, "I like the sound of that," Bugs has used a tractor to drag the coyote's explosives shack onto a train track.

A dish offered on innumerable Chinese food menus.

Woody Allen's film "Sleeper." As Miles Monroe, Allen is thawed out by the underground movement that hopes to overthrow the Leader. When Miles/Woody asks what will happen if he is caught, they explain that the authorities will deprogram his brain. "My brain," gasps Woody, "that's my second favorite organ!"

The top-secret bad guy factory in the film "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension."

The address and zip code for the beloved Spiegel catalog, touted on many 1970s game shows such as "Let's Make a Deal". After extolling the virtues of Rice-a-Roni, Turtle Wax, Lee Press-on Nails, and other (better) prizes, the announcer would intone that they were all available through "the Spiegel Catalog, Chicago 60609." (Chicago 60609 is the first team to be given the official Trivia Trophy which is still handed to the winners, and which still bears the Chicago 60609 name.)

From the film "Casablanca," this is Chief of Police Louie Renault's standard reaction to any crime committed under his jurisdiction that he wishes to whitewash or otherwise ignore.

The film "Monty Python and the Holy Grail." Tim the Enchanter warns Arthur and his knights of the dangers presented by their next foe -- the Killer Bunny Rabbit. "Death awaits ye," asserts all-knowing Tim, "with nasty, big pointed teeth." The scoffing knights learn only after multiple casualties just how accurate Tim's information is.

See Springs of 1981, 1991, and 1992.

In the 1982-83 semester, unsuspecting Walter's was the very last name in the North Adams phone book. (He was not part of the team.)

Monty Python's Flying Circus. A sketch in which the rules of an organization are being read aloud at a meeting (every other rule is "no poofters!"). When they get to Rule Six, it is discovered that there is NO Rule Six. (The name was a happy coincidence in that the team was one of the all-time trivia juggernauts, missing about 3 points total in eight hours of on-air trivia. Many other, smaller teams assumed that the steady flow of top scores and performances being announced over WCFM was the running team's idea of a joke -- after all, "there is no Rule Six".

Contestants on the original "Wheel of Fortune," having bought all the laughably inflated prizes available to them, but still having a surplus amount of cash too insignificant to purchase anything else, were obliged to ask for the remainder thusly.

The spy and assassin union that "Rocky & Bullwinkle" villains Boris Badenov and Natasha were dues-paying members of.

From "The Hollywood Squares" game show, which had just ended its original 15-year run. Paul Lynde was the perennial center square and star of the show. Contestants hoping to obstruct their opponent's X or O would often invoke the above phrase when calling upon Lynde.

Yes, that name refers to the Roman Catholic reign of terror led by Torquemada in the late 15th century. But the far more likely source for the name choice is the recurring sketch from "Monty Python's Flying Circus," in which a trio of red-robed monks repeatedly burst into rooms without warning, clucking "Noooobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!"

Smedley Terrace is a small terrace in the Berkshire Quad between Fitch and Prospect dorms, overlooking Driscoll Dining Hall.

Contestants on the original "Jeopardy!" (with the non-annoying host Art Fleming) would often ask for this category and dollar amount.

The TV series "Star Trek." "Phasers on Stun" is one setting on the crew's raygun-like weapons, although the three-word phrase was never actually spoken on the series. (Near the end of a contest, Phasers on Stun would often change their name to "Phasers on Kill" or "Phasers on Chamber Overload.") See Springs of 1983, 1991, and 1992.

In Winter 1980, "Death Squadron" came in 9th, and "Ethel the Frog" finished 3rd. This 1981 combination of the two teams improved on each's stats.

The film "The Graduate." Benjamin Braddock has his trysts with Mrs. Robinson in a local hotel. During one such rendezvous, a different type of affair being held at the same hotel is "The Singleman Party." While waiting for Mrs. Robinson, Benjamin is mistaken for a guest of the Singlemans.

Obviously an incredibly witty play on the word "cunnilingus." (The winning edition of the team had merged with another longtime team, The Knights of Ni, who took THEIR name from a strange group of medieval beings from "Monty Python and the Holy Grail.")

See Winter 1978.

The TV series "M*A*S*H." Walter "Radar" O'Reilly would order this, his favorite drink, while the rest of the 4077th partook of stronger stuff at Rosie's Bar.

The name derived from the usual over-use syndrome in slang speech. When words like "mega-genius" or "mega-tired" were no longer emphatic enough, only the prefix "giga-" could raise the ante. (It also had a pleasingly nonsensical sound.) The team, with giga-reinforcements, won the next contest as "Phasers on Stun."

See Winter 1977.

Their seventh of seven 2nd-place finishes in a 13-contest span.

The film "M*A*S*H." The doctors Hawkeye and Trapper John are flown into Tokyo to operate on a general's son, and proceed to behave in a highly unmilitary manner during their stay. They describe themselves as "the Pros from Dover."

See Spring 1978.

See Winter 1973.

A combination of "Drott," the name seen on the sides of heavy construction equipment that was tearing up the Williams campus at the time-- and Circus Maximus, an arty rock band beloved by some members of the team. See Winter 1979.

A combination of "Drott," the name seen on the sides of heavy construction equipment that was tearing up the Williams campus at the time-- and "Circus Maximus," an arty rock band beloved by some members of the team.

The name was derived from the team's freshman origins in Freshman entries A, B, C, D, etc. See Spring 1980.

A combination of the "General Bumble" team (see Spring 1974 and Winter 1975) and the "Morgasm" team. Morgasm originated as a freshman team in Morgan Hall, hence the name.

Their fifth of seven 2nd-place finishes in a 13-contest span.

Alphabet Soup took its name from its original freshman team playing location: the lettered dorms A, B, C, D, etc.

Their sixth of seven 2nd-place finishes in a 13-contest span.

See Winter 1973.

A dog owned by Ed Spencer, and the Morgan Hall mascot from 1974-75.

A dog owned by Ed Spencer, and the Morgan Hall mascot from 1974-75.

A combination of two teams' names, "The General" and "B. Bumble and the Stingers." See Winter 1973, when the merger took place.

A latter-day derivative of the Wham-o team (who won in Winter 1972).

Their third of seven 2nd-place finishes in a 13-contest span.

See Springs 1974 and1977.

Their fourth of seven 2nd-place finishes in a 13-contest span.

A combination of two teams, "The General" and "B. Bumble and the Stingers." The General was a team based in Mills House, which had just opened in the years preceding the contest. The House did a lot of stuff, including house T-Shirts, along the theme of "General Mills." So "The General" took in all that, plus a reference to the classic 1927 Buster Keaton film. B. Bumble and the Stingers were a session band of the early 1960's that had two Top 40 instrumental hits, "Bumble Boogie" and "Nut Rocker." The songs were based (respectively) on "Flight of the Bumble Bee" and "The Nutcracker Suite." See Winter 1975 and Spring 1977.

Winning team Carter House had once boasted member Greg Williams '73, who was, in the words of one Gee'ster, "a true Hearty Party guy from the word 'chug'." Williams' nickname was "Gee," which eventually applied not just to him, but to Carter recreation in general. (One of the larger living rooms featured a 24-hour refrigerated tap). As a result, Carterfolk came to refer to someone as "really Gee'd," or would suggest "Let's go get Gee'd." This transcended to a higher level as the House of Gee, where one could get Gee'd relatively easily, the rule being that the last one standing was the designated driver. So, in honor of "Gee" Williams, Carter officially changed its name to "House of Gee" some time between winning the contest in Winter 1974, and running the Spring 1975 edition.

Their second of seven 2nd-place finishes in a 13-contest span.

The title of a 1960 Tony Curtis film. Based on a true story, Curtis plays a master con man who adopts multiple personas and occupations. NOTE: The Agard Memorial Tube Team (Winter 1970), the Bayonettes (Spring 1972) and The Great Impostor were largely the same team. Changing the team name was less usual during this period than it would later become.

A narcotically-impaired take on Bonomo Turkish Taffy, recalled in sobriety by one or more of the team's members. Their first of seven 2nd-place finishes (to go with three wins and three times running) in a consecutive 13-contest span.

A narcotically-impaired take on Bonomo Turkish Taffy, recalled in sobriety by one or more of the team's members. See Springs 1976 and 1978.

Mills House, besides fielding this trivia squad, was doing various "General Mills" promotions at the time, hence this name (which also referenced the 1927 Buster Keaton classic). The team, reinforced by another 12/73 contender, B. Bumble and the Stingers, won the next contest as "General Bumble."

An obscure reference to an obscure song about Bayonne, New Jersey. At the end of each contest, the tradition of the time was for all teams to have breakfast in the Greylock Dining Hall. The Bayonettes' trademark, when they arrived at the dining line, was to sing the Bayonne Song -- "Down in Bayonne, dey got dem bars. Da bums dey come, from near and from far. Dey come by truck, dey come by car. Da rolling bums of New Joisey!"

See Winter 1969, and the Winning Team Names list.

The name of the toy company perhaps best known for merchandising the Frisbee. See Spring 1975.

In poetry, the "pleasure dome" decreed by the fabulous Kubla Khan; in film, the vast, gloomy estate owned by Charles Foster Kane in "Citizen Kane."

Dedicated to an ill-fated television set destroyed during a rowdy shindig. The men of Agard House were the ones who revived Trivia after the strike-lost non-contest of 1970. See the list of WINNING team names for the full story.

Joe Budge '74 of the Tumblers reveals all:

"Wow, this is a subject I NEVER expected to be quizzed on! I think it's great that you're collecting it. Had to dig around in the memory a bit...

First, a shaggy dog story: When I was at Williams in the early '70s, there were relatively few women on campus. If you weren't lucky enough to date one, you had to seek elsewhere. The answer to this problem was the Roadtrip. Don't know if it's a big deal now, but it was an institution then. Beg, borrow, or con someone's car, load it with friends, and head for Smith, Holyoke, Saratoga Springs, etc. on a weekend evening. Speed limits were optional. In addition to his trivia talents, Frank Ferry was legendary at Roadtripping - famous for his shortcut ACROSS Tomhannock Reservoir in the dead of winter to save the time involved in driving around.

Free Tumblers was named on one such Roadtrip. On the way back there was a sign at a gas station offering a premium with a fill-up: "Free Tumblers" was the huge banner on the ad. Struck everyone's funny bone at the time, they started looking for a loose circus act crossing the road (see: "Designated Driver" in your description of 'House of Gee')."

See Winter 1969, and the Winning Team Names list.

The name of the tiny nation that accidentally conquers the United State in Leonard Wibberley's novel, "The Mouse that Roared". It is better known by the film version, starring Peter Sellers. Humorously, the correct name of the nation in both film and novel is "Duchy of Grand Fenwick," not "Grand Duchy."

The Sparkletones were the backup band for Joe Bennett (as in "Joe Bennett and the..."), who recorded the 1957 hit single "Black Slacks." Their followup, "Penny Loafers and Bobby Socks," continued their clothing-obsessed ouvre, but the single topped out at #42. Alas, the band then fell out of fashion, never hitting the Billboard Top 100 again.

The name of the tiny nation that accidentally conquers the United States in "The Mouse that Roared". Or IS it? See the list of WINNING team names for the full story.