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==History==
The Williams College Debating Union has a long and storied history, most of which a certain pair of 2003 graduates forgot to pass along to the next generation of Eph debaters. As the story goes, back in 1996, Chris Willenken (older brother of 2003 National Champion Tim Willenken, Yale '03) and his partner Amanda Amert were our first ever [http://apdaweb.org/standings TOTY]. Jon Kravis '99 and Adrian Ludwig '98 almost achieved a similar feat, coming in 2nd at the 1998 Nationals, held at GW. Kravis later partnered with Rob Wiygul '00, and the pair did very well for themselves in the limited number of tournaments they went to during Jon's senior year. To this day, Williams debaters are still told stories of how Jon Kravis was 20 feet tall, could make opponents soil themselves with a glance, and forced underclassmen to listen to tapes of Supreme Court oral arguments on the way to tournaments.
The public face of the Williams team soon became a pair of awkward-yet-lovable Bert and Ernie lookalikes, Josh Kelner '01 and Chris Kemmitt '01. Josh was known for being very analytically rigorous and flow-intensive, while Chris was just *so damn folksy!* They competed very often as freshman and sophomores, and made great strides in increasing the visibility of the Williams team both on campus and on APDA in general. Until the current crop of Eph debaters arrived, it was the last time the Williams team would experience competent leadership.
