History> 1995-1996 The First Year

It had just so happened that the planets were nicely aligned in Fall of 1995. The previous year, Iowa had no traveling budget, no regular practices and no circuit credibility. In the Fall of 1995, everything clicked together. In addition to Robert Trent and Trevor Schultz, people began to emerge from the woodwork to help Iowa become a force to be reckoned with. While Trevor was trekking east to attend Iowa, former University of Chicago player Mary Moran was making the short jaunt west to attend Iowa for the Ph.D. program in English. Mary, mostly a B-teamer in an era of legend-laden Chicago A squads, quickly established herself as worthy to be an Iowa A-teamer. Her prowess in Lit. and other humanities was heavily overshadowed by Robert at times, but if anyone could possibly answer a literature question that Robert missed, it was Mary.

Also at the beginning of the semester, Trevor and Robert found another ally in their Rhetoric teacher training program, Corey Smith. Corey — just married and living in Anamosa — contributed as much as he could in the early days, but as the only team member with a real life, he often found himself limited in his participation with the club. As a former CBI R10 competitor for the University of Northern Iowa, Corey would sporadically compete in invitationals over the next 3 years but would make a more lasting impression through his organizing of high school tournaments.

But what was equally as promising was the influx of undergrads that showed up to practices. Most notably and enduringly, Aaron Twait arrived at his first practice, answered a lot of questions, and has never lost his place as one of the most prolific scorers that Iowa has had or will ever have. Aaron's thorough knowledge of history, politics and current events has always been a cornerstone for A teams and he is absolutely without peer nationwide on questions dealing with political elections.

A variety of specialists emerged from the undergrad ranks to fill up Iowa's early B and C teams. Senior Jay Gorgia emerged as a sports and trash deity, whereas Dave Kanwar also knew sports but added a significant science base. Heather Weinman's religion and literature knowledge resonated with Ninah Fominyen's religion and pop culture prowess. Kjer (Jacob) Cox was fluent in a variety of the humanities and Angie Lyon was a terrific generalist. Classics ace Tim Vavricek, Science whiz Adam Vollmers, Scotland-o-phile Chris Peterson, Generalist Justin McNaughton and eventual Iowa team icon in Econ, history, classical music and pro-wrestling Wade Pfau rounded out the ranks that formed the early idyllic days of the Iowa Quiz Bowl team.

The first year's competition proved that Iowa — as a new team — was not to be toyed with. Robert Trent led the way — leading scoring for any and all Iowa players at any tournament that he competed in. The usual A-team line-up saw Robert Trent anchor the scoring effort with Mary Moran, Aaron Twait and captain Trevor Schultz along for the ride, adding points when they could. Iowa A captured 4th at their first invite, the ISU Glory and Lightning tournament with Robert earning 8th in the prestigious individual shoot-out. The only other Iowa player to even make it to the semis was Mary Moran. The B team, learning what ACF really meant, finished a punishing 20th.

The rest of the year was a season of being "on the verge" — so close to victory, yet so far. Robert Trent silenced an overeager and unsuspecting Ben Weiss and bested a respectful R. Hentzel at the Inaugural Minnesota Deep Bench to win the 1st singles category and to lead the first quads team to a first place finish as well. The Iowa team, as a whole, could not match these efforts and finished 5th out of 8. At Penn Bowl, the usual A team plus Jay Gorgia came ever so close to a precious playoff berth but their hopes ended with an agonizing 5 point loss to a Michigan team in the final match. A 10-5 record meant a 6th place bracket finish. A surprising All-Star award for Trevor at the '96 Wisconsin Elvis salvaged an otherwise average effort for the 3 Iowa teams that attended that event. Iowa took home some hardware in February of '96 with 2nd place finishes at CBI and ACF Regionals and the ACF Regional was further highlighted with Robert, Aaron and Mary finishing 3-4-5 in the Individual shoot-out. Iowa treated the midwest by hosting the 1996 Last Minute Bowl with questions written entirely by the Iowa team. The tournament, won by the University of Chicago, was capped by an easter egg hunt of all things, and everyone seemed to have a good time. The season ended with a terrific 10th place finish at the grueling 20-match ACF Nationals in Knoxville, Tennessee and Robert re-established himself as one of the best in the nation — winning one of 9 all-star medals.

Throughout this season traditions began to emerge. The first being the term "eaties" — coined by Trevor in a poem about eating lunch. "Eaties" then mainly referred to the group excursions to dine out together after Wednesday evening practices. Members of Iowa Quiz Bowl would also gather together to see movies, hang out together or even celebrate birthdays. It was a fun time.