Published in The Newport Daily News on Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2004. Reprinted here courtesy of The Daily News.
BOWL GAME
"Area students test their trivia knowledge in the annual Black History Bowl."
By Wendy M. Fontaine
Daily News staff
NEWPORT- What do the initials in B.B. King's name stand for?
What TV series stars Diana Ross' daughter?
Who was the first permanent settler of Chicago?
Who was the first basketball player to score 3,000 points in a season?
Those were just four of the 55 questions posed to local students Monday during the 11th annual Black History Bowl at Cranston-Calvert School. The event, sponsored by the Newport County branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, was part of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
For the record, the answers to the above questions are Beale Street Blues Boy, "Girlfriends," Jean Baptiste Point du Sable and Wilt Chamberlain.
Eight students from Portsmouth Abbey School, Middletown High School and Rogers High School competed by answering questions about African-American history in seven categories: history, literature, music, television and movies, politics, athletic feats, and scientists, educators and entrepreneurs. Each correct answer was worth two points.
Portsmouth students pulled away early, taking a three-point lead over their Rogers competitors by the end of the second round. The remainder of the game was relatively close, with the Rogers team lagging a few points behind Portsmouth. Both the Rogers and Middletown teams started the game with a disadvantage: The third members of their teams failed to show. About halfway through the match, Rogers alternate Ashlee Lambert arrived to bring her group's membership up to three. Her teammates were seniors Ashley Stokes and Catherine Alia. This year was Stoke's fourth competing in the history bowl. In 2001, she was recruited from the audience for the Rogers team.
The Middletown team, which consisted of sophomores Brandon Harris and De'Ambri Judice, continued one player short. They finished with 12 points. Rogers earned 28 and Portsmouth won with 36.
Portsmouth Abbey students Joseph Awantang, Jefferson Fellows and Jerome Igle, all seniors, said they studied books, almanacs and trivia questions to prepare for the contest.
"We live in the same dorm," said Igle, who competed in last year's event. In that contest, his school finished in last place. The teens said they were a bit nervous at first, sitting on the stage of the school's auditorium while an audience of about 75 people watched them answer questions. But they were soon laughing and smiling at once another as they debated their answers.
Igle's teammates chuckled when he answered Alec Baldwin instead of James Baldwin when moderator Veronica Mays asked for the name of the man who wrote "Go Tell It on the Mountain."
They also knew that Duke Ellington produced the song "Take the 'A' Train," and that actor Denzel Washington made his directorial debut with the movie "Antwone Fisher."
"We were relaxed. We were up there joking," Igle said. Fellows said he was impressed by the fast answers from the Rogers students. "They were quick down there," he said.
Judges in the trivia contest were Trinity Episcopal Church organist Paul Cienniwa, Thompson Middle School science teacher Elizabeth Gibbs and former Rogers principal Victoria Johnson. This year's coordinator was teacher Michael Browner Jr., who replaced longtime coordinator Jo Eva Gaines. Browner and Mays devised the questions for the contest.
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