From the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel and AP: 

A look at the man behind world's largest trivia contest

Last Updated: April 16, 2001 at 0:02:24 a.m.

STEVENS POINT, Wis. (AP) - They call him "The Oz," as in the wizard of. He's the man behind what's billed as the world's largest trivia contest, developing brain teasers and stumpers for a 54-hour marathon of the mind.

"It is like a sleep-over, but for big kids," said Jim Oliva, who's written questions since 1979. "This is hours of happiness and joy."

Now in its 32nd year, the trivia contest begins Friday and attracts 500 teams trying to answer questions aired on the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point radio station.

Oliva, 55, writes the questions from a cluttered basement office in his home - a jumble of magazines, board games, books, videos and his "crap pile" of stuff, a can of Billy Beer, old baseball cards, anything that might generate a question or two.

The competition is so fierce he keeps his office garbage until after the contest to make sure any clues remain secret.

"Back over here, this is where we get serious," he said, stopping before a wall of thousands of magazines, some dating back to the 1930s.

Oliva slid out a September 1988 edition of Time, rifled through the pages and in seconds developed this question: 

"What product in 1988 advertising used the trademark slogan, "No artificial anything?"'

Oliva paused, pleased by the query.

"Dannon Yogurt. Now that's tough. You will not find that on the Internet," he boasted.

For more than a decade, Dorea Engebretson, 39, of Mosinee, has teamed up with her husband, son, other relatives and friends - usually about 25 people - for the competition. This year's team is called "Greased and Ready to Kick Oz."

"We are fruitcakes," she said, laughing. "You get together, party, drink and see if you can stay up 54 hours. I have made it 52."

She has seen people fall asleep standing up.

Former University of Wisconsin basketball coach Brad Soderberg, 38, has played regularly since he was a sixth-grader growing up in Stevens Point.

His eight-member team - once called the "Keystone Cops" - still includes friends from his grade and high school days, he said.

"I am not very good at it," Soderberg said. "But I just like to get back with my childhood buddies. It is a great diversion."

Stevens Point Police Sgt. Dan Wheeler is taking a full week's vacation to get ready to host "The Establishment" team at his home for the 17th year.

He spends the months between contests taking notes on commercials, TV shows and magazine ads, he said.

Wheeler, 40, got interested in the contest when he was a student at UW-Stevens Point. Trivia stimulates his competitive instincts, in part because of Oliva, he said. "It is us against him."

Oliva's nickname comes from the "The Wizard of Oz." He's the "all-knowing, the all-powerful" because he has the final say on any grievance over a question and answer.

During the contest, eight questions are asked each hour over the radio. Teams must phone in answers within the next two songs played on the air.

The atmosphere is so festive there's even a parade before the competition starts.

"The town gets shakin'," Engebretson said.

A year ago, 534 teams with 12,400 players participated, compared with about 400 teams and 9,000 players in 1990, said Rebecca Pollesch, WWSP-FM promotions director.

The now-defunct U.S. Trivia Association billed the competition as the world's largest contest because of the number of competitors, Oliva said. The association folded several years ago when the founders took new, more demanding jobs, he said.

Oliva uses all kinds of resources from his basement office in his quest to stump the trivia buffs.

There's stacks of board games - "Stick the IRS," "UNO Madness," "Fireball Island" - videos of movies and TV commercials, 17 books in the TimeLife series "Our American Century," a book of the top 500 poems and, of course, the "crap pile."

What he thought was one of his hardest questions, developed from the TV comedy "Married, With Children," fizzled.

"What is the name of the fictional presentation that was presented in surround Storch?" Oliva asked.

In one episode, the Larry Storch School of Acting presented the Phantom of the Opera in "surround Storch."

"I thought that was going to be a real son of a gun. And 48 teams got it," the Oz recalled. "It was like 'you people are sicker than me."'