From the Stevens Point Journal April 15, 2002:

Trivia names come in all forms
By Paul Chronis
 
Politics, historical events, sports, TV and movies are all fodder for the ridiculous, sublime and sometimes funny names that players give their teams for the annual world's largest trivia contest.
 
"Trivia 33: All in the Contest" is an irreverent, 54-hour marathon of music, food, comedy and, of course, trivia questions on WWSP-FM, the campus radio station at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. Scheduled for Friday through Sunday, Trivia 33 also gives players another chance to give themselves team names that have great meaning or no meaning at all, according to organizers Jim Oliva and John Eckendorf.

"A lot of people look forward to reading the final standings just to see the team names," Oliva said. "It's another way the contest affects the community."
Names such as The Choir Boys, Network and Wisconsin Rapids Trivia Maniacs are common. But there's also the offbeat (When Did They Make Green Erasers?), the political (Pardon my Hanging Chad) and even the downright weird ("Raging Tyrannosaurus of Despair").
Some names evoke recent events or celebrities. Monica Lewinsky, O.J. Simpson and Tonya Harding were popular during their heyday of infamy. There's usually references to the Green Bay Packers, and there's always a few jokes, such as Dyslexics of the World Untie. This year, there probably will be references to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 and Osama bin Laden, although Oliva plans to draw the line for taste.

"Remember when (the space shuttle) Challenger exploded?," Oliva asked. "I did say at that time that there be no Challenger names allowed, because that would be in really bad taste. It's the same way this year."
On the other hand, Osama, Yo Mama! will probably pass muster if someone uses it, because it's become a popular phrase, Eckendorf said.

One unusual team name is the Amherst Whale Watch. Formed in 1984 by Ken and Barbara Zwickey, 3589 Highway A, Amherst Junction, it was a way to have fun with the contest and also advocate an environmental issue.

"Being from Wisconsin, we're very environmental, and whale protection is one of our issues," Ken Zwickey said. "In the past, we've even adopted a whale." Just for fun, they also made up a story about searching for whales in the Tomorrow River.
Another longtime team takes its name from an early bit on "The Late Show with David Letterman." Dan Rayburn of Pittsville said while he was in college, he and his friends liked the way Letterman used to stare into the camera and say "Ah bin hypnotized!", and that became their team name when it was formed in 1986.

There's also a team that every so often renames itself Hour 54, Where Are You?, a reference not only to the television police comedy, but also a reminder that the contest is taking place during the weekend that daylight-saving time takes effect, so the contest lasts only 53 hours.

Oliva noted that each year, there's also a competition with a certain segment of the trivia population to try to sneak in a name that might look or sound innocuous, but is in bad taste said or read in another way.

"All of the team names are looked at by three people - me, the station manager and the program director," Oliva said. "We look at the team names, and we screen them."
Once in awhile, somebody succeeds. A sexually-oriented connotation got in last year, and nobody caught it until Oliva and Eckendorf read the scores aloud at the end of the contest. The name was offensive, but the spelling was creative enough to pass muster, Oliva said.

A lot of people think anything goes when it comes to team names, but Eckendorf says that's not the case.

"A lot of times, we have called people back and said uh-uh, this isn't going to fly," he said.

Chronis can be reached at 344-6100, Ext. 2512, or at paul.chronis@cwnews.net.