From the Stevens Point Journal April 14, 2003:

Trivia 34 bragging rights go to Network: Eye of the Spider

By Trudy Stewart
Journal staff

It's much less hazardous to fall asleep at Team Zim headquarters this year than it was in 1985, when a group of local sixth-graders played in their first Trivia contest.

They don't play Cheetos basketball now, for one thing, said Jeff Christensen, Neenah, a Team Zim member for 16 of its 18 years of competition.

Everybody was awake Sunday as the 45th hour of Trivia 34: Survivor ticked past at the Plover headquarters of Team Zim, It's All About The Zimmermans. And anyway, Christensen said, Cheetos basketball has long since been retired. Players no longer target sleepers' open mouths with cheese curls. They've gone on to more mature pursuits - such as wearing T-shirts and caps that poke fun at their rivals, the Cakers.

"It's kind of a joke," said Matt Augustine, Bloomington, Ill. "My wife plays for the Cakers. They have a lot of pomp and circumstance."
The rivalry between the Cakers and Team Zim has been going on for about five years now, said Tracie Augustine, Matt's wife. Cakers' stuff is a lot better than Team Zim's, she added.

First place: Network: Eye of the Spider Second place: Tin Man Third place: Graduates of a Lesser God Fourth place: Weapons-Grade CNOF 54 Fifth place: Knights of Neek Sixth place: My Big Fat Greek Beerpig Seventh place: Pandemonium Eighth place: Ah Bin Hyp-mo-tized and Yaargh! A Tribute to Well Hungarians 10th place: Franklin Street Burnouts - Year 30 11th place: Basementality: Can U Smel Me Now, Good 12th place: Late Night with Bob Keeshan 13th place: Trading Cakers 14th place: Good Night Irene 15th place: Whatsamatta-U Who Are Two 16th place: Raging Tyranosaaurus of Despair 17th place: U Bet Your Sweet Oz! 18th place: Mutated Members 19th place: Sub Station 20th place: Astro Wolfpack 21st place: Freakout at Hour 54 22nd place: Dyslexics of the World Untie 23rd place: Unpainted Huffheins 24th place: WRTM: 25 Years of Trivia Mania and It's About the Zimmermans 26th place: Freshly Squeezed 27th place: Nightmare Squad 28th place: Dad's Computers: 25.0 Silver Edition 29th place: Lactation Nation: Breast in Show 30th place: 20 Year Trivia Survivors 31st place: Much Whose Dog was Oshkosh? 32nd place: Profound Confusion 33rd place: Honey I Shrunk Their Minds 34th place: Phones Down Phones Down in the Back

"There's some good-natured ribbing about it at home," said Tracie Augustine. "We have a working arrangement where there's no sneaking into each other's discussion boards on the Internet."
The two rival teams were among 459 registered in the 2003 Trivia, said Jim "Oz" Oliva, Stevens Point, the contest's lead organizer. That's fewer than last year when there were 462, but there are more players with 11,843 versus 11,030.

Broadcast of the contest's eight questions hourly on WWSP-FM started at 6 p.m. Friday and ended
54 hours later at midnight Sunday. The event is a fund-raiser for the student radio station at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.

"It's really quiet this year, except this afternoon with the UW-SP Alumni Association," Oliva said Sunday evening as hour 51 wound down. Volunteers from area organizations and businesses work shifts all weekend taking the teams' answers by phone. Association volunteers got a bit rowdy Sunday afternoon, laughing and having a good time.

Though things ran smoothly, there were a few glitches including one on the computers, Oliva said.
"We had a major computer breakdown earlier when one of our computer people hit the numbers lock key and couldn't input anything," he said. "Upon severe and in-depth computer analysis, I hit the key to unlock, and everything was OK."
There were some tough questions this year, Oliva said. "But I think people are having a good time digging into them."
The question about a football player who did not renegotiate his $2 million dollar contract because he wanted to compete in the Olympics stumped Team Zim. Members decided to go for Willie Gault, but the correct answer was Ron Brown. However, they scored on the next questions with the name of the author of the poem James Garner reads on a Chevy Tahoe television commercial: Patrick O'Leary.

"It was more fun back before the Internet ruined the game," said Matt Augustine, as he did an Internet search. Team Zim uses six laptops and a desktop computer for online research. Individual players concentrate on areas such as television, movies and sports during the rest of the year.

"We do it out of necessity," Augustine said. "It used to be fun to find an answer in notes you took. Now, you can find it several places on the Internet, and everybody else can find it, too."
Team Zim members say it's friendship that brings them back year after year. A majority of the 24 players live in Wisconsin and Illinois. Several play online from Arizona, Philadelphia and Florida. The team's sole female player was online from Minneapolis.
Many players have been on the team for more than a dozen years. There was a merger about eight years ago, when some players were picked up. This year, three new members joined. One is a pro wrestler: Jim Johnston II - the Urban Legend. Tim Hoffman is the manager of a bank. Augustine and Jack George work in computer technology.

They've consistently placed among the Top 20 finishers the past few years, with a 12th place as their highest ranking. So winning a trophy as a Top 10 finisher would be great, said Jon Tepp, Madison, a Team Zim member for more than a dozen years.
"But the biggest part of it is just getting together with guys you hung out with in high school, and it's a challenge," Tepp said.

Stewart can be reached at 715-344-6100, Ext. 2511, or at TStewart@stevenspointjournal.com.