College Bowl

College Bowl (also known as General Electric (G.E.) College Bowl) was a radio television and student quiz show. College Bowl first aired on US radio stations in 1953. It then moved to US television broadcast networks, airing 1959 to 1963 on CBS and from 1963 to 1970 on NBC. In 1977, the game resurfaced as an activity on college campuses through an affiliation with the Association of College Unions International (ACUI) that lasted for 31 years. In 2008, the College Bowl Company announced its suspension of the College Bowl program, citing increased costs and financial infeasibility of continuing to work with ACUI.

History

College Bowl originated as a USO activity created by Canadian Don Reid for soldiers serving in World War II. The game was then developed into a radio show by Reid and John Moses. Grant Tinker, later President of NBC and MTM Enterprises, got his start as an assistant on the show.

Two four-member teams representing various colleges and universities competed; one member of each team was its captain. The game began with a "toss-up" question for ten points; the first player to buzz in got the right to answer, but if (s)he was wrong, the other team could try to answer (if a player buzzed in before the host finished reading the question and was wrong, the team was penalized five points). Answering a "toss-up" correctly earned the team the right to answer a multi-part "bonus" question worth up to thirty points; the team members could collaborate, but only the captain was allowed to actually give the answer. The game continued in this manner, and was played in halves. During halftime, the players were allowed to show a short promotional film of their school; or they might talk about career plans or the like.