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Wonder inspires trivia buffs to found a national group
BvJeffKruse The heart of the oreanization is its "The potential out there is enormous," mercial was in 1941, and it picture
By Jeff Kruse
Have you ever wondered who ran with
Wendell Willkie in the 1940 presidential
election? Or what the Ricardos' address
was in Love Lucyt Or what the halftime
score was in the 1955 Orange Bowl game
between Duke and Nebraska?
That sense of wonderment has inspired
four Lincoln men to form the United
States Trivia Association, Ltd., an organi
zation to promote trivia and trivia contests
throughout the nation.
"We were looking for some kind of a
contest, and found that there was no sanc
tioned trivia group in the country," said
Steve Tamerius, president of the six-month
old organization. "This is really the first
one of its kind."
The heart of the organization is its
monthly publication, 'Trivia Unlimited,"
which has about 2,000 subscribers across
the nation, according to Tamerius.
In the magazine, the staff of "experts"
expound on trivia in such areas as music,
sports, television and radio, movies, and
comic books.
"It has all the facts you need," said
Ron Hicks, secretary of the organization.
Spare time job
Presently the organization is a spare
time operation. Hicks said he spends about
two hours a night researching trivia, unless
"something's bugging" him. Then he might
spend up to 4 or 5 hours he said. However.
Tamerius, a realtor, sees the organization
one day turning into a full-time job.
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The potential out there is enormous,
he said.
Plans for the organization include trivia
championships in every state, a U.S. Open
Trivia Championship (probably held in
Lincoln) in the spring, a possible syndi
cated radio show, a trivia filing system "un
matched in the world," a phone line service
that would answer any trivia question free
of charge, and a university trivia bowl.
Presently, they do a daily segment on
KOIL, an Omaha radio station, and also
make occasional appearances on Lincoln's
KLMS.
"Radio is an ideal place for trivia,"
said Tamerius. "There's a wealth of infor
mation behind those records.
"When a disc jockey plays Elvis Presley's
Heartbreak Hotel,' he should be able to
tell the listeners that it's Floyd Cramer on
piano and Chet Atkins on guitar backing
him up."
Researching difficult
In his radio appearances, Tamerius has
often fielded questions from the listeners,
and lately he says he's been hitting about
90 percent correct.
Researching trivia, though, "is not easy,
if you want to be good at it," according to
Hicks, who said that his research consists
mainly of going through libraries, old news
papers, and comparing facts from different
trivia books.
The research can, however, become a
little more involved. Tamerius had found in
his research that the first television com
mercial was in 1941, and it pictured a
Bulova watch.
But then, he said, "I thought to myself,
'What time did the watch read?' After call
ing several people at NBC and Bulova and
having them dig into their archives,
Tamerius achieved his goal-the time on
the watch was 10:09.
In another endeavor, Tamerius con
tacted Fred Worth (considered by rnanv to
be the best trivia author in the country) by
calling the NBC Tomorrow Show, a pro
gram on which Worth had appeared, and
asked for Worth's phone number.
College interest
He got the number, and Worth now is a
regular writer for "Trivia Unlimited."
"With a little guts and enough money to
back the phone bill, you can get just about
anything you want," Tamerius said.
Tamerius traces his interest in trivia
back to his college days when he was a
UNL student.
"I remember when I lived in Schramm,
we had an impromtu contest. Someone
asked me a question I couldn't answer,
and that bothered me.
Apparently, other members of the
organization also have the same type of
interest.
Their weekly meetings consist of trivia
quizzes "to keep each other in shape" and
working on the publication.
Oddly enough, the group is at a loss to
define trivia.
"I guess the best way to define it is by
example," said Tamerius.
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