THE HISTORY OF GENE AUTRY'S NINJA WARRIORS (short version)
Trivia 1986 (theme: "Welcome Back, Trivia Comet"): The Joys listen to a few hours of The World's Largest Trivia Contest during a drive up to Wausau. They are intrigued... ----- Trivia 1987 ("Short and Sweet"): 262nd place The family discusses entering the contest--it does sound interesting, and they enjoy games such as Trivial Pursuit. But in the end, the $7 entry fee seems a steep price to pay for a weekend of fun, so it's decided that there will be no Joys in Trivia 1987. But, on an impulse, Dennis Joy drives into Stevens Point and registers a team. The name of that team: The Joy of Trivia. The Joys play that weekend, using three or four reference books. They do not come close to playing 54 hours. Mike goes to a track meet, and other interruptions occur. In the end, they wind up in around 262nd place out of about 400 teams. But at the end of the contest, it's clear that the Joys will be back... ----- Trivia 1988 ("A Taxing Contest"): 225th place The Joys ARE back, along with a few family friends and maybe one or two more reference books. After some discussion, the name is changed to The Gene Autry Fan Club. I believe this is the year that such longtime players as Billy Retza and Dave Trzebiatowski begin to play, but I'm not sure. ----- Trivia 1989 ("The Anniversary Party"): 150th place Things are starting to heat up. We are now, officially, Gene Autry's Ninja Warriors. (This was the time of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fad, and we wanted to keep "Gene Autry" in the name of our team, so there you go...). We are joined by a number of friends this year, including many who have not played for GANW for years. Where have you gone, Cory Mlodik, Scott Krems, Paul Bunczak, Chris and Julie Schuttenberg, Eric Glendenning? We finish around 200th place,and play for NEARLY the entire contest. This year featured the infamous "Strawberry Roan" question: What was the name of the first Gene Autry movie to feature Pat Buttram as Gene's sidekick? It was early in the morning, and only a couple of us were up, but hey--we're GENE AUTRY'S Ninja Warriors, right? A lengthy search through our collection of B-movie stuff gave us the answer: "The Strawberry Roan." An hour later we find out it was worth...335 points!!! Yee-hah! Shortly after our celebration ends, the Oz comes on and announces: the question is being thrown out of the contest. AAARGH! I STILL don't know what was wrong with that question! ----- Trivia 1990 ("Earth Games Are Easy"): 158th place We register as "Gene Autry's Ninja Warriors 2"-- the last time for 9 years that we'd deviate from our official name. This is the first year we play all 54 hours, and our final finish is much improved as a result: we wind up around 135th place, if I recall correctly. This is also the first year (I believe) that we participate in the "Running Questions"--Billy Retza and myself drove into Stevens Point and lumbered around downtown looking for answers to questions about signs in store windows and things like that...
Trivia 1991 ("Year of the Palindrome"): 81st place out of 400+ teams A milestone year in GANW history. We begin to seriously gather more resources, and we start to recruit new members to fill in for those who go off to college or do other silly things. Chis Hakala makes the journey from Minnesota for the first time. In the end, our preparation and recruitment paid off in a big way, and we wind up in 81st place! This is the last year we see Billy Retza until 1998...we miss him a lot! This year also featured a mid-contest attempted toilet-paper raid on GANW headquarters by some of my high school "friends"...however, GANW intelligence services caught wind of the raid as it was beginning and we quickly dispersed the would-be wrappers and tossers... ----- Trivia 1992 ("Trivia or Dare: It's Vogue"): 100th place out of 454 teams Funny thing...I remember almost nothing about this contest except our final placing--100th! A bit of a slide backward but nothing major. We continue building our membership up, as Don Shenbarger joins us for the first time, becoming our second out-of-state Ninja Warrior... ----- Trivia 1993 ("Trivia in Point"): 56th place out of 483 teams GANW roars back toward the front of the pack and winds up in 56th place, our best ever up to that point. 1993 also featured a record-setting question about Elvis jumpsuits (don't ask...) which was worth 200 big points! This year was also notable as the first year we took movie notes; the clever comedy "Groundhog Day" holds the honor as the first movie we took notes on. We turned the notes on that movie into 75 points during the contest (although we also had our first painful experience with "we have notes on the movie but the answer isn't in our notes" syndrome. A painful lesson was learned, at the cost of 250 points! Finally, 1993 was the first year we sent out a Trivia Stone team, earning us valuable points and keeping us headed in the right direction! ----- Trivia 1994 ("Trivia Park"): 47th place out of 535 teams The year of Jurassic Park features a hurried, last-minute viewing of the movie, and only one easy question was asked about it! We had notes on about 30 movies since last Trivia, and we were starting to see the tremendous point potential that notes could bring. Our biggest point question did NOT come from the notes, however, but from the dusty and scary place that is my brain. A 3 a.m. question on B-westerns ("Which western was advertised as the Barnum and Baileys of westerns?") turned out to be worth 285 big points. The few of us that were awake--Dave Trebs, Chris Hakala, and myself--did little jigs of joy when our answer ("Powdersmoke Range") turned out to be correct. It was a great year, and we finished with a team record 47th place finish! ----- Trivia 1995 ("The Six Million Dollar Contest"): 73rd place out of 541 teams The Oz takes the Trivia Stone out of the contest...just as we were getting good at it! That must be why we slipped a little bit that year. Other than our slight drop in the standings, 1995 was a great year, featuring the introduction of two new Ninjas: Becky Ulland and Shari Hastings, both of whom have become invaluable members of the team! And anyway, 1995 was just a warmup for the great things to come in the next year... ----- Trivia 1996 ("What a Long Strange Trip it's Been"): 38th place out of 563 teams The previous year had seen the passing of Jerry Garcia, so the Oz marks the occasion in this year's trivia theme. Becky and I are delayed in leaving St. Paul, and tear down the driveway of GANW HQ just as the final bars of "Free Bird" are playing, just before the contest is to start. So it's a bit chaotic... But then the magic starts. We're playing with a full complement of warriors, we run good shifts of players all 54 hours, we have a ton of notes, we eat lots of good Chex Mix, we do strange experiments with Jolt Cola. And in the end...we break our all time record for place and points scored (4705 points)! The truly amazing thing is, we didn't start out all that great--we were in 88th place after 23 hours. But as 1 a.m. rolls around on Monday morning, the remaining Ninjas hear the Oz read off our final place, handshakes all around, and we sleep the sleep of true Trivia champions... Truly, a moment of Trivia Glory!
Trivia 1997 ("Mission Trivia"): 51st place out of 527 teams No Macarena dancing is allowed at GANW headquarters, but Trivia 1997 did feature some fancy footwork on our part to stay in the top 10% of all trivia teams. The Internet began to be used by more and more teams during the contest, and GANW HQ was not "wired," so we tried to keep up by taking more notes and collecting more stuff. The permanent GANW library began a period of rapid expansion, and the stacks of books at HQ began to get a bit sloppy, but our strategy worked for at least another year. 1997 was also the year of the famous brush fire, which began to blaze behind the house next door to GANW HQ. A combined team of Ninja Warriors and Rosholt Volunteer Firefighters managed to put out the blaze. I discovered it's not a good idea to fight fires in bare feet. We had a good turnout again, so that even as we battled the flames Ninjas were holding down the fort and answering questions! A few weeks after the contest, the Ninja Warriors make a tentative leap into the World Wide Web--the GANW Web Page is created... ----- Trivia 1998 ("On the Road"): 76th place out of 520 teams The internet begins to be an even bigger tool for the "wired" teams, and once again we respond with vigorous notetaking and book-collecting. Technology is pulling ahead of us, however, and we slip a bit in the standings. Really, though, for a team with absolutely NO internet access during the contest, we do extraordinarily well, don't you think? Still, a few Ninjas start to ponder ways in which to make the team more cyber-competitive. Helping things out a bit is the re-introduction of the Trivia Stone. Our brilliant Stone teams go out and grab us 300 points, helping to make up for our lack of wires. 1998 was also notable for the return of Billy Retza after 7 years--Billy and Julie were only able to play a few hours, but clearly the fire had been re-lit... Also this year, Mike and Linda Trzebiatowski for the first time loan GANW the use of their camper, giving tired warriors a QUIET place to sleep, away from the frenzy of HQ. ----- Trivia 1999 ("Trivia Like it's 1999"): 79th place out of 492 teams Okay, at first glance, this looks like our worst finish in 7 years. And it is... But in retrospect, 1999 was a great year. We fought our way back, without the aid of the internet, from 133rd place after 23 hours to 79th place when all was said and done. We even moved up a couple spots in the notoriously tough final 6 hours of the contest. Our Trivia Stone team was the FIRST team to get Stone Stamp #3. And finally, GANW was blessed with Trivia Child #1, Billy Retza, Jr. In other news, GANW marked the passing of Gene Autry (in October of 1998) with a one-year-only name change to "Gene Autry's Ninja Mourners." GANW head- quarters was also refurbished for Trivia 1999, featuring an improved basement, better lighting throughout the house, and a comfy sofa. New Ninja Warrior Peter Joy was a hit with his Mountain Dew cooler, and breakfast pizza made its first and so far only appearance at Trivia. So we didn't break any scoring records...we had fun! ----- Trivia 2000 ("Trivia Y2K: The Bug Strikes"): 38th place out of 466 teams A return to glory for GANW! A big recruiting drive leads to several new warriors. Our note-taking includes great TV notes and many, many movie notes, and we set a record by earning 335 points for a question about the movie "Pitch Black." Finally, we celebrate the new millenium by ending the GANW technology boycott--the headquarters gets wired for the internet (actually, it gets a second phone line) and GANW goes cybernetic! The net turns out to be a helpful resource, even with a slow connection, and even more important are the several great "cyberwarriors" who join us in a chat room. The combination of great preparation, internet help, good turnout, and a little luck all adds up to a record-tying finish, and a record-breaking point total (5250 points). What a way to start the millenium! And things would get even better, as we would discover in..... ----- Trivia 2001 ("Old Days"): 20th place out of 460 teams The dawn of the real new millenium on 1/1/01 was a harbinger of the bright days ahead for the team. More preparations than ever took place before the contest. GANW moved to a new headquarters in Stevens Point, only minutes away from the station, and much more convenient for Trivia Stone and Running Question teams. The new HQ is very trivia friendly, the entire basement of the house is used for books, magazines, and Ninja Warriors. Our internet operations expand dramatically this year, helping us avoid the curse of the missed 10-point question. Many, many new cyberwarriors join us, from all over the country, and at HQ itself turnout is solid, there are never fewer than 4 people awake and working on questions at any one time. For the first 12 hours or so of the contest we are in the top 12 among all teams, including 6th place at one point. During the late night hours on Sunday we answer 31 questions in a row, easily a new record. Our only real dry spell occurs on Saturday morning, and after that point we keep moving up, up, up in the standings, and at 1:30 a.m. on Monday the Warriors that are awake are thrilled to hear our record-breaking 20th place, 5696 points finish! It only takes a few minutes before plans are being made for Trivia 2002, and we plan to stay in the elite group of teams for a long time to come....
Trivia 2002 ("All In the Contest"): 18th place out of 456 teams After our record-breaking finish in Trivia 2001, the Ninjas put even more effort into their preparations. Many of those preparations must remain classified (who knows who's reading this?), but it's safe to say that the Warriors now have Trivia on the brain year-round. A few players are unable to make it this year, but we also get some new players, both young and old, and we play strong for the entire 54 hours. There is general agreement that the first 10-12 hours of the contest are fairly easy--we answer 90% of the questions correctly, but languish in the mid-50s. We get our motors running as the morning light breaks out on Saturday, and nail a 225-pointer to jump us all the way up to 13th! The remaining 40 hours of the contest see us doing all we can to hang on to a top-twenty finish; we never have a really bad hour, and at one point we answer 25 straight questions. The weather turns cold and SNOWY, and the Trivia Stone clues are, well, tricky, but we manage to hang on and break our old record. We learn that playing Trivia in the top 20 is a whole new ballgame, very exciting but tough! So we revel in our best year ever, but the plans continue, as we try to get closer and closer to a top-10 trophy. Trivia On! ----- Trivia 2003: ("Survivor Trivia"): 36th place out of 458 teams Well, I guess it's a measure of how far the Ninjas had advanced by this point: 36th place (a tie for our 3rd-highest finish ever) was a bit of a disappointment! Looking back, it's possible that the Ninjas (well, alright, mainly just yours truly, Mike J.) started taking things a little too seriously, and the strain took its toll. On the bright side, we DID move way up in the pack over the course of the contest -- in the early hours we were in the low 100s. We had a couple of good big-pointers, including a 185-pointer from a "secret weapon" book that seems to get us a good one every year. And, as always, Dennis Joy's TV note-taking came through with several very nice big-pointers. And who are we kidding -- 36th place in the World's Largest Trivia Contest is nothing to sneeze at! So the Ninjas were determined to regroup for next year... ----- Trivia 2004 ("Thanks For the Contest"): 25th place out of 442 teams Determined to avoid the over-seriousness of the previous year, the team motto for Trivia 2004 was declared to be "FUN." (Yes, just the word FUN.) And guess what? It worked! Trivia 2004 was a grand success: the team moved up in the rankings, there was great turnout both at HQ and in the chat rooms, and the chat room itself was hailed as the best one yet. Not one but two pizza deliveries kept the team going, and helped the team avoid the dreaded "only one person awake at HQ" syndrome. 2005 was also a year of big point questions, including a record 400 point question about a product that billed itself as "the World Series' most consistent reliever since 1903." Only a few Ninjas were awake at the time, and they went with a guess--Coke--that turned out to be right, and worth 400 points! Many other good questions were answered, the team finished only 700 points out of 10th place, and most importantly FUN was had by all. With renewed optimism the Ninjas looked toward next year's contest! ----- Trivia 2005 ("Keep On Trivia"): 19th place out of 435 teams What a year! Trivia 2005 seemed destined to be a great one right from the beginning. Our own Shari Hastings was quoted in an Associated Press article that came out right before the contest, earning GANW nation-wide exposure. More local exposure came in the person of a team from WAOW channel 9, which came to GANW's HQ on Sunday afternoon to do a spot on teams that were contending for the top 10. The contest itself was, I believe, one of the most intense (and intensely FUN) we've ever had. We answered all the questions right in hour #1 (one of only 4 teams to do so) and had the thrill of hearing ourselves listed in first place! That set the tone for the entire contest, which featured multiple large-point questions, coming from our resources, our notes, and (in one case) a wild guess ("the Clampett Clamp" was the wrestling move featured in the Beverly Hillbillies Movie). After 18 hours we were happy with how the contest was going, and were in 27th place. But then, in hour 18, we answered a question about the forgettable Susan Sarandon movie "Anywhere But Here" that was worth a honking 400 points, and moved us up to 8th place! For the next 30 hours we hovered right around the top 10... talk about exciting!! Hour 33 featured TWO 225-point questions, one from our resources, one a very good guess by Dennis Joy, which moved us up to 7th place. However, the last seven hours or so of the contest turned into a large-point dry spell for GANW, and although we struggled mightily, we slipped down into 19th place. Wait a second... 19th place!!! That's phenomenal--6 places higher than last year, our 2nd-highest finish ever!! Plus, we answered the final question correctly, for the first time in our 19 years of playing Trivia, which was a wonderful way to end this VERY memorable contest. Playing with the big boys in the top 10 was an exhilarating experience, one we hope to duplicate next year. Plus, GANW had started to expand, with several Trivia Babies born in 2004 and 2005. The next generation of Ninjas had arrived!! ----- Trivia 2006 ("The Odd Contest"): 26th place out of 428 teams Once again the team motto was FUN! (all caps, with an exclamation point)... turnout was great, with around 50 Ninjas playing at HQ and in the chatroom. A 185-point question about a US Postal Service print ad (found in the "back room" by longtime Ninja Sarah Miller) jumped us into 6th place after hour 3... would GANW have another run at the top 10? It didn't turn out that way, but it was a very solid year... another 185-pointer came from one of our "secret" resources (to secret to mention here), and the most beautiful woman in sports was (of course) Florence Chadwick, worth 55 big points. My Rose Parade notes were not perfect, but we got a Rose Parade 70-pointer anyway, and to top things off, we nailed a 400-pointer (about the 1988 Preakness Stakes) in hour 52, to jump us back into the mid-twenties! What a great way to finish up our 20th year of playing Trivia! Culinary treats included yummy seafood pizza, phenomenal pies (from the Norske Nook in Osseo, WI), coffee Rice Krispie bars, the Rays' famous cinnamon rolls, and Brad's donuts. Once again the snazzy Mountain Dew cooler-thing was full of caffeinated beverages. A couple of Trivia Babies had been born in the previous year, and they now began the process of Ninjafication and immersion in the crazy world of Trivia. What can I say? It was another great year of questions, answers, funny moments, fun with Cyberninjas from all over the country, and more!
Trivia 2007 ("Trivia Returns"): 27th out of 440 teams More details to follow!