Hobart and William Smith Colleges

Celebrating the 1961 HWS College Bowl Team

Fifty years ago, on Jan. 21, Hobart and William Smith Colleges defeated Baylor University 245 to 140 in the nationally-televised G.E. College Bowl. The HWS team had previously beaten Beloit College, Wesleyan University, Carnegie Mellon University and Louisiana State University-Baton Rouge in answering questions in a wide range of categories, including sports, art, logic, history, music, physics and math. Hobart and William Smith were one of only three teams, along with Colgate and Rutgers, to retire undefeated.

Hobart and William Smith's team of Jerry Levy '63, Marcia Berges Hodges '61, James Zurer '63, and Joseph Rishel '62 earned their first 30 points of the game by correctly adding the number of French Republics to the number of German Reichs to equal eight.

The team brought home the College Bowl trophy and $9,000 in scholarship funds from General Electric. When they returned to Geneva, they were honored with parade and Feb. 2 was declared to be "Hobart and William Smith Day."