A R O U N D C A M P U S
The Math Bowl
By Joseph Kilkeary
You can’t write about the history of the Math Bowl without
taking into account the History Bowl that started it all. It
began back in 1983, my first year of teaching as a Seventh
Grade homeroom, history, and math teacher. Inspired by
the GE College Bowl of TV fame, I went to the Assistant
Headmaster, Malachy Cleary (also the Eighth Grade history
teacher at the time), and when I told him about the idea, he
liked it a lot. I thought it would be great to select Fifth through
Eighth Grade boys to form four teams to compete against
each other in this subject.
Unfortunately, there were only professional buzzer/light
systems available, and the school could not afford the cost
of the equipment. Luckily, Mal’s son, Mal Jr., had a college
buddy who was studying engineering, and he agreed to make
a homemade system for us for only $1,000. Mr. McLellan
made up the Fifth Grade American history questions, Dr.
Czuchlewski, the Sixth Grade American history questions,
I composed the questions on Greek and Roman history,
and Mr. Cleary made up the Eighth Grade Medieval and
Renaissance questions. We didn’t quite know how it would
work out, but the Bowl turned out to be such a hit with the
boys, teachers, and parents that I decided that the next year
we would also have a Math Bowl with the same format.
Since I was the chairman of the math department, it was left
up to me to design the questions for Fifth through Eighth
Grades. In the third year, the science department, under
the guidance of its chairman, Dr. Gilbert, decided to have a
Science Bowl. So, for three or four years, we had three Bowls.
The buzzer system lasted for about five or six years before
breaking down and, by then, there was a commercial version
available at a reasonable price.
The final score and winning Euclideans in the 2018 Math Bowl.
A sample question.
After a few years, history and science stopped doing a Bowl
because of time considerations, and only the Math Bowl
remained. It has been held annually since 1984; this is its 35th
continuous year. Nowadays, the questions are made up and
revised each year by the entire department.
The success of the Saint David’s Math Bowl is not just due to
its format, but also because of the contribution of its emcee,
Tom Ryan. Tom, as most of us know, has a talent for this type
of work. He is a quick thinker who enjoys repartee and puns;
he has emceed all the Math, History, and Science Bowls since
their inception! Tom engages not only the contestants, but
also the audience with his witticism; so that by the end of the
contest everyone has had a great time!