World’s ‘Largest Trivia Contest’ Back At Stevens Point

The self-proclaimed World’s largest trivia contest returns to the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point this weekend.

Longtime organizer Jim “Oz” Oliva said more than 10,000 people will be participating in the nonstop three-day contest that gets underway at 6 p.m. Friday and has no breaks for sleeping.

Many of the contestants return every year, Oliva said.

“Spend 54 hours nonstop with the same people, in a small room or a basement, you either love them for life or you never want to see them again,” Oliva said, laughing. “That’s absolutely what I think it is.”

This is the event’s 48th year, and is being hosted by the school’s radio station, WWSP.

Eight questions each hour are read over the radio and are followed by a two- to three- minute rock ‘n’ roll hit from the 1950s and ’60s.

When the song is over, the teams — situated at home, in a dorm room, apartment, etc. — must have phoned their answers into the volunteer judges.

John Eckendorf, 52, was back behind the microphone at the radio station during an interview with WPR.

Eckendorf grew up listening and playing trivia in the early ’70s. Now he helps write the questions.

“After a while, you just know it,” Eckendorf said. “It just screams at you, whether it’s a piece of dialogue from a sitcom, whether it’s a visual that you see during a movie, or an interestingly written lyric, it just grabs you.”

Eckendorf said he tries to come up with questions that cannot be answered with a Google search.

Clues also send teams to remote locations to pick up stickers, which are also good for points.

As of early Friday afternoon, 308 teams had registered.

The radio station will live stream the event at www.90fmtrivia.org.