Holiday Trivia

Dec. 24, 2008

In anticipation of the holidays, the office of university relations offers this trivia quiz for your amusement and edification about the university. Our caveats are that we have intentionally tried to fool you into choosing the wrong answer, and when you think you know which wrong answer is right, it will be the question in which the right answer is right, thus fooling you again. To see the answer to each question, roll your cursor over the box beneath each question.

1. Which of the following early university presidents did not serve as an officer in the Civil War?

a.    Noah Putnam Gates, the university’s first and third president
b.    Albert Webb Bishop, the university’s second president
c.    Daniel Harvey Hill, the university’s fourth president
d.    George Mathews Edgar, the university’s fifth president

ANSWER: Roll your cursor over this box

A. Noah Gates. He had planned to enter the ministry but took up teaching to pay for his education. Albert Bishop was a lieutenant colonel of the Union’s First Arkansas Cavalry. Daniel Hill was a major general under Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. And George Edgar was a colonel, serving in the Confederate forces of Virginia.

2. Which of the following former presidents has not visited the University of Arkansas campus?

a.    Richard Nixon
b.    George H.W. Bush
c.    Bill Clinton
d.    George W. Bush

ANSWER: Roll your cursor over this box

D. To our knowledge, President George W. Bush, has not visited the campus. Clinton, of course, was a law professor at the university when he began his political career and has visited the campus many times since. President Richard Nixon and George H.W. Bush both attended the "Big Shootout," the 1969 football game between Arkansas and Texas. Former President Jimmy Carter visited the campus prior to running for office as well as afterward while working out details on books of his poetry published by the University of Arkansas Press. In addition, former President Taft may have visited the campus when he spoke in Fayetteville, and Herbert Hoover, while a college student, worked in Fayetteville one summer and may have visited the campus.

3. Which of the following first ladies has not visited the University of Arkansas campus?

a.    Eleanor Roosevelt
b.    Rosalyn Carter
c.    Hillary Clinton
d.    Laura Bush

ANSWER: Roll your cursor over this box

D. To our knowledge, Laura Bush has not visited the campus. Hillary Clinton was a law professor and founded the University of Arkansas Legal Clinic before marrying Bill Clinton. She has visited the campus many times since. Eleanor Roosevelt visited the campus in 1954 while on a national speaking tour. Rosalyn Carter accompanied her husband to campus, although not in a public role.

4. In the university’s first wave of construction, six new buildings were finished in the 1905 to 1906 period. Originally, the names of the buildings were Agricultural Hall, Carnall Hall, Dairy Building, Gray Hall, Chemistry Building and the Infirmary. How many of the buildings erected during that period are still standing?

a.    None
b.    2
c.    3
d.    All six, but with new names

ANSWER: Roll your cursor over this box

C. Three are still standing. Carnall Hall is now known as the Inn at Carnall Hall; the old Chemistry Building is called the Academic Support Building; and, the old Agricultural Hall is called the Agricultural Annex. The Dairy Building made way for what is now Silas Hunt Hall. Gray Hall was razed to build Mullins Library. The infirmary stood about where the Leflar Law Center is today.

5. Which of the following campus legends is true?

a.    After the 1909 win against Louisiana State University, Arkansas coach Hugo Bezdek became the first person to refer to the Arkansas football players as Razorbacks.
b.    In 1916, an engineering student named Henry Coffield flew a biplane glider off the top of Old Main for Engineering Day, crash-landing without injury on the lower end of the front lawn.
c.    The Spoofin’ Stone was intended to be used in the construction of Old Main.
d.    Nearly all the members of the class of 1900 died early in life, leading students to avoid walking on the 1900 section of Senior Walk.

ANSWER: Roll your cursor over this box

C. The Spoofin' Stone was meant to be used as a lintel in Old Main, but fell off a cart and cracked. The term “Razorbacks” was used as early as 1907, a year before Bezdek arrived, although he probably popularized the term during the university's first undefeated season in 1909. The flight of the glider plane was reported in both The University Weekly and a local newspaper, although it turned out to be a hoax. A review of the class members of 1900 showed that nearly all of them lived long, productive lives.

6. Which building sits atop the highest piece of university land?

a.    Old Main
b.    The Wallace W. and Jama M. Fowler House
c.    Reid Hall
d.    The Harry R. Rosen Alternative Pest Control Center

ANSWER: Roll your cursor over this box

D. The Harry R. Rosen Alternative Pest Control Center, at the top of Maple Street just across the street from the Chi Omega Sorority House, is on the highest piece of university land, just slightly higher in elevation than Reid Hall.

7. Speaking of heights, Hotz Hall has more than the average number of campus floors. Hundreds of students climbed its stairwells when it was a residence hall, and hundreds of staff members have descended its stairs during fire drills since it became offices. How many steps up does it take to get from the survey office on the first floor of Hotz to the housing office on the top floor? A hint: There are 15 steps per floor plus two extra on the first flight. A second hint: Hotz has nine floors. Quick, do the math.

a.    The square root of 11,449
b.    Eleven squared plus 1
c.    Five cubed plus 12
d.    Twelve squared plus 6

ANSWER: Roll your cursor over this box

B. The correct number is 122, or eight flights times 15 steps plus the two extra on the first flight. We would have accepted “zero” as well since most everyone takes the elevator.

8. When the Home Economics Building opened in 1940, it was equipped to teach students how to use all but which of the following stoves?

a.    wood
b.    kerosene
c.    gas
d.    coal

ANSWER: Roll your cursor over this box

D. Coal-burning cook stoves were relatively rare in Arkansas. The Home Economics Building had wood, kerosene and gas stoves, all of which were common across the Ozarks.

9. The Leflar Law Center, rededicated this year by former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor with its new entrance and courtyard, comprises several expansions. The original wing is called Waterman Hall and was named for Julian S. Waterman, the first dean of the School of Law. When Waterman Hall was dedicated in 1951, William J. Jameson gave the principal address. Who was Jameson?

a.    The second dean of the School of Law
b.    President of the American Bar Association
c.    A Supreme Court justice
d.    The top law school graduate in 1951

ANSWER: Roll your cursor over this box

B. Jameson was president of the American Bar Association.

10. Which of the following terms has not been used in association with registering for classes at the University of Arkansas?

a.    ISIS
b.    Ballot Box
c.    Safari
d.    Racing Form

ANSWER: Roll your cursor over this box

B. Although students may wish they had a vote on which classes they have to take, the university has not used a ballot box for class registration. The term ISIS, the Egyptian/Greco/Roman goddess of simplicity, also refers to the current Integrated Student Information System, in which students can register for classes. The term Safari refers to the computer registration system developed in the 1980s and used until replaced by ISIS. The “Racing Form” was a slang term for a publication listing classes offered each semester; and, betting on any class being open was a long-shot.

Your Score

If you got 0-3 answers right, you rank up there with Tusk, the Razorback mascot, who can randomly paw the ground and do as well.
If you got 4-6 answers right, you'll be hearing from our history department about graduate school opportunities.
If you got 7-9 answers right, there may be an endowed professorship with your name on it.
If you got all 10 answers right, please report to the special collections department of Mullins Library immediately.

And if you've already updated your status on Facebook, twittered your latest holiday-gift conundrum, posted the last of your embarrassing egg-nog photos on Flickr and still want more trivia, here's a link to last year's trivia questions.

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