Basketball Scholarship

Ever since "quiz" became television's own four-letter word, networks have sought the fix-free format--a jackpot show that could convince audiences of its incorruptibility. The trick lay in finding contestants whose honesty could not be doubted. CBS decided to try the nation's scrub-faced youth, began a sprightly Sunday half-hour intellectual basketball game called College Bowl.

The game--adapted from a 1953-55 radio show--pairs two colleges, each with four-student teams. Quizmaster Allen Ludden, 41, a sometime writer on teenage manners and morals (Plain Talk for Men Under 21, Plain Talk for Women Under 21), fires out a "tossup" question. The team that answers first and correctly wins ten points, plus a shot at a bonus question worth 20 to 40 points. Samples: Who was the German philosopher whose name rhymed with a doughnut-shaped roll? (Answer: Hegel, rhymes with bagel.) If a hostess invited the named sons of Adam and Eve and the wives of Henry VIII to a party, how many guests would she have? (Answer: Nine--six wives and three sons: Cain, Abel, Seth.)

This week the women again outnumbered the men. A four-girl Barnard College team, led by Heritage ("Cherry") White, 21, and Phyllis Hurwitz, 17, creamed the University of Southern California (three males, one female) 195 to 65. By winning its second straight victory (fortnight ago the girls beat Notre Dame 230 to 110), Barnard nailed a spot on the next program, on April 12 (v. the University of Minnesota), will stay on until defeated. The only cash prizes: $1,500 for the Barnard scholarship fund, $500 for Loser U.S.C.--both from Sponsor General Electric. Participants get no money at all. No cash, no fix.

What College Bowl suffers from is a sophomoric strain on the basketball analogy. A referee's shrill whistle signals half time and the commercial. A student audience is encouraged to cheer each correct answer. After Northwestern was defeated by Georgetown a few weeks back, Northwestern students hanged in effigy the quiz team's coach, Dean of Students James Currie McLeod. Mused McLeod: "Who knows--I may wind up like Terry Brennan."

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