Trivia competitions, an American pastime. It’s the subject of game shows like Jeopardy and The Chase. Do you enjoy these types of competitions? Do you want to use your knowledge to defeat your fellow students and win Captain’s Cash and other goodies? One of the best weekly traditions at Christopher Newport University is Thursday Night Trivia. Every Thursday night, students, and occasionally faculty, meet to compete in a six round trivia contest. Ten dollars in Captain’s Cash is a frequent prize for winning. They also hold raffles during breaks in the game where you can win prizes like a Thursday Night Trivia hat and plastic silverware.

They have put on a variety of themed contests including Harry Potter, musical theater, Phineas and Ferb, holidays, Tom Hanks, Lord of the Rings, and Spider-Man among others. They’ve also done multiple “Student vs Faculty” editions too. Teams of professors and teams of students compete in a highly competitive free for all. The most recent contest was a “General Knowledge” where they asked questions from a variety of topics from bowling to Broadway to Christopher Newport himself. Questions ranged from “Who won Best Actor at the last Oscars” and “Which actor served as the 40th President of the United States,” to more complicated questions like “What’s the most common dog in America” and “Where were the 1988 Olympics held.” The game had a picture round where contestants tried to identify uncommon fruits. The final round had teams wager points in a way similar to the “Final Jeopardy” round on Jeopardy. The winning team narrowly clutched the win when they were able to name eight albums by pop star Taylor Swift. 

The prizes aren’t even what makes Thursday Night Trivia so fun. Once you and your team, should you choose to have one, get into the heat of competition it becomes more about the competition. You have to scratch your brain to pull out the best answer, even if it’s a complete guess. There is a certain sensation when you get a question right that was either one you were unsure of or a random guess. You can team with complete strangers and bond with them during the contest for victory. 

The next contest, Thursday Night Trivia: The Office Edition will be held on September 15th at 8 PM. Keep up with Thursday Night Trivia by following their Instagram page @cnu.trivia and text @triviacnu to 81010 to join their Remind.