Langston University

by Kyle Gregory, Langston University Honors Program Coordinator

Langston University’s Quiz Bowl team went to Prairie View A&M and placed third among ten teams at the Honda Campus All-Star Challenge (HCASC) National Qualifying Tournament. Teams came from as far away as Jacksonville, Florida, and Frankfurt, Kentucky, to compete.

Langston University finished ahead of teams from Mississippi Valley State University, Paul Quinn College, Texas College, Edward Waters College, Kentucky State University, Prairie View (B) and Harris-Stowe State University, finishing in the semi-finals with a competitive loss to Prairie View A&M. Their only other loss came to Southern University-Baton Rouge, who ultimately won the tournament.

Langston University’s Quiz Bowl team has participated in national tournaments this season at Murray State, where they became one of the very few HBCUs in the nation to win two games in the National Association of Quiz Tournament’s format, and at the University of Missouri, where they competed in the NAQT Sectional Championship Tournament. They also scrimmaged virtually with Stillman College in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, to gear up for the tournament.

“I’m very impressed with the work that our scholars put in to get to this point,” said Quiz Bowl Coach Kyle Gregory. “Half of our team has only been on our team for a month and a half, and they put together an impressive performance. We had our team captain, Olivia, receive a scholarship to study abroad for the semester and had to replace our captain late in the process after she received that great opportunity.”

National traveling team members include Captain Charles Bennett, a Junior Finance major from Temple, Oklahoma; Yasriyah Saleem, a freshman Nursing major from Stockton, California; Jayden Smith, a freshman Biology major from Muskogee, Oklahoma; and Jaeden Williams, a Health, Physical Education and Recreation major from Dallas. Gregory has coached the Quiz Bowl Team for 11 years and also participated in quiz bowl at Langston University, Arkansas-Little Rock and the University of Oklahoma as a player.

Now the team must wait to hear from the selection committee at College Bowl to see if they are selected for the HCASC National Championship Tournament in Torrance, California. American Honda generously provides up to $404,000 in grant funding annually to qualifying teams.

“The team has put itself in a great position to claim one of the 32 spots to compete in the National Championship Tournament and now we must wait and see if the selection committee sees it the same way,” Gregory said.

Students interested in joining or practicing with the Quiz Bowl team should contact Coach Gregory at kyle.gregory@langston.edu.

HCASC is America’s premier academic competition for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) students. Four-student teams face off in head-to-head competitions and must quickly answer questions about history, science, literature, religion, math, the arts, pop culture and sports. Langston University is one of 61 teams competing for institutional grants from Honda and a spot in the HCASC National Championship Tournament.

Since 1989, Honda Campus All-Star Challenge, one of Honda’s longest-running philanthropic initiatives in the United States, has celebrated and recognized the academic talents of HBCU students. More than $9 million in grants from Honda have provided support for scholarships, facility upgrades and other investments to improve the HBCU student experience. For more information, visit www.hcasc.com.

Langston’s HCASC./Quiz Bowl team has earned over $131,000 in grants for the university from American Honda since the program began in 1989.