QUESTION:  How many years did the number "8" go un-issued before Tommy Maddox was issued it? 

Most of you know that Swissvale72, his brother Tony and I traveled to Pittsburgh this weekend attempting to beat out other Cliff Clavins of Steelers knowledge and facts during the KDKA/McDonald's Steelers Trivia Challenge.  We took 4th place out of 18 teams due to the excellent preparation by our coach, SteelersQT.

A little background on the contest.  Over 300 teams sent in applications.  After some interviews and resume reading, KDKA selected 18 teams with each team consiting of three players.  The 18 teams were bracketed and the tournament would consist of six preliminary games, two semi-final games and a final game.  Each game is televised on KDKA and the airing starts on July 12th. 

How the Game Works:

There are five rounds per game.

Round 1:  Questions are asked to all three teams and the quickest team to buzz in gets to answer.  Correct answers earn you points, wrong answers subtract points.  If you buzz in before the question is finished they will not complete the question.

Round 2:  Questions are directed at each team focusing on stats.  Correct answers earn you points, wrong answers are not penalized. 

Round 3:  Questions are asked to all three teams and the quickest team to buzz in gets to answer.  There are pictures associated with this round.  Correct answers earn you points, wrong answers subtract points.  If you buzz in before the question is finished they will not complete the question.

Round 4:  Eight questions are directed at each team.  Correct answers earn you points, wrong answers are not penalized.  If you get all eight questions correct, you get an additional 25 points.  Of note, in we answered all eight questions correct in our semi-final.  We were the only team in the entire contest to do so.

Round 5:  Questions are asked to all three teams and the quickest team to buzz in gets to answer.  Correct answers earn you points, wrong answers subtract points.  There is a two minute clock and the host (Bob Pompeani) asks as many questions as he can get in the two minutes.  The clock is always running.

Game 1:

We showed up at the studio and were the first game to be taped on Saturday morning.  They put the three teams into a waiting room and a KDKA person briefed us on the rules.  Basic rules but she emphasized no swearing, fighting, or taunting the other teams so apparently they've had problems with this in the past.  We had a challenge right off the bat drawing Tomlin's Trivia Trio.  This team was a semi-finalist last year and had three years of experience in this contest.  Tony answered the first question correctly and I buzzed in on the second but there were some technical difficulties with the studio.  They had to restart the game and erased our points.  We quickly took the lead and never gave it up.  Advance to the semi-final round. 

The Semis:

Again facing some tough teams.  Our semi focused on Wild Card games.  On Saturday night, the producer called me on my cell phone and told me to make sure we brush up on Wild Card info.  I thought he was giving us some inside info for whatever reason (the long distances we traveled, the hat I gave Pompeani).  As it turned out, the producer called each team member to tell them what to prepare for.  Wild Card games suited us fine.  This was a frustrating round because we knew every answer, except for two, in the entire game.  We simply could not buzz in.  We were as efficient hitting the buzzer plunger and the Penguins were on a 5-3 power play.  At first I thought our podium was malfunctioning.  As it turns out, we were just slow. Tony's wife was watching us and said we were always a split second behind.  

Swiss has more detailed info on the rounds on the message board:  http://www.steelerfury.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4827

The Waiting Game:

The winners of each semi-final game advance to the finals.  To fill the third team in the finals the team that finished second in the semis with the most points gets in on a Wild Card berth.  We finished with 415 points and took second in our semi-final.  We had to wait and watch the next semi-final to see if our point total would hold water.  It didn't and we figured we missed the finals by two questions.  Us hitting the buzzer at Jon Whitman speed ultimately cost us a chance to be in the Top 3 and a chance to earn some better prizes other than the McDonald's gift card we won. 

We plan to be back.  The teams we faced were knowledgeable, die-hard Steelers fans and good guys.  One of note was a replay technician that works NHL, MLB, NFL pre-season games and all of WVU's televised sports.  this guy was working the replays in the truck on Saturday night during Game 4 of the Stanley Cup.  The three teams that made it into the finals were of top quality and rightly deserved the honor.  I felt the three of us complimented each other well.  Each of us had our own specialty and if one didn't know, chances are someone else did.

Special Thanks:

• SteelersQT, our coach.  QT can crack the whip with the best of them and got our minds off trivial stuff like the economy, elections, real work and focused us on the important hundreds of pages of Steelers facts.  QT has noticed our flaw and has immediately implemented an off-season training regimen of text messaging and X-Box in order to get our plunger fingers some speed and stamina.
• Tony's better half, Ms. Betsy.  Gracious lady and she was our one person fan club and came to the studio  both days to cheer us on. 
• Bob Pompeani, the games Host.  Very nice guy and I'd imagine he'd be a blast to share a few beers with.
• Bill Shissler, the games Executive Producer.  Took good care of us and we thank him for selecting our team.
• The KDKA and One Gateway Center folks.  Very accommodating and friendly, helped make it a good experience.
• The Steelers Interns.  You came up with some impossible questions but they tested each team. The question about how many rushing yards did Mewelde Moore have last year screwed up everyone.

ANSWER TO QUESTION AT THE BEGINNING:  61 years.