Challenge yourself to Tom’s Trivia!
See if you know as much as King of UConn Trivia and University Deputy Spokesperson Tom Breen ’00 (CLAS).
Scroll to the bottom to reveal the answers.
If you’re looking for owls at UConn Storrs, what’s the place you’re most likely to find them?
A: The Avian Enclosure on the edge of Horsebarn Hill
B: Wilbur Cross
C: Whitney Hall
D: The Raptory, a bird-themed café in the basement of Gulley Hall
The commencement ceremony in May 2000 marked the debut of a new feature that would eventually become a standard part of the experience. What was it?
A: Livestreamed video
B: Separate commencement speakers for separate schools and colleges
C: Golden cords given to Honors students
D: A website devoted to commencement
What is Babbidge Bog?
A: The nickname given to the North Campus residence halls in the 1960s
B: A layer of pre-glacial wetland that lies beneath Homer Babbidge Library
C: The first site of the Spring Weekend staple of Oozeball
D: The name antiwar protesters gave to Mirror Lake during a “swim-in” demonstration in 1969
From 1973 to 1983, the UConn Fire Department had a Dalmatian mascot who accompanied the deputy chief on routine calls and rode in a fire engine during Homecoming parades. What was her name?
A: Blaze
B: Smoky
C: Freckles
D: Jonathanette
July 14 1982, Cpt. R. Palmer, Mollie Robinson, Norah Harmon, Bob Hopson, Priscilla White, Kraig Bailey, D.P. Bliss, and Freckles in front of the fire department.
Answers
- C. The weathervane atop Whitney Hall features a trio of vigilant owls, perched in descending order of size. If you’re looking for real, live owls, the UConn Forest is probably a better bet.
- A. Using technology that would seem primitive by contemporary standards, UConn contracted with the Seattle-based company behind the RealPlayer media app to stream live video of the ceremonies on the weekend of May 21, 2000.
- B. Lying some 10-25 feet below the ground, the peat bog consisting of leaf mulch, pollen, flattened twigs, and black, silty clay dates from roughly 39,700 years ago. At the time, the area around Storrs was a lushly forested wilderness watered by numerous springs and rivers, a landscape that was mostly scraped away by the Laurentide Ice Sheet some 20,000-25,000 years ago. The layer of wetland was discovered by crews working on the renovation of Homer Babbidge Library in the 1990s, and dubbed Babbidge Bog by geology students.
- C. Freckles was brought to the fire department in June 1973 by Chief Burton Booker, who found the two-year-old pooch at a kennel. She not only traveled with the deputy chief, but occasionally tagged along to active fires. After her death in 1983, her ashes were buried in front of the fire department.
Wow! Love these facts! I only got question 2 right, though, ironically because I am graduating Dec 2023.