Locally Produced College Bowl TV Show?

[JLWM8609]

Anyone remember a college bowl TV show that was produced and aired in Houston and sponsored by Texaco from the early 90s? I think it aired on KPRC-NBC 2.

[readam]

It was called "Texaco Star Academic Challenge". High schools from the surrounding area participated against each other in a "College Bowl " like contest. The contests were held at various malls and the top 8 teams went on to Channel 2 studios for the championship rounds. I helped sponsor several teams and it was a BIG DEAL to make it to the TV rounds. Unfortunately the taped broadcasts were usually aired early on Saturday or Sunday as part of their Public Service Broadcast services. The contest was dropped by Texaco because of budget reasons and picked up by Houston Community College but it is not as strong today as it was in the 1990s. Chip Beal was the host ( his company furnished the questions) and later Doug Johnson hosted when the telecasts were moved to HBU from channel 2 in the early 2000s. The kids had a great time participating.

[Firebird65]

It was called "Texaco Star Academic Challenge". High schools from the surrounding area participated against each other in a "College Bowl " like contest. The contests were held at various malls and the top 8 teams went on to Channel 2 studios for the championship rounds. I helped sponsor several teams and it was a BIG DEAL to make it to the TV rounds. Unfortunately the taped broadcasts were usually aired early on Saturday or Sunday as part of their Public Service Broadcast services. The contest was dropped by Texaco because of budget reasons and picked up by Houston Community College but it is not as strong today as it was in the 1990s. Chip Beal was the host ( his company furnished the questions) and later Doug Johnson hosted when the telecasts were moved to HBU from channel 2 in the early 2000s. The kids had a great time participating.

We had something like this in the Aldine ISD called the History Bowl (a misnomer, for it was almost exactly like the Texaco Star Challenge). We (Aldine High) beat the other three AISD schools for the title, but then that was it. The Texaco version was not yet around. This was spring of 1984.

I'd have loved to have been part of that Texaco thing, but it was still a few years off.

We had a guy that was a math whiz, another who was a science whiz, another who was great at history, then I was good at all the useless knowledge that unlike the other subjects could never get you a job but would win a game of Trivial Pursuit or a bar bet. LOL!