We have a running joke on my Trivia team, stemming from comic phrasing used in a video made years ago that commemorated our first finish among the top ten teams in the annual staging of the World’s Largest Trivia Contest on student-run radio station WWSP-FM. We are not a team that finishes in a certain place; we are instead the defending champions of that particular number. This year, somewhat to our surprise, we managed to hold onto our title as the defending champions of 8th place.

There are many tales to tell of answers heroically arrived at, but those are for another day. Instead, I’ll take a some of my virtual column inches to offer an appreciation for the two fellows who are stepping away from the task of writing the contest after decades at the helm. Because a sizable chunk of our team roster is populated by individuals who worked at — and, in a few cases, continues to offer volunteer hours to — the campus radio station that hosts the annual event, many of us worked side by side with the pair over the years. As someone who takes devotion to that particular broadcast outlet, I can’t type enough about their contributions to the station and to the community which it serves. They have forged a mighty legacy, and I am genuinely honored that, at different points and different ways, I was allowed to provide some small assistance in the doing of it.

As usual, I’m going to take some time to mentally recover from the marathon of minutiae before recommitting myself to assembling words in this space on a daily bases. It will be quiet ’round these here digital parts until this Sunday, when the next College Countdown entry drops. Until then: