Here’s the deal. In 1981, our high school won three straight weeks on the WRGB show Answers Please, clobbering Albany Academy 145-105, Keveny Academy of Cohoes 185-105, and St. Mary’s of Hoosick Falls 150-60.
I’ve written about defeating Albany Academy before, and even did a blog post recalling the perspective of one of the Keveny Academy players who faced off against our Street Academy high school team.
But I really don’t have much from our third win – a win over St. Mary’s that actually allowed our team to retire undefeated and win the trophy.
Until recently.
As part of my personal research project to chronicle the history of the “Answers Please” / “Little Red Schoolhouse” and its competitors, I’ve gone through various school yearbooks to find photographs and memories of those who competed on the high school quiz show. It was a sense of pride for teams who got on the program – they’re sitting at their team desks, their last names in block font in front of their seats.
Sometimes these yearbooks can be found in the school libraries; other times, they turn up at the local public library.
And that’s where I found this little treasure.
The Cheney Library in Hoosick Falls has a collection of St. Mary’s yearbooks, and tucked in the 1981 edition of “The Echo” was this picture.
It’s March of 1981. At the time, St. Mary’s had just won their local school division basketball championship, so the school already had a ton of positive mojo when they faced us at the Channel 6 studios.
And talk about a rooting crowd that showed up at the contest.
I guess that is a school support banner at upper right. All the Way, SMA. Take note – that’s probably the first banner ever created to cheer someone on against Street Academy. Boy, I wonder if they know that one of the St. Mary’s alumni used to play on the Street Academy team for a while… yeah, I guess if you can’t beat Street Academy, you should try to join them.
And there was this picture as well, this might have been the school’s principal, standing at the host’s podium.
Interestingly, the score behind the host was cropped out – probably due to the fact that St. Mary’s lost to us by a score of 150-60. Probably didn’t want that showing up in the yearbooks.
Still, it’s another piece I can add to the history of the WRGB quiz show, and if anyone else has memories or anecdotes from their appearance on the show, either as “Answers Please” or as “Little Red Schoolhouse,” contact me and I’ll add them to the page.
Chuck The Writer 