The College Bowl Team Captain who Led BU to Victory

January 15, 2026

In the Fall 2025 issue of Bradley Magazine, we shared the unfortunate news of the passing of Ed Wehrli ’71. Not long after, Mike Kienzler ’70 wrote us to share the full story that didn’t make it to print.

“Ed captained Bradley’s team in the nationally televised quiz show GE College Bowl in the fall of 1969,” Kienzler said. “The BU team, which also included Paul Remack ’71, Gene Sidler ’71, and Gary Roberts ’70, beat teams from five other colleges to become College Bowl’s last undefeated champion when the show ended its 12-year network run at the end of the 1969-70 season.”

Kienzler was one of 10 finalists who competed under coach Dr. Larry Norton that summer for seats in front of the College Bowl cameras. In addition to the four students ultimately named to the TV team, the other competitors were Eric Arnold ’70, Lin Brady ’70, Rick Cloyd ’70, Laura Johnson ’71, and Tom Murphy ’70.

“We spent weekends the entire summer of ’69 quizzing each other, playing simulated games, writing our own questions, and bonding. We were all smart as heck, and the contest to appear on the show, while friendly, was serious,” Kienzler said.

Wehrli’s selection as captain was taken for granted, having been the cream of the crop since the first practice game.

“Ed was a history major, but he could answer questions all across the spectrum of topics. Even in a group of well-read, curious, competitive college kids, he stood out as having a wider breadth of knowledge. The first practice games showed us all that; he dominated those games. The other nine finalists recognized immediately he deserved one of the four slots on the TV team. The rest of us were competing for the remaining three all along.”

They remained a 10-person team, however, even after the TV players were chosen. When GE ponied up first-class airfare to New York City for the TV team and one faculty member, team members staged a mini-revolt, and BU used the money instead to pay coach fares to all five TV appearances for all 10 of the finalists.

The team’s first match was against George Washington University.

“I remember sitting in one of the hotel bedrooms, continuing to fire last-minute questions at Ed, Paul, Gene and Gary, talking strategy, and trying to anticipate questions and topics. We all knew the first question would somehow involve Neil Armstrong’s first moonwalk, which happened in July 1969, during our College Bowl summer.”

The team was prepared when host Robert Earle’s first question was “What recent event sounds like a beautiful football team?” Paul Remack jumped on it, won the tossup buzzer and very confidently answered: “Mercury 11!”

The points for the correct answer – Apollo 11 – would go to GWU, leaving Bradley trailing throughout the game.

“Honest to god, falling behind GWU in that first game hardly fazed anybody,” Kienzler said. “The thing is, we had continued to play practice games after the TV team was named. Dr. Norton arranged to make practices more realistic, holding some in front of TV cameras and lights, and several with audiences present. Those games established a pattern: in almost all of them, the subs took early leads, sometimes big ones. And every time, the TV team pulled out a win.”

That pattern held true throughout the competition, with Bradley beating George Washington University in its first game, and doing the same to Johns Hopkins University in an upset for the final (footage of which can be found here).

“Those six months in 1969 remain the most challenging, intense and rewarding memories of my years at Bradley,” Kienzler said. “I learned you can accomplish a hell of a lot, and have a blast doing it, by working with smart, funny, dedicated people.”

Ed Wehrli was certainly one of those people.

–Jenevieve Rowley-Davis