Awards You Want to Receive Trivia Quiz

Answer: Demonstrating great creativity and self-direction

The MacArthur Foundation was established in 1978, and each year issues fellowships to between 20 and 30 people, who have demonstrated great creativity. These so-called Genius Grants are meant to allow the recipients to pursue critical areas of research. Some of the Foundation's current priorities in selecting recipients are mitigating climate change, reducing the threat of nuclear war, and promoting independent journalism.

Since the first fellowships were awarded in 1981, over 1100 people have been selected. Some of the more famous recipients were Stephen Jay Gould, Henry Louis Gates, Cormac McCarthy, Robert Penn Warren, Andrew Wiles, Mitchell Feigenbaum, Thomas Pynchon, Susan Sontag, Twyla Tharp, Ornette Coleman, and Terrence Tao.

Answer: Mathematics

The Fields Medal is awarded every four years to between two and four mathematicians under the age of 40. Since it was first awarded in 1936, notable winners include Alexander Grothendieck, Edward Witten, and Terence Tao. Two of the more famous mathematicians of the modern era, John Nash and Andrew Wiles, were ineligible for the award due to their age, but received the Abel Prize.

The Abel and Fields Medals are regarded as the Nobel Prizes in Mathematics by most in that science.

Answer: Computer science

The Turing Award, named for the British mathematician and code-breaker Alan Turing, was first awarded in 1966 by the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM). The award is given for contributions to computer science and is considered the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for computer and software excellence.

A sampling of past winners includes key persons involved in:
== Computer Security (Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir, Leonard Adleman, Whitfield Diffie, Martin Hellman)
== Software Development (Edsger Dijkstra, Fred Brooks, Donald Knuth)
== Internet and communication (Richard Hamming, Vint Cert, Tom Berners-Lee)
== Programming Languages (John Bachus, Nicklaus Wirth, Tony Hoare)

Answer: Literature

The Booker Prize has been awarded since 1969 to the best work of fiction, written in English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland. Until 2014 the author had to be a citizen of a Commonwealth country, Ireland, South Africa, or Zimbabwe. The winner is selected by a five-person panel chosen by the Booker Prize Foundation.
Past winners include Nadine Gordimer, Iris Murdoch, William Golding, Salman Rushdie, Thomas Keneally, J. M. Coetzee, Kingsley Amis, and Margaret Atwood.

Answer: Soccer

Jules Rimet (1873-1956) was the third president of FIFA, the governing body of soccer. In 1930 he established the World Cup tournament between national teams in soccer; and the championship trophy was named for him. By tradition the only people allowed to touch the trophy with their bare hands were the winning players and managers, heads of state, and FIFA officials.

The trophy itself was stolen before the 1966 tournament, but was later found by a dog named Pickles. After Brazil was awarded permanent possession of the trophy, it was stolen again and has not been recovered. In 1974 the Rimet Trophy was replaced by the "FIFA World Cup Trophy".

Answer: Ice Hockey

Lady Byng was an avid ice hockey fan and donated a trophy to the National Hockey League for the player showing the highest standards of gentlemen play and playing ability. The player with the most awards was Frank Boucher (seven times), followed by Wayne Gretzky (five times), then Red Kelly and Pavel Datsyuk (four time each).

Answer: Basketball

Larry O'Brien (1917-1990) was the commissioner of the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1975 through 1984. Before that he had been chairman of the Democratic party and was riding in the motorcade in Dallas when John Kennedy was assassinated. He accompanied President Johnson and Kennedy's coffin on the return flight to Washington and later served as US Postmaster General.

As basketball commissioner he oversaw the merger of the two professional leagues, the NBA and ABA; and he negotiated the television contract with the CBS network.

Answer: Children's picture books

The Caldecott Medal was first awarded in 1938 for the best American picture book for children. The award was established shortly after the Newbery Medal for outstanding children's literature. By rule the winning book must be written in English, published in the USA, and drawn by an American illustrator. The medal is awarded to the winner, and up to four other books may receive the Caldecott Honors award.
Maurice Sendak and Chris Van Allsburg are two of the winners.

Answer: Walter Payton

Walter Payton (1953-1999) was an outstanding running back for the Chicago Bears, who held many NFL records at the time of his retirement, including most running yards and most touchdowns. At the relatively young age of 46, he was diagnosed with a liver condition, which led to a fatal bile duct cancer.

By the time his condition had been discovered, it was too far advanced for an organ transplant. Despite that, Payton raised awareness of organ donation by his appeals. The NFL established the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award in 1999 for a player's commitment to charity and community involvement.

Answer: Yacht racing

The America's Cup is one of the oldest international trophies. In the original race around the Isle of Wight an American yacht defeated fifteen British boats. The winning team donated the trophy to the New York Yacht Club, which established rules for setting up challenge races to compete for the cup

Challenge races occurred every three to five years. The New York Yacht Club defended the trophy successfully 24 times from 1857 until 1983 when an Australian challenger defeated the Americans. The rules for the yachts changed several times over the history of the race, and currently catamarans are the competitive boats.

Answer: Science fiction and fantasy

The Hugo Awards are given for the best works of science fiction or fantasy. Originally the awards were given in seven different categories, but that has expanded to seventeen categories. The first award occurred in 1953 at the World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) and it has continued to be awarded at that conference.

The awards are named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of one of the original science fiction magazines.

Answer: Architecture

The Pritzker Architecture Prize is awarded to a living architect for career achievements. It was first awarded in 1979; and past winners include I.M. Pei, Oscar Niemeyer, Frank Gehry, and Jorn Utzon. It is regarded as an equivalent to the Nobel Prize in the field of architecture.

Answer: Advertising

The CLIO Awards were established in 1960 for innovation and creative excellence in advertising, design, and communication. The awards are named for the Greek Muse Clio, known as the proclaimer of great deeds. The award has evolved through the years and different management to grow beyond its American roots and include more categories. Four main categories of TV and Streaming, Theatrical, Games, and Home Entertainment contain subcategories.

Answer: Best American amateur athlete

The James E. Sullivan Award is given by the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) to the most outstanding athlete in the US at the college or Olympic level. The evaluation includes the athletic performance level plus character, leadership, and sportsmanship. It was first awarded in 1930 to golfer Bobby Jones. Track and field athletes, with 34 selections, have the most award winners of any sport.

Answer: Trivia excellence

The organization Funtrivia awards virtual badges for completion of certain defined trivia tasks. One of these badges is the Morphing Scavenger, which requires a successful score on 45 quizzes in a set of 55 quizzes. The catch is that when people complete all the quizzes successfully, they must supply a quiz they have authored to replace the quiz at the top of the list of quizzes. So the quiz list morphs over time since quizzes are added to and removed from the target list of 55 quizzes.