Remember CBC Television, “Reach for the Top” – Game by Joan Sullivan

If you were a high school student in Canada during the 60s, 70s and 80s, and more of a straight-A geek than a jock, then your only extra-curricular activity choice to show off all the information and knowledge you have absorbed (both academic and non-academic) was not the track team, but Reach for the Top.

During its near 25-year run on CBC Television, Reach for the Top successfully ran on its continuing mission as an exceptional showcase for Canadian high school students to exhibit their knowledge and power of quick recall on a variety of factual-based subjects, whether they learned it in or outside the classroom.

Between 1961 and 1985, students who participated in Reach, in which they represented their respective high schools in teams of four, shared the same goal: answer as many questions correctly through straight questions, team questions, assigned questions and short snappers within a half-hour of airtime and amass the most amount of points than your opponents. Win the required amount of games and your team earned the right to compete in the provincial championships in the spring, and then the national playoffs during the summer in a chosen host city somewhere in Canada, where the ultimate goal was to win national Reach for the Top supremacy (and the heavy marble championship trophy that went with it).

Personally speaking, I know what it was like to be part of the Reach for the Top experience when I was a student at Sir Winston Churchill High School in Ville St. Laurent. I participated as one-fourth of my school’s Reach team during the 1978-79 and 1979-80 seasons. During the latter season, we won the Quebec championship, and went on to compete in the nationals, which took place that summer in Ottawa, where we finished in second place. When we won the provincial title that spring, we were told by our school’s principal at the time that our victory instilled a great deal of pride for the school that was felt by the faculty and the student body (it was the school’s first Reach title since 1968, and the third in the school’s history).

But what happened when a school’s Reach team won the national title? How far were the repercussions felt by that victory not only in their immediate community in particular, but throughout their province in general?

Case in point, the team from Gonzaga High School, an all-boys private Catholic school based in St. John’s, Newfoundland. During the 1974 Reach for the Top national playoffs, which were held on their home turf of St. John’s, Gonzaga – who were provincial champions for three years in a row yet never won the national title – were seen as underdogs when they made it to the final game against the heavily favored team from Archbishop O’Leary High School in Edmonton, Alberta. When the buzzer sounded 30 minutes later to end the game, Gonzaga narrowly defeated Archbishop O’Leary by a score of 300 to 275, thereby giving Newfoundland its first-ever Reach national championship, and setting off a reaction across the province that was almost on the same scale as Paul Henderson’s winning goal during the Canada-Russia Summit Series two years before.

How could this single victory on a nationally-telecasted high school quiz show have so much significance for this young province? Joan Sullivan, a Newfoundland writer and editor, recaptures the spirit and meaning behind Gonzaga’s 1974 Reach for the Top national championship win in her fascinating book Game.

The book is an oral history that tells the story behind this single championship game, as Sullivan interviews most of the players from both teams (including veteran CBC broadcaster Tom Harrington, who represented the Gonzaga team), as they give their perspective on their respective schools and how important a role Reach for the Top served there, not to mention the intensity that was involved when it came to how they practiced and prepared for each game, as well as the strategies they employed (especially when it came to which categories would be divided up as specialties amongst each team member).

As well, thanks to a very diligent effort in transcribing the championship game word-for-word from a video recording that was found on YouTube, Sullivan recreates the game down to every question that was asked by Reach for the Top’s eminent national quizmaster, the late great Bill Guest, and answered by both teams (even down to the game winning question of what is the most common word in written English, which was correctly answered by Peter Chafe of Gonzaga as the). And with behind the scenes comments interjected throughout the transcription, this section of the book captures the excitement of the championship game as if it was an ESPN 30 on 30 documentary.

However, Sullivan gives a much broader perspective to why this final game had so much significance. Basically, it fell into the right place at the right time category. In 1974, Newfoundland and Labrador were commemorating their 25th anniversary of being admitted into Confederation with a series of celebrations and special events that took place throughout the year. Basically, 1974 was a good year to be a Newfoundlander. Thanks to the year-long celebrations, Newfoundland life and culture started to gain exposure across the country, mainly as a result of Conservative Premier Frank Moores’ mandate (which helped to break the iron grip of founding Premier Joey Smallwood’s administration, which ran from 1949 until he was defeated by Moores in 1971), and led to the period known as the Newfoundland Renaissance, which included TV shows such as All Around the Circle and Ryan’s Fancy, the writings of Percy Janes and Kevin Major, movies such as The Rowdyman and a new brand of Canadian comedy thanks to the legendary troupe CODCO. And with interviews from well-known Newfoundland figures as politicians John Crosbie, Edward Roberts and Bill Rowe, as well as cultural bureaucrat John Perlin and former Gonzaga teacher Ken Coffey, the reader gets a much more clearer, fleshed out portrait of a special year when Newfoundland came into its own as a contributor to the Canadian mosaic, and helped set the stage to make Gonzaga’s Reach for the Top victory at the 1974 Nationals as one of the significant events of that Newfoundland Renaissance.

And as a result of that milestone win, the Gonzaga Reach for the Top team quickly became the toast of Newfoundland and Labrador in 1974. They became front page news across the province; Premier Moores and the mayor of St. John’s hosted luncheons in their honour; they appeared as guests on the then-popular CBC TV talk show Luncheon Date with Elwood Glover (in which the other guest during that telecast was actor Jon Voight); and as national champions, they were offered the choice of trips to either London, Paris, or Stony Mountain, Alberta (they ended up choosing the latter trip).

Game is the very first book published that singularly focusses on how Reach for the Top was a truly Canadian social and cultural phenomenon to so many teenagers of high school age, especially during its CBC heyday. And Reach is still played in over 400 high schools across the country (thanks to its Schoolreach subscription service), with the National Finals still taking place every May. However, thanks to Joan Sullivan and her immensely enjoyable book, we discover how the achievement of the 1974 Gonzaga High School team became a microcosm to how truly significant this question-and-answer high school quiz show became to generations of young Canadians.

How significant? As Gonzaga team member Sethu Reddy simply states in the book: Reach for the Top was a very popular show … But I’m still puzzled, even mystified, when I go back to Newfoundland – people still remember.

By: Stuart Nulman – [email protected]
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Email


sample essays

Choosing and Narrowing an Essay Topic

A good essay subject matter is the main way of producing an excellent essay. It defines the direction for the entire essay, and how much easier it will be to find sources and structure your thoughts. But all of the options can be a bit overwhelming. So how do you choose one and then after

Canadian hgh-speed train stops

Canada High-speed train in the works

Canada, one of the greatest countries in the world has no high-speed train. With all our land and resources we unfortunately still have a train system from the 1970’s. A high speed rail system has been talked about for decades to link Montreal and Toronto. Governments have promised from time to time in campaigns but

Montreal

What’s Behind the Growing Number of Online Casinos in Montreal?

Montreal, a hub for technological and entertainment innovation, is experiencing an increase in online gambling activity. The online gambling market in Canada, particularly Quebec, is projected to see significant growth. Recent statistics reveal Canada’s online gambling market is expected to reach $362.89 million in 2024, with the online gambling sector reaching $4.19 billion, an annual

How Pay-by-Phone Casinos Support Privacy-Conscious Players

The matter of your privacy is the most important thing nowadays when we’re talking about today’s digital age, and it is especially true for online casino players who wish to keep their financial and personal information out of the reach of fraudsters. Pay-by-phone casinos are some of the most convenient ways to deposit money at

life-saving drugs

Making medicine faster: How experts help create and test life-saving drugs

Developing new medicines is a long and challenging process, often taking several years from the discovery phase to approval. However, scientific advancements, innovative research strategies, and collaborations between pharmaceutical companies and healthcare experts are accelerating this process. Thanks to these efforts, life-saving drugs can reach patients faster, helping to combat diseases more effectively and improve

Mtltimes Subscription

The latest on what’s moving Montreal and the world – delivered straight to your inbox