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Published: Dec 12, 2007 05:56 AM
Modified: Dec 12, 2007 05:55 AM

Q: What do you know about Chapel Hill?
New board game tests knowledge of local trivia

What popular campus image is on the backs of some game cards? The Davie Poplar.
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Question: What business now occupies the spot where the town's original chapel sat?

Answer: The Carolina Inn.

Did you know that already?

Are you the kind of dyed-in-the-wool Chapel Hillian who takes out-of-town guests on drive-by tours of Gimghoul Castle, who knows the starting lineup of every Tar Heel basketball team since 1955, who fondly remembers the days when the Cat's Cradle was on Rosemary Street?

Or maybe you're a transplant, newly arrived to this pale blue-blooded kingdom?

Either way, the Chapel Hill Trivia Game is for you, say its inventors.

Four young UNC graduates have created the Trivial Pursuit-like board game, which tests local knowledge in the categories of sports, history, landmarks, famous people and student life.

Question: What alumnus wore out six motor homes as he drove the nation's back roads for his series "On the Road?"

Answer: Charles Kuralt, class of 1965.

Erik Severinghaus came up with the idea for the game after seeing trivia questions on the video board in the Smith Center during a UNC basketball game. He teamed up with friend Aaron Houghton, also from the class of 2003 and two younger acquaintances, Craig Burnham and Charles Douthitt, both from the class of 2007.

Burnham and Douthitt did most of the footwork, using the Chapel Hill Museum, UNC libraries and campus tour booklets to come up with 500 facts about the town and the university.

"It really took a long, long time," said Burnham, who works at a computer company, describing late-night brainstorming sessions over pizza in his basement. "You can create facts, and then you can create interesting facts."

Question: This Carolina alumnus' brother was immortalized in the movie "Field Of Dreams" as Archibald "Moonlight" Graham.

Answer: Frank Porter Graham, class of 1909.

Burnham thinks the game will be popular with UNC alums, the kind who return every fall with mini kegs and portable grills for pre-football tailgating, as well as with freshly minted townies looking to learn a thing or two about their new home.

"Chapel Hill's a special place," said Pat Evans, director of the nonprofit Friends of Downtown, which sells the game through its Web site. "The feeling never leaves you," she said, quoting the new visitor's bureau motto by way of explaining why so many alumni never want to leave.

Question: Which popular magazine named Chapel Hill the best college town in the nation in 1992?

Answer: Sports Illustrated.

"Chapel Hill has a very unique base of people who actually love the town as much as they love the university," Douthitt said. An assistant on the John Edwards campaign, he said he plans to stay in Chapel Hill for the foreseeable future.

So does Burnham, who said he's felt at home here since he was a teenager coming to visit his older brother on campus.

"We couldn't have done this without being in love with Chapel Hill," he said.


Contact staff writer Emily Matchar at 932-8742 or emily.matchar@nando.com.
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