The Dukes Of Hazzard Trivia Competition at Cooter's Last Stand Was A Huge Success!

I will have a comprehensive post all about Cooter's Last Stand soon, but fisrt I wanted to focus on my part of the event that I have been working on for a long time.  The Dukes of Hazzard Trivia Competition at Cooter's Last Stand Present by DukesCollector was so much fun!  I'm sad that it's over and that I no longer have my trophy, but I think everyone involved had a blast and the championship cup now sits on a very deserving new shelf.

Friday and Saturday, for me, were all about prepping for and promoting the trivia contest.  I had a lot of other things to do, but when I could, I showed off the trophy and talked about the contest.  I also took some fun pictures of the cup when I could.

I had the unique opportunity to to be a part of the cast family dinner in Cooter's Garage Friday night. During the dinner, it was Richie's and my responsibility to get the silent auction items signed and I was able to get the trophy signed at that time as well.  Everyone involved really seemed to like the cup.

Rick Hurst, Cletus, had the most fun with the trophy.  He knows what to do with a championship cup.

Sure, there were banners to sign, but I had to get Enos to sign my trophy!

Don Pedro Colley, Sheriff Little, took time out as well to sign it.

Sophia and Laura, Catherine's daughters, helped me with promotion and also provided a prize for the winner from DaisyCountry.com.

It wouldn't be right to not grab a pic with these ladies.  I also got Catherine and Ben to sign the cup at the dinner and had John and Tom sign it at their booths on Saturday.  Not too many items were signed by all the cast members in attendance at Cooter's Last Stand because of the long lines.  I'd be willing to bet that the only items that had everyone's autograph were the ones me and Richie got signed.  I'm glad the trophy was one of them.

My base of operations was a fun place to be at Last Stand.  The Trivia Booth, or DukesCollector Central, was the hangout for the contest, Cody's Lego sales, as well as the official Cooter's Last Stand camera and PR crew headquarters.  It was a fun place to be.

I had the cup on display most of the day Saturday and had the sign up sheet ready for submissions.

Saturday night when I had a little time, I grabbed some more shots of the cup in cool places.  Here it is with the stunt General Lee that made both jumps during Last Stand.  I got to drive that car!  I'll tell that story in my next Last Stand-centered post.

The #01 Championship Cup belongs on the hood of the General Lee.

By the end of the day on Saturday, I had completed my goal of getting everyone's autograph on the base of the trophy.

Side 1 has Don Pedro Colley who played Sheriff Little, John Schneider who of course played Bo Duke, and Ben Jones who is, still, Cooter.

The back is the Bach side.  Catherine along with her daughters, Sophia and Laura, adorned the signatures on the back.

The final side has the two Hazzard County deputies, Rick Hurst and Sonny Shroyer, Cletus and Enos, along with Luke Duke himself, Tom Wopat.

Though I didn't want it in the way, I decided to sign the trophy as well.  I slapped my signature on the bottom of the base.  That isn't the only item I signed at Cooter's Last Stand.  I actually singed autographs, how great was this event?

I wanted to grab one more "DukesCollector Trophy in a cool place" picture before the event.  On Sunday I placed the cup in front of Dave and Melissia DeWitt's Dukes of Hazzard Museum for a cool shot.  I had a few people tell me they were relieved Dave wasn't able to enter the event because they felt like he would win it hands down.  Dave helped me by reviewing the questions and that disqualified him from entering.  His trailer was set up directly across from my booth, by design, and I'm really glad he was a part of the event.  

Before the Trivia Competition got underway, our pal Will Rodgers, the voice of Hazzard, stopped by to enter.  I asked him to promote the event in Dukes voices and he was happy to get on the mic.

Will has such great talent and I was thrilled that he helped out with the event.  He knew right away what the trophy was modeled to look like and even played out the scene in the first video.  He was interviewed by Mike the PR Guy and performed his voices on stage.  I'm really happy when Will gets the praise he deserves.  Keep it up Will!

When it was all said and done, I had 154 people sign up for my trivia contest.  I told myself going in that I would be happy if ten people signed up.  I was so happy that people were excited for my event.

Thanks goes out to the Albert Gallatin School District and Superintendent Carl Bezjak for loaning me the equipment for my event.  Carl let me borrow the lock out buzzer system as well as the portable score boards that I used.  Also a huge thank you goes to Dean and Cindy Heavener for the use of their DJ equipment.  Dean is JD's  father, of JD JoyrideTV on YouTube,  and he really helped me out of a jam when I realized I didn't have an AV system.  Thanks also to Patrick Heavner and Elizabeth Helmick for helping me keep the event and booth organized.

When 1 o'clock rolled around, I actually had a crowd gathered around my booth.  I was very excited, and it seemed other Dukes fans were too.

From the 154 people who signed up, only ten were randomly picked to compete for the trophy.  There was no submission form of screening process; it was all random and came down to luck.  If we do do this again at another big Dukes event, maybe I'll change the way people enter, but running this whole thing by myself, this was the only way I could do it.  There were some very knowledgeable Dukes fans that entered and didn't make it in, like Will Rodgers and JR Garrett, but I had to keep it fair for everyone.

The first round was the elimination round and the ten randomly chosen competitors were given dry erase boards to write their answers.  The ten Dukes of Hazzard fans that were randomly chosen to compete were:
Judy Killough
Harley LeFever
Milton Dacus Jr.
Tony Kersen
Jeff P. Stewart
Rob Streb
Dave Cecil
Gerald Killough
Donald Elliston
Amanda Cannon

Each competitor was award a Certificate of Participation that was signed by Ben Jones and myself. (You know I had to keep a blank one for my collection)

The elimination round went pretty quick and soon we were down the three.  The three Dukes of Hazzard fanatics that made it to the Jeopardy style round were Milton Dacus Jr., Judy Killough, and Donald Elliston.

I didn't get much of the event recorded on video.  I was happy to get through it without screwing up too bad.  Mike the PR Guy did grab a little video for me and I really appreciate it.  I needed a "Vanna White" to change the scores each time someone got an answer right and fellow Dukes fanatic Matt Thomas stepped in.  He played the role perfectly. We need to get him a sequin dress next time.  

The contest was a little one-sided.  Milton Dacus Jr., of Smith Station, Alabama, proved that he was super knowledgeable when it came to Dukes of Hazzard trivia.  Judy and Donald held their own and each answered a respectable numbe of questions.  Like Jeopardy, a lot of it came down to who buzzed in first.  Milton was quicker on the buzzer than Donald, though I think he knew nearly as much as Milton.  There were a few questions that were a little too tough for those competing.  I soon started to refer to those as "Will Questions" because Will Rodgers, the voice of Hazzard, was sitting behind me and he barely missed a question.  A few other fans who were gathered around knew some that were missed and it was fun giving them the mic and letting them show off a little of their Dukes knowledge.  

In the end, Milton took the win.  He built a commanding lead and couldn't be caught.  I hear Milton has an impressive Dukes of Hazzard collection and I'm glad the trophy is going to be surrounded by Dukes stuff and be somewhere that it will be loved.

Judy and Donald did a great job competing in the Dukes Trivia, but Milton really shined in the event.  I'm so happy that three Dukes loving fans were the finalists in the event.  Miss Alma provided t-shirts for everyone who played in the contest and I think everyone walked away happy.

Congratulations to Milton Dacus Jr., the #01 Champion of the Dukes of Hazzard Trivia Competition at Cooter's Last Stand presented by DukesCollector.com!  I am so proud of the trivia event and so happy that everything went so well.  Thank you so much to everyone who helped me, Dave DeWitt for question reveiw, Crown Awards for the trophy, Micheal Smith of Cooter's for providing the 01, Gary Brezovsky for helping me attach the 01, Carl Bezjak for the buzzer and score boards, Dean Heavener for the AV equipment, Laura and Sophia of DaisyCountry.com, Mike the PR guy and Will Rodgers for the promotion, Elizabeth Helmick for helping me wrap up the booth, Matt Thomas for playing Vanna White, Renee Franks for teaching me how to host an event, and most importantly Alma Viator and Ben Jones for letting me take on this challenge.   I'm so thankful to Alma for believing in me and letting me host and run the first ever Dukes trivia contest at any of her events.  It was truly an honor.  Let's do it again at the next rodeo!