The man behind the questions for the world’s largest trivia contest prepares to pass the pen

STEVENS POINT, Wis. (WSAW) - For 34 years Jim ‘Oz’ Oliva has been the man behind the questions for the world’s largest trivia contest. After a two-year break because of COVID-19, fans were eager to get in line and register early. One fan said she waited 6 hours.

”Every year Patti and I like to wait in line together, it’s one of my favorite traditions of trivia, just hanging out in line and talking to people, seeing friends,” said Madison Wiza, trivia player.

Wiza met Patti Johnson through Trivia. Johnson has been playing with her family since she was born. She said her team is competitive. They’ve won first place four times.

”It’s like Christmas where you all come back. Sometimes people can’t make Christmas, but they can make trivia cause we all want to get together and that’s the only time you see some people is during trivia weekend,” said Patty Johnson, trivia player.

The man responsible for bringing friends and family together all these years is ready to write a new chapter.

”This is a hard year because it’s my final year and people are doing little things here and there which are tearing me up inside,” said Jim ‘Oz’ Oliva, Trivia Coordinator.

Oliva is thankful for all the kindness and support from the community. While it’s a lot of work, he said it’s all about the fun.

”My girlfriend will say, I can’t believe it takes you that much time to write just three hours of questions. Yeah, but you have to remember the downtime we’re laughing so hard we are worried about wetting our pants. It’s just you’re laughing too hard,” said Oliva.

Oliva also had a huge impact on students working at 90FM.

”It’s kind of, like, blowing my mind to work with someone who knows all of the ropes that come with this industry,” said Maddy Anderson, PR Director.

He’ll spend his last year bustling around for the 54 hours of consecutive trivia with students before he passes his trivia pen to the next writer.

”I wanna say for everyone out there, let’s play trivia fast steady,” said Oliva.

Friday at 4 p.m. a parade will kick off the contest and at 6 p.m. questions will begin. Click here for more information.

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