1964 Nationals - Joyce Lufkin's Memories

The following recollections were written by Joyce Lufkin of Winthrop A/G, Winthrop, WA.

Leo Barran who was the pastor in Winthrop WA at that time got us all set up in the program. He built a great little panel so we could actually practice ‘hitting’. Leo lives in Sitka, AK now and is still such a great man. He moved away during that year so my Mother, Lola Lufkin, took over training the team and is the one who took us to Nationals. There were five on our team, Ernie and Dean Longanecker, myself (Joyce Lufkin), Sally Hallowell and Rosanna Nelson. Rosanna was three years younger than the rest of us so she didn’t go to nationals with us. All growing up together in such a small town and being the only ‘religious’ kids in town, we remain like family.

Our team was aggressive and until we reached nationals, didn’t have any competition to speak of. Considering that we came from a little town in Eastern Washington of 350 people, we did pretty well. When we went to ‘the Coast’ (Seattle) to quiz the ‘big city’ teams, most of them had never heard of our town. We beat all of them.

Our first big quiz was in Pendalaton OR, then the next step was in Everett. The final big playoff was at Northwest College in Kirkland, then on to Springfield, Mecca of the Assemblies of God!

My daughter and her husband (Jonathan and Liza Bancroft) coached a quiz team for a church here in Whatcom County and one year took the team to Minnesota for playoffs. Jonathan had been involved in Bible Quiz for several years before that and didn’t really even know that I was one of the ‘originals’ back in the dark ages.