What Do "Chestnut,' "Peach" and 'Midnight Blue" Have in Common?*

At precisely 3:45 Friday afternoon, the Friends of Millard Fillmore (FOMF) Trivia Hunt will get underway. students will be competing in the 44th annual event which runs Friday through Monday. 

Known as the "Hunt" for short, the three-day competition is a actually a cleverly disguised research project for local high school students. The Hunt has been held annually since 1969 in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties.

Named for the rather unremarkable, or "trivial" 13th US president, Millard Fillmore (1850-53), the competition was invented in 1969 by Dr. Robert Hunter, a long-time history teacher at Carlmont High School.  Dr. Hunter initiated the Hunt as both a whimsical and competitive exercise to improve students' research and problem-solving skills, and hone critical thinking.

Carlmont will compete against other high schools to find the answer to questions such as:

Provide the name (first and last) of the only major league baseball player who was present not once, but on four occasions, when a batter hit four home runs in a single game. Provide the names (first and last) of the four record-setting batters.  (Answer: Billy Loes was the player; Gil Hodges, Joe Adcock, Rocky Colavito, and Willy Mays were the batters.)

The goal of the Hunt is for the team to find information; not to prevent other teams from finding information. 

Students must provide valid proof for their answers. During an adjudication session at the end of the competition, "lawyers" and readers on each team must argue the validity of their scores. 

Over the years, FOMF participants have included Carlmont, Castilleja, Gunn, Palo Alto, , San Mateo, and Woodside. Castilleja won the 2011 contest.  

*Chestnut, peach and midnight blue are the only three Crayola crayon colors whose original names have been changed. Chestnut was Indian red; peach was flesh; midnight blue was Prussian blue.