Traditions
- "The Big Board": Started at the first NDT, complete results for each team are listed on the "Big Board" in the central area, horse-race style.
- Orally announcing pairings: Started at the first NDT, the pairings for each round are read out loud to the contestants. The announcements are known for the unusual manner in which they are conveyed. For instance, the announcer might say, "The 51st National Debate Tournament, round the first." This is then followed by the "pairings" of opposing teams, judges, room numbers, and the expected start time. A poll conducted at the 2005 NDT showed strong support for continuing this tradition.
- Cadet escorts: Cadets at the USMA escort debaters to their rounds and carry their tubs. Although this tradition was discontinued when the NDT moved from the USMA, it has reemerged at the regular season tournament hosted by the USMA.
Read more about this topic: National Debate Tournament
Famous quotes containing the word traditions:
“And all the great traditions of the Past
They saw reflected in the coming time.
And thus forever with reverted look
The mystic volume of the world they read,
Spelling it backward, like a Hebrew book,
Till life became a Legend of the Dead.”
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1809–1882)
“Napoleon never wished to be justified. He killed his enemy according to Corsican traditions [le droit corse] and if he sometimes regretted his mistake, he never understood that it had been a crime.”
—Guillaume-Prosper, Baron De Barante (1782–1866)
“But generally speaking philistinism presupposes a certain advanced state of civilization where throughout the ages certain traditions have accumulated in a heap and have started to stink.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)