The Dale and Lorna Thayer Illinois Masonic Academic Bowl Tournament Committee, under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of Illinois, is responsible for obtaining the questions. The chairman of this committee usually purchases the questions from a reliable company that prepares questions for high school scholastic bowl teams. Security of the questions is maintained by the chairman of the Dale and Lorna Thayer Illinois Masonic Academic Bowl Tournament Committee. For the sectional tournaments, identical questions are used at all tournament locations. For both the sectional tournaments and state tournament, identical questions are used for all three Classes.

All Masonic Lodges in the state of Illinois are asked to sponsor a high school scholastic bowl team in our tournament. The cost of sponsoring a team is $150, payable to the Grand Lodge of Illinois. A Lodge may sponsor one school, or more than one school, or share the sponsorship of a school with another Lodge. Some Lodges may not desire to sponsor a specific school, but may wish to make a general donation to support this Grand Lodge program.

Masonic Lodges desiring to sponsor a high school should personally contact the Scholastic Bowl Coach at the school to determine the school’s desire to compete in our tournament. The Lodge may NOT enter the school in our tournament, as the Scholastic Bowl Coach must submit her/his own entry information to the Tournament Director. Lodges are encouraged to make plans for some of their members to be present at the tournament site on the day of the competition to support their school’s team.

The " Tournament Rules for the Dale and Lorna Thayer Illinois Masonic Academic Bowl Tournament" is the governing document for the rules for this tournament. These rules are reviewed each year and revised as necessary. The current set of "Tournament Rules" is emailed to the Scholastic Bowl Coach for each high school that registers for this tournament and can also be found under the Resources menu under downloads.

Yes. Monetary scholastic awards are presented to each school finishing in the top four positions at each Class 1A, Class 2A, and Class 3A sectional tournament location and also to the top four at the state tournament. The Sectional Champion School receives $500, the second-place school receives $400, the third-place school receives $300, and the fourth-place school receives $200.

At the State Tournament, the tournament champion’s school receives $1,500. The second-place school is awarded $1,000. $750 is awarded for third-place, and $500 is awarded for fourth-place.

Each team advancing to the state tournament, but not finishing in the final four of each class, their school is awarded $100 each. These amounts could be adjusted in future years of the tournament. The Masons of Illinois ask only that the scholastic awards money be used by the schools for scholarships or academic purposes (i.e., purchase of practice questions, computer hardware or software, lockout systems, or scholastic bowl team shirts) within the school system.

The Class 1A State Champion, the Class 2A State  Champion, and the Class 3A State Champion, each, will also be given a State Championship trophy to keep at their respective school.

The Dale and Lorna Thayer Illinois Masonic Academic Bowl Tournament sectional tournaments are held on the Saturday of week 33 of the IHSA Calendar, which is usually the third Saturday in February, at various locations around the State of Illinois.

The winners of the sectional tournaments automatically advance to the state tournament.

The Dale and Lorna Thayer Illinois Masonic Academic Bowl Tournament state tournament is currently held at Bloomington High School, on the Saturday of week 35 of the IHSA calendar, two weeks after the Sectionals, usually the first or second Saturday in March.

For the current year’s schedule CLICK HERE

Each sectional tournament site consists of a maximum of 12 teams. Our tournament is a round-robin format. Each team competes against all teams at the specific sectional tournament site unless “pool play” is required due to the number of teams registered.

Pool play means that the teams will be divided into two pools, with each pool being a round-robin play. The winner of Pool " A" will compete against the runner-up of Pool " B", and the winner of Pool " B" will compete against the runner-up of Pool " A" , with the winner of both of these matches competing against each other for the championship, and the runners-up of both of these matches competing against each other for third place.

At sectional sites that use a straight round-robin (no pool play), the team with the best win-loss record is the champion, the team with the second-best win-loss record is the second-place finisher, etc. If two teams tie with identical win-loss records, then the team that won the head-to-head match will be declared the team with the better record. The number of sectional tournament sites is based on the total number of teams in each class registering to participate in our tournament.

Our tournament is a 3-Class tournament with Class 1A being the smaller schools, Class 2A being the middle-sized schools, and Class 3A being the larger schools.  The 3-Class system began with the 2015 tournament.

The state tournament is conducted at one location, usually in the central part of the state, with the winner of each sectional tournament site automatically advancing to the state tournament. The state tournament is also a 3-Class Pool-Play format.

For more information see the current Tournament Rules.

Additional info can be found on this website or by emailing Herman J. Albers, our Committee Chairman, at albers@htc.net. The Chairman of the Illinois Masonic Academic Bowl Committee also serves as the Tournament Director for the Dale and Lorna Thayer Illinois Masonic Academic Bowl Tournament.