PHOTO: David Seikel sent me this recent mugshot.
David Seikel, former top USA debater and moot court champion, has been living in Prague, Czech Republic after a very active career as a lawyer. But, he has found a new pursuit, creating an archive of older debate material that he is now beginning to put on the Internet. He recently posted the URL of his site and some descriptions to the eDebate listserv in the USA.
Check out a Prague Post article about some of his work at http://www.praguepost.com/P03/2004/spsect/0401/sp1.php
Paleontologists recently shocked the scientific community by
unearthing the "missing links" in the evolution of policy debate . . .
Conclusive proof of the extinct species, "debatosaur," is now
available on the internet for scholarly assessment . . .
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1.Background
During the last seven years, I accumulated a vast archive of debate
recordings, transcripts, tournament information, and other
memorabilia. (Later, I may write a detailed account of how I got all
this stuff.)
Although I do not purport to be a scholar, I have long adhered to to
the Prime Directive of Academia: "Never Throw Anything Away!"
Before I retired and moved to Europe three years ago, I did, however,
amend the Prime Directive with the Seikel Corollary: "Never Throw
Anything Away, Until You Have Digitized It!"
I now have digitized tens of thousands of pages of debate material
and dozens of audio recordings of "ancient" debates.
2.Website
Recently, I created a website on which I will post portions of my
debate archive. Here is the URL:
http://homepage.mac.com/dseikel/FileSharing1.html
Note: I am a complete "newbie" at website creation and maintenance.
Please bear with me while I "crawl" up the learning curve. My plan
(hope?) is to establish a website with a more sophisticated structure
and format, but, for now, I will use my "quick and dirty" first effort.
Further Note: I have been a Kool-Aid drinking member of the
Macintosh Cult since I bought two of the first 50,000 off the
assembly line in 1984. Although I will attempt to accommodate the
technical needs of those of you on the Dark Side, I may not always
succeed.
3.NDT Audio
To complement the personal accounts of final rounds on the NDT
website, I have posted recordings of the final rounds at West Point
in 1957 and 1969.
Also, I posted the 1961 West Point final starring Larry Tribe, Gene
Clements, Frank Harrison, and Peter Smith.
Much more to come over the next few months!
The audio recordings are in M4A format. Dark Side Devotees may need
to download the free QuickTime Player software from the Apple website
at this URL:
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/win.html
Note: Although the recordings can be played through iTunes, I
generally prefer to use the non-iTunes Quicktime Player for debates,
moots, lectures, and similar content.
Currently, I am working with Allan Louden to transfer copies of my
NDT recordings, transcripts, and tournament info to the official NDT
website.
4.NDT1969
Located here are various items, including the tournament book,
prelims pairings (missing round 8), prelim results, photos, final
round ballots, and other material, from the 1969 NDT.
5.ISTR
Until the year 2000, I did not know that reports titled
"Intercollegiate Speech Tournament Results" were published each year
from 1962 through 1992 (excluding 1982-1984). Although my college
coach, Bill English, had some of them in his files, he probably
didn't show them to the squad members out of concern that we would
waste valuable research time perusing and discussing those reports.
I have scanned all of the ISTRs that were published and am doing some
clean-up on the images. My goal is to post one every week or so
until I have all of them up.
ISTR 1962 is up; later reports are far more comprehensive, and most
include an index by school.
6.OklaHS (Oklahoma High School Debate)
Before emigrating to Texas to attend the University of Houston
(1966-1969), I debated at St. Gregory's High School in Shawnee,
Oklahoma (1963-1965) and Harrah Junior High School, Harrah, Oklahoma (1962).
The initial post on the OklaHS segment is a report by Frank G.
Mitchell, son of legendary Seminole High School coach H. B. Mitchell,
titled "A History of Oklahoma Debate Champions." He recounts the
staggering dominance of Oklahoma high schools in competitive
forensics during the period up to 1960. (Frank won second at NFL
Nationals in 1951; his brother, Robert, won first in 1956.)
I am preparing a series of charts to update and supplement Mitchell's
history. Drafts of the charts will be up shortly.
7.Other Segments
There are "place-holders" for other segments on my website; more
content is coming soon!
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Well, that's a preliminary overview . . . . many more fossils will
be available during 2007!
Happy Holidays!!!
Debatosaurus Tex (a/k/a David Seikel)
Warning: Lame attempts at humor by referring to debatosaur fossils
as coprolites will result in attacks on the perpetrators by a cloned
herd of Verbal Velociraptors!!!
