The 1970s
Recalled imperfectly by Donn W. Parson
The University of Kansas

$If the latter part of the 1960s instituted a series of changes after the tournament moved from West Point, the early years in the 1970s continued making changes. The tournament moved from site to site, so debaters in the 1970s took a georgraphical tour during the decade, from the University of Houston, to Macalester College, to Utah, to Navy, to Air Force, to the U of the Pacific, to Boston, to Southwest Missouri, to Metro State in Denver, and ending the decade at Arizona.

While the tournament directors had changed each year in the 1960s after leaving West Point, the decade of the 1970s recorded only four directors of the NDT: Dave Matheny in 1970, John Lehman in 1971-2, Merwyn Hayes in 1973-4, and finally Michael Hazen, who took over directing the NDT in 1975 and didn't really tire until 1984, a stretch of 9 years which remains a record.

For some strange reason, the 1970s were a decade in which the topics remained in the domestic sphere. While all topics had international implications, and all could, of course, result in the end of life as we know it, the topics chosen were a very internal look at American processes and policies. Among the topics discussed were that: the federal government share a specific percentage of its income tax revenue with the states (1970); the federal government institute a program of compulsory wage and price controls (1971); there be greater control over the gathering and use of information about US citizens by government agencies (1972); a system of medical care be established for all US citizens (1973); the federal government should control the supply and utilization of energy (1974); the powers of the President be significantly curtailed (1975); the federal government establish a comprenehsive program to control land use in the US (1976); the federal government strengthen the guarantee of consumer product safety (1977); law enforcement agencies be given greater freedom in the investigation and/orprosecution of felony crime (1978); and that the federal government should implement program to guarantee employment opportunities to all US citizens in the work force (1979).

The beginning of the decade noted some more "radical" changes in the method of team selection, and even the number of teams allowed from each school. In the late 1960s the topic of allowing two teams per school raised, like Hydra, its controversial heads, and several heads were removed before the policy was approved for the 1970 NDT. One worry about allowing two teams concerned the possibility of a "close-out" and an NDT without a final round. In fact the first year two teams per school were allowed found two Kansas teams in the semi finals. However Canisius dispatched one Kansas team before succumbing to the other team of Jayhawks. Similarly, in 1972 two teams of USC Trojans appeared in the finals, and California at Santa Barbara had to overturn two USC chariots consecutively to claim the top NDT trophy. That situation did not recur in the 1970s and the concern about no final round diminished, especially after the Committee passed a motion insuring a final round.

The United States had been gerrymandered during the West Point years, and the resultant eight districts were studied and revised by the NDT Committee prior to the 1970 tournament. Districts remained eight in number, but the new districts were supposed to represent more accurate patterns of current travel. A new district (District IX) representing the Rocky Mountain States was added, and an initial allotment of bids for each district was negotiated. Later a complex formula (actually 10 forumlas) was developed to handle change of bids, combining both factors of power (strength of the district at previous NDTs) and size (number of programs and teams at the district tournaments). Only if 8 of the formulas suggested a change of bids for a district would it be enacted.

The NDT Committee also sought a way to recognize teams achieving outstanding records throughout the season, and the first-round at-large bids were born, to begin operation at the Macalester NDT in 1971. Initially the Committee proposed a list of 10 major tournaments during the year, the winner of which would get an automatic bid to the NDT; since a team might win more than one tournament, the second place team could qualify for an at-large bid if the tournament winner had already received a bid. This system, with some modification -- and some disagreements over which constituted the top ten tournaments for a particular year -- worked for two years, but by 1973 the Committee had changed to the current system -- having 16 bids awarded on the basis of a team's full season record.

The 1970s also saw a shift in tournament format. Occasionally a negative team would want to know something about an affirmative plan in the hope that this information might provide links to lurking disadvantages. The practice was for the first negative speaker to outline a series of questions to be answered in 2ac. During the early seventies there was some movement to adopt a format which allowed direct questioning of each speaker, and the cross-exam format was adopted for the 1976 NDT; while some invitational tournaments initially kept the old format, it was not long before cross examination debate became dominant.

Thus the first half of the decade of the 1970 recorded changes in districting, at-large bids, directors, and even format. The second half of the decade made but minor modifications in the procedures of the NDT. Ironically, we were debating the supply and utilization of energy at the time of the energy crunch, and teams with championship trophies found that no gas stations were open to allow them to return home. The Saturday through Monday format of tournaments was a product of that situation, a pattern which remains dominant today.