Back to the Pop Quiz

1. B. “Tin Cup.” The comedy about a would-be pro golfer features a TCU-clad compadre who is ever-present, but has little, if any, spoken lines. In one classic scene, Costner takes his motley crew to the U.S. Open in a Winnebago, and his character leans over to girlfriend Renee Russo and says “It won’t always be like this, us laying here next to my stripper ex-girlfriend, with my caddy sleeping next to her on the floor. Someday it’ll be nice.” Russo’s character quips, “No, it’s always going to be like this — always,” as she looks fondly over at the sleeping TCU T-shirt dude.

2. B. The Professor. According to the website of actor Russell Johnson, who played the character on “Gilligan’s Island,” the professor had nine degrees including a master’s degree from SMU and a doctorate from TCU.  Perhaps it was in engineering; he did keep that radio going on the same batteries for years.

3. D. Morricone’s theme from the classic spaghetti Western “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” is used in the ad directed by David Fincher, who also directed “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” starring Brad Pitt.

4. B. Native Houstonian Randy Quaid played the character in the 1988 made-for-television movie.

5. D. “The Amazing Race,” where Starr Spangler ’08 and her brother Nick raced around the world, winning the million-dollar prize last December.

6. A. “Property Virgins” spotlights first-time home buyers as they contemplate potential purchases. One episode featured a young woman named Caroline who wanted to move out of her mother’s home in Fairmount, but could only afford something less than $100,000. In the end, she decided to stay put with mom and save up more cash.

7. C. Amy Henry MBA ’97 made it into the final three in the first season of the show and parlayed the gig into the book What It Takes: Speak Up, Step Up, Move Up and Marshawn Evans ’01 was on the fourth season of the show and is now a business consultant who offers tips for women professionals in her book S.K.I.R.T.S in the Boardroom: A Woman’s Survival Guide to Success in Business & Life.

8. B. They went on a “woodsy,” which the ’60s-era grad describes as “an informal event in which the fraternity trooped to the woods, hauled in coolers full of iced-down beer and made out with their dates.” Good times!

9. D. Adapted from another Dan Jenkins novel, Baja Oklahoma, the HBO Film starred Lesley Ann Warren as Juanita Hutchins, a would-be country music writer whose daughter, played by Roberts, runs off with a n’ere do well. The book has multiple references to TCU and “The Drag,” including one character lamenting the lost of longtime establishments, noting “the drugstore had been replaced with a bar catering to punks,”  but also finding comfort in “managing to find a bean burrito and Twinkie for breakfast.” Good to know some things never change.