The National Debate Tournament: through a half-century of argument.

• Author: Ziegelmueller, George

This year will mark the fiftieth anniversary of the National Debate Tournament. Throughout these fifty years the NDT has been a lightening rod for controversy among forensic educators and communication professionals. It has been hailed for its excellence in training students in public policy analysis and in teaching them how to express and defends their ideas. At the same time, it has been condemned for its elitism and for its promotion of rapid, aggressive patterns of communication.

In this essay, I wish to accomplish two things. First, I will provide a brief personal history of the National Debate Tournament. I have been associated with the NDT for nearly forty years and have been directly involved in many of the conflicts surrounding it. By describing some of the events associated with these controversies, I hope to provide a more complete record for future scholars. Second, I will briefly comment on some of the overarching issues which have been associated with the national tournament.

A SELECTED PERSONAL HISTORY OF THE NDT

The National Debate Tournament began in 1947 as a small invitational event hosted by the United States Military Academy at West Point. The West Point tournament sought to bring together the best teams from each region of the country for an end-of-the-season national competition. Twenty-nine colleges and universities participated in the first West Point tournament, but in subsequent years the number of participants increased to thirty-six. The thirty-six school limitation remained throughout the West Point years.

The West Point Debate Tournament was, from its beginning, a prestigious event, and invitations to it soon came to be widely sought. The rapid popularity of the tournament was due, in part, to its elitist nature and the national competition which it offered and, in part, to the stature of the sponsoring institution and its colorful and gracious style of hosting. Fifty years ago, competition at most tournaments was limited to teams from the immediate geographic areas, and the most successful teams from different regions of the country were eager to test their skills against championship teams from other sections. Teams from the South and West tended to be more persuasive in their style and orientation than were those from the East and Midwest. Judging standards were less standardized than today, and theoretical interpretations more diverse. A national tournament thus provided the opportunity to explore and test many of these differences, and participation in a selective championship event enhanced the prestige of the invited schools.

In addition to the appeal of championship national competition, the West Point tournament offered participants an opportunity to experience an inside view of the nation's top military academy and to benefit from much of the pomp and formality surrounding it. Male students and coaches ate at the cadets' mess, and female coaches and students dined at the Officers' Club. A cadet was assigned to escort each team. Pairings for the tournament were announced orally and then posted on a big board at the front of the assembly hall. Banners for each school were hung around the assembly hall, and as the pairings were announced, the competing teams and judges met under the affirmative schools' banners to be escorted to the debate rooms. A serving table in the assembly hall offered a variety of refreshments throughout the day. At the end of the preliminary rounds of debate, a formal awards banquet was held. The Academy's top brass attended these events, and both cadets and officers wore their dress uniforms. The West Point Glee Club provided entertainment for the occasion, and an orchestra provided dinner music throughout the banquet. The traditions established by the Academy and the extraordinary care that was put into hosting the tournament made simply attending the event a reward in itself.

Initially, teams invited to the tournament were selected informally and subjectively. Well-established coaches in each region were consulted regarding who to invite, and in general, their recommendations were accepted. After a few years, committees were set up within each section to oversee the selection of teams from their areas. Considerable autonomy was given to these distinct committees regarding the means used in selecting teams, but gradually district qualifying tournaments replaced committee selection as the standard process.

West Point always had complete control over the procedures used in administering the actual tournament. The format for the debates, the number of rounds, the number of judges, team pairings, and judging assignments were, all, decisions of the tournament staff. After a few years, a committee composed of the district chairs was established to advise the tournament director, but all decisions regarding the operation of the tournament, itself, remained in the hands of the West Point staff.

It was not until 1958, eleven years after its establishment, that I attended my first National Debate Tournament. Most of the teams competing that year carried their evidence in a single, long file box or small brief case. The topic for debate that year was, by present standards, a very specific one: "Resolved: That the requirement of membership in a labor organization as a condition of employment should be illegal." Although there was, over the years, some gradual increase in the amount of evidence used by debaters at the NDT, the rapid expansion in the quantity of evidence used largely coincided with the adoption of such broad topics as "Resolved: That the federal government should be given greater freedom in the investigation and prosecution of crime." The emphasis on large quantifies of evidence has, of course, been further facilitated by the increased application and availability of such technologies as mimeographs, photocopying, and most recently, computer-assisted searches.

The End of the West Point Era

The 1966 National Debate Tournament was an especially memorable one for me, personally, and for the debate community as a whole. The tournament was personally significant because it was the first time that a Wayne State University team advanced to the final round of the NDT. The circumstances surrounding my team's participation in the final round were unusual, however. On the morning of the first day of competition, one of my debaters called my room very...