Chris Haney (August 9, 1950 – May 31, 2010) was a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

journalist and co-creator of the ''

Trivial Pursuit ''Trivial Pursuit'' is a board game in which winning is determined by a player's ability to answer trivia and popular culture questions. Players move their pieces around a board, the squares they land on determining the subject of a question the ...

'' board game with Scott Abbott.

Early life

Haney was born on August 9, 1950 in Welland,

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

. He attended a high school in Hamilton, Ontario but dropped out at age 17, a decision he later regretted, saying he should have dropped out earlier.Martin, Douglas
"Chris Haney, an Inventor of Trivial Pursuit, Dies at 59"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', June 2, 2010. Accessed June 2, 2010. His father worked for

The Canadian Press The Canadian Press (CP; , ) is a Canadian national news agency headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. Established in 1917 as a vehicle for Canadian newspapers to exchange news and information, The Canadian Press has been a privately-held company, pr ...

news agency and helped him get a job as a copy boy with the company. He was hired by ''

The Montreal Gazette ''The Gazette'', also known as the ''Montreal Gazette'', is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper which is owned by Postmedia Network. It is published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is the only English-language daily newspape ...

'' after working at photo desks in Montreal and

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

Career

Haney was working at the ''Montreal Gazette'' as a photo editor and met Abbott in December 1975 after being assigned to support coverage of the

1976 Summer Olympics The 1976 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Montreal 1976 (), were an international multi-sport event held from July 17 to August 1, 1976, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Montreal ...

held in Montreal. The two developed the game on December 15, 1979, after a game of ''

Scrabble ''Scrabble'' is a word game in which two to four players score points by placing tiles, each bearing a single letter, onto a Board game, game board divided into a 15×15 grid of squares. The tiles must form words that, in crossword fashion, re ...

'' got them thinking of ideas for a new alternative, with Haney coming up with the idea for a trivia game over a round of beers.Bellis, Mary
"The History of Trivial Pursuit"
, ''

About.com Dotdash Meredith (formerly The Mining Company, About.com and Dotdash) is an American digital media company based in New York City. The company publishes online articles and videos about various subjects across categories including health, hom ...

''. Accessed May 31, 2010. Within an hour, Haney and Scott had mapped out the game with its six-spoked circular board and multiple categories on a few sheets of paper.Bouzane, Bradley
"Trivial Pursuit co-creator Chris Haney dead at 59"
, ''

The Gazette (Montreal) ''The Gazette'', also known as the ''Montreal Gazette'', is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper which is owned by Postmedia Network. It is published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is the only English-language daily newspape ...

'', May 31, 2010. Accessed May 31, 2010. Posing as reporters, they attended a toy fair in Montreal and came back with invaluable information they had obtained from game experts attending the show. Haney hoped the game would allow him to earn enough extra money to be able to travel to Spain and throughout Europe. After adding Haney's brother and a friend to their development team, The group needed investors and they raised $40,000 from 32 people. Haney talked his mother out of investing in the game for fear that he would cause her to lose her investment. Haney traveled to Spain, where he spent long days developing the trivia to be included in the game. The ''Trivial Pursuit'' game that they developed was trademarked on November 10, 1981, and 1,100 copies of the game were released later that month for sale by retailers for $15. The company they formed to market the game, Horn Abbot, lost money on each of these initial sets, which cost $75 each to manufacture. The game's sales started slowly and Abbott and Haney didn't receive any interest from buyers at trade shows in Canada and the U.S. The game started developing sales by word of mouth and exploded by 1984, reaching sales of $800 million. Selchow and Righter licensed the rights to the game in 1988. The rights to the game were purchased by

Hasbro Hasbro, Inc. (; a syllabic abbreviation of its original name, Hassenfeld Brothers) is an American multinational corporation, multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment holding company founded on December 6, 1923 by Henry, Hillel and Herma ...

in 2008 for US$80 million. Haney would eventually have enough money to travel, taking cruise ships across the Atlantic to Europe because he was afraid of flying. In 1984 alone, 20 million copies of the game were sold, and by the time of his death, global sales of the game had reached 100 million copies in 26 countries and 17 languages, with cumulative sales estimated to be well in excess of $1 billion since its creation.Medley, Mark
"Chris Haney, co-creator of Trivial Pursuit, dies at 59"
, ''

National Post The ''National Post'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet newspaper and the flagship publication of the American-owned Postmedia Network. It is published Mondays through Saturdays, with Monday released as a digital e-edition only.

'', May 31, 2010. Accessed May 31, 2010. Haney died in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

at age 59 on May 31, 2010, following a long illness. Haney was survived by his second wife, Hiam, his first wife, Sarah, and their three children.

References

External links

ABC's "This Week" "In Memoriam"The Guardian's Chris Haney obituary
{{DEFAULTSORT:Haney Chris 1950 births 2010 deaths Board game designers Canadian inventors People from Welland