Edwin "Ed" Goodgold (died May 7, 2021) was an American writer, music industry executive, academic administrator. He is known for coining the term "

trivia Trivia is information and data that are considered to be of little value. Modern usage of the term ''trivia'' dates to the 1960s, when college students introduced question-and-answer contests to their universities. A board game, ''Trivial Purs ...

" in 1965. He was also the first manager of Sha Na Na.

Biography

Goodgold was born in

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

and grew up in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

. He attended

Samuel J. Tilden High School Samuel J. Tilden High School was a List of high schools in New York City, New York City public high school in the East Flatbush, Brooklyn, East Flatbush section of Brooklyn, New York City. It was named for Samuel J. Tilden, the former govern ...

and graduated from Columbia College in 1965. Goodgold was a history major at Columbia and was features editor of the '' Columbia Daily Spectator'', where he introduced the term "trivia" in a February 25, 1965 article, saying that “Trivia is a game played by countless young adults, who on the one hand realize they have misspent their youth and yet, on the other hand, do not want to let go of it." In trivia, "participants try to stump their opponents with the most minute details of shared childhood experiences," he wrote. At Columbia, Goodgold held Q&A sessions in dorm lounges with his classmates, trading questions about popular culture of their youth, and hosted a late-night call-in trivia show on WKCR-FM. He also created one of the first intercollegiate

Quiz bowl Quiz bowl (quizbowl, scholars' bowl, scholastic bowl, academic bowl, academic team, academic challenge, etc.) is a family of quiz-based competitions that test players on Outline of academic disciplines, a wide variety of academic subjects. Stand ...

s open to the

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference of eight Private university, private Research university, research universities in the Northeastern United States. It participates in the National Collegia ...

and the Seven Sisters colleges in October 1965 and February 1967. Goodgold also wrote the 1966 book,''Trivia,'' with Dan Carlinsky, introducing the subject to a national audience. After college, Goodgold studied at the

New York University School of Law The New York University School of Law (NYU Law) is the law school of New York University, a private research university in New York City. Established in 1835, it was the first law school established in New York City and is the oldest survivin ...

and was manager for the rock-and-roll group Sha Na Na. He then served as Americas manager for the English rock band Genesis. In 1992, Goodgold retired from his music industry career and took up an administrative position in the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

as assistant to the associate dean. Goodgold died on May 7, 2021, in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Goodgold, Ed 20th-century births 2021 deaths American writers Sha Na Na members Columbia College (New York) alumni New York University School of Law alumni New York University people Trivia Businesspeople from Brooklyn Year of birth missing