- According to one legend, what popular 19th Century author suggested the city be named “Toledo?”
ANSWER: A. Washington Irving. According to the 1940 book The Ohio Guide, the story goes that Irving, writer of Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, was traveling in Spain and suggested the name to his brother, who lived in the northwest Ohio area. This story is also almost certainly false: Irving had already returned to the States in 1832, a year before Toledo was founded. A more likely legend attributes the idea for the name to Willard J. Daniels, a local merchant.
- Toledo is the fourth most populous city in Ohio, behind Columbus, Cleveland and Cincinnati. Which of these runner-up cities is closest to Toledo in size?
ANSWER: A. Akron. Rubber City is fifth with roughly 190,000 residents, well behind Toledo’s 270,000+. Dayton is sixth with 137,000, Parma has 81,000 and Canton has 70,000.
- What is the coldest temperature ever recorded in Toledo?
ANSWER: B. -20° F. Thermometers in the Glass City recorded a record low of 20 degrees below zero on January 21, 1984. By contrast, on January 21 this year our lowest temperature was 10° F.
- Until 2019, the Toledo Botanical Garden hosted the world’s largest collection of what?
ANSWER: D. Lithophanes. The Blair Museum of Lithophanes was created after lifelong Toledoan Laurel Gotshall Blair left his collection of over 2,000 of the molded porcelain plaques to the City of Toledo. The museum was opened at the Toledo Botanical Garden in 2002, but forced to find a new home after closing in October of 2019. The collection is now housed at the Schedel Arboretum and Gardens in Elmore.
- Which Jeep design made an appearance in almost every episode of M*A*S*H?
ANSWER: C. Willys MB. It was a 1942 Willys Military Jeep M38A1, to be precise. The M38 was the first Jeep able to be submerged in water.
- What aspect of Owens Corning’s fiberglass insulation was trademarked in 1987?
ANSWER: D. The pink color. Owens Corning first added red dye to their fiberglass in an effort to make it stand out in the marketplace, but the resulting insulation came out pink. Eventually, the company decided to stop adding the dye, thinking that the color would discourage male consumers, but customer complaints made them reconsider. Owens Corning introduced the Pink Panther as their mascot in 1979.
- Metroparks Toledo has the distinction of performing the longest-running survey counting…what?
ANSWER: C. Frogs. Metropark volunteers and staff have counted frogs and collected data about them every spring for more than 25 years, according to the Metroparks website. The Lucas County area was a haven for frogs and toads before it was settled, hence one of Toledo’s earliest nicknames, “Frogtown.”
8. Which of the following was NOT a name used by a Toledo hockey team?
ANSWER: D. The Toledo Flames. The Toledo Mercurys joined the International Hockey League in 1947. For the 1949-50 season, the team changed its name to the Toledo Buckeyes, but it quickly changed back for 1950-51. After the Mercurys folded in 1962, an IHL team from Omaha relocated to Toledo, becoming the Toledo Blades. Other names used by Toledo hockey teams: The Hornets, the Goaldiggers, the Storm and, of course, the Walleye.
9. The Toledo Museum of Art features pieces by all of the following artists except…
ANSWER: A. Leonardo da Vinci. Though no works by da Vinci are kept at TMA, they do house a sculpture attributed to Andrea Verrochio (1435-1488), who was da Vinci’s teacher.
- Which of these movies does not feature an actor with roots in Toledo?
ANSWER: D. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? I’ll See You in My Dreams starred Danny Thomas, who was born in Deerfield, MI but raised in Toledo. Scrooged featured a cameo from hometown favorite Jamie Farr, playing himself. Thank You for Smoking co-starred Katie Holmes. The film version of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? featured Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, George Segal and Sandy Dennis, all acting legends, but none of whom have Toledo roots.
- What year did the Toledo Mud Hens first adopt that name?
ANSWER: B. 1896. Professional baseball first came to Toledo in 1893, but the team (the “Swamp Angels”) officially became the Mud Hens in 1896, inspired by a swamp near the field that was home to a number of American coots, or mud hens. They briefly changed the name to “Iron Men” for two years beginning in 1916, and after the team moved away from Toledo in 1952, a new club— the Toledo Sox— took its place. The Sox also departed in 1956, and when a new team moved in almost a decade later, it adopted the Mud Hens name.
- Where did legendary Toledo jazz pianist Art Tatum first attend school?
ANSWER: C. Jefferson. According to James Lester’s Too Marvelous for Words, Tatum first attended Jefferson School in the Glass City before moving to the School for the Blind in Columbus. (Tatum had suffered from impaired vision since he was a baby.) Soon he would transfer back to Toledo, attending classes at the Toledo School of Music.
- The Kenny Rogers hit “Lucille” was inspired by songwriter Hal Bynum’s trip to Toledo. What was the name of the album that “Lucille” featured on?
ANSWER: B. Kenny Rogers. “Lucille” was actually the second single to come out of the self-titled album, as “Laura” had released to modest success in 1976. “Lucille” proved a much bigger hit, helping make Kenny Rogers (the album) the first of 12 records by the artist to reach #1 on the Country chart.
- Who was the first celebrity to sign one of Tony Packo’s hot dog buns?
ANSWER: A. Burt Reynolds. Packo’s website tells the story of how, in 1972, the famous actor was starring in a production of “The Rainmaker” in Toledo and stopped by Packo’s for a meal. When someone asked for an autograph, Reynolds signed his name to a hot dog bun. The tradition continues today, though the buns are now foam replicas rather than actual bread.
- What was legendary Toledo restaurateur Gus Mancy’s original surname?
ANSWER: B. Manosakis. Immigrating to America from the Greek isle of Crete in 1916, Gus Manosakis had his last name changed to Mancy on Ellis Island. He worked in Ohio for years saving money from jobs working at steel mills before opening “The Ideal Restaurant” with his cousin Nicholas Graham in 1921.
- What year did the Toledo Zoo’s annual Lights Before Christmas event begin?
ANSWER: C. 1986. The first Lights event featured a mere 50,000 lights decorating the path. Today, more than one million bulbs are used every year, and construction on that year’s displays begins the preceding summer.
- What company did brothers Spencer U. and Frank D. Stranahan co-found in 1905?
ANSWER: C. Champion Spark Plugs. The Stranahans worked with bicycle racer-turned-automobile industrialist Albert Champion to found the company in Boston. In 1908, Champion left to form another company (“Champion Ignition”) but the Stranahans informed the new business that the “Champion” name was under their trademark. Champion changed the name from “Champion Ignition” to “AC Spark Plugs.” Under the Stranahans, Champion Spark Plugs moved to Toledo in 1910.
- What was Ned Skeldon Stadium before it was converted into a baseball park?
ANSWER: B. A racetrack. Since the early part of the 20th century, the space that would eventually host the Toledo Mud Hens was the home of the racetrack for the Lucas County Fairgrounds. In the 1960s, a committee spearheaded by area politician Edward “Ned” Skeldon worked to convert the track to a ballpark in an effort to lure baseball back to the city. The gambit worked, and in 1965, the new Toledo Mud Hens began playing in what was then called Lucas County Stadium. The ballpark was renamed in Skeldon’s honor in 1988, just a few months before he passed away.
- What famous Toledo department store used to reside on the ground that now houses the Imagination Station?
ANSWER: C. Tiedtke’s. The Tiedtke brothers, Charles and Ernest, first opened a grocery store at Summit and Monroe in 1894. By 1910, the expanded business had moved to Summit and Adams, where it would stay until closing in 1972. The first science museum on the land, COSI, opened in 1997, before being forced to close in 2007 due to lack of funding. The approval of a new operating levy meant that the renamed Imagination Station would reopen in 2009.
- Which of the following musicians did NOT perform at Savage Arena (formerly Centennial Hall) in the year 1978 alone?
ANSWER: D. Elton John. Dylan, Joel and Sinatra all performed within weeks of each other in October 1978. Elton John did play at the venue himself in 1980.
