Inside the Mind Challenge for the New Majority

This is just a sampling of the trivia questions the Independence team tackled — and aced — to win first place in the seventh-annual Mind Challenge for the New Majority:

Where is the golf capital of the world?
Myrtle Beach

What mythical creature has the head, talons and claws of an eagle and the body of a lion?

The griffin

What college did Bob Dylan attend?

University of Minnesota

What was Ulysses S. Grant’s first name?

Hiram

Created and organized in 2019 by Northeast Ohioans Art Greenberg and Phil Levine, the contest for active seniors is patterned after the NCAA basketball tournament. During the game, the host asks questions, and each team has 90 seconds to collaborate and come up with the correct answer. Point values are established for questions within the six rounds. Each team determines what point value it wishes to give to a specific question, and winning teams are determined by the most points they’ve acquired during the tournament. 

“It gets pretty complicated,” says Independence resident and team captain George Klepacz, who along with his brother Ed Klepacz and Independence residents Sal Indrico, Gloria Mikals, Jack Mikals, Sharon Rogers and Bob Sackett, bested Canal Fulton in the final round to take the title of 2025 Mind Challenge Champion, and received $2,500 for the Senior Organization at the Independence Civic Center.  

This year, 115 teams from 72 cities across Ohio competed in the match.

“The game,” Klepacz says, “keeps us seniors going and gives us the opportunity to socialize and interact with each other.