Webster Club

Debate, Forensics, & Mock Trial at Marquette University High School

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Roster and Accomplishments From The 1971-1972 Season

The Webster Club continued their dominance of both state and national competition during the 1971-1972 school year, capturing both the National Forensic League and National Catholic Forensic League National Championships for the second and third years in a row, respectively. At NFL Nationals at Wake Forest University, Marquette received the first of its four Pi Kappa Delta Bruno E. Jacob Awards while laying claim to two individual national championships, Mark Foley in Boy’s Extemoraneous Speaking and John Patek in Original Oratory.

The 1971-1972 Webster Club was the most successful team in Marquette history and will long be remembered as one of the nation’s finest high school forensics and debate teams of all-time.

—Flambeau, 1972

The 1971-1972 season was also a special one because it was the senior season of perhaps Marquette’s greatest policy debate team of all time, Jeffrey Clark and Mark Foley. The duo won the Barkley Forum at Emory University (twice), the inaugural National Tournament of Champions at the University of Kentucky, the prestigious Paris (Tennessee) and Pittsburgh Central Catholic Invitationals, and nearly every tournament they attended in the state of Wisconsin (including the State Championship and the NFL Southern Wisconsin District Tournament). Their dominance nearly translated into a “Triple Crown”: after winning the TOC, the two finished third at NCFL and second at NFL, to this day likely the closest a team has ever come to uniting these three season-ending crowns. While there have been several incredible policy debate pairs in Webster Club history, the accomplishments of Clark and Foley are the gold standard against which all others are judged.

Roster of Students & Coaches

Coaches

Mr. Copeland was named coach of the year for the second year in a row.

—Flambeau, 1972

Students

The debaters. Every night in room 104 until 5:00 o’clock. Always seem to spend their study halls in the Webster Club Room. Take more evidence and debate crud home each night than school books. Long, circumlocutory answers in class. Hidden behind their Coke-bottle glasses and their research books, they are almost never seen at buckets games, and yet they know all the librarians at the law library on a first name basis. A queer bunch, these.

The speakers. Nights spent up on the fourth floor, practicing with “Fast Eddie.” Always seem to look their best, well-scrubbed selves. Memorize their speeches each night, and to hell with history dates. Long boring speeches at the Webster Clubbe Assembly each year. Worried about their voices and how they’re going to do at the next tournament, they’re the quietest people in the gym at the ‘Bosco game. Hardly ever in school; they’re in Atlanta, and Toledo, and Pittsburgh, and Paris, Tennessee. Inscrutable group, these talkative occidentals, eh. Charly Chan?

The Webster Club. A sum of two extremes—the computerized debator and the artistic speaker; post hoc ergo propter hoc meets persuasiveness, and the grafted result is more than the sum of the two parts. From the core, the source of heat and light, stretches a corona of warmth and love (and a little hot air), which extends the Webster Club Room from its little northwest corner position to all corners of the school, which extends the Marquette High Community to all corners of the U.S., which makes this tiny sun called the Marquette High Webster Club, nationally known, not only for its success, but also in this way: “By your love for one another shall they know you.”

—Flambeau, 1972

Team Accomplishments

On May 11th and 12th, Marquette High won the National Catholic Forensic League’s Grand Tournament for the third year in a row. 800 students representing over 100 high schools from all over the nation competed. In winning the sweepstakes, Marquette led the second place team, Cardinal Spellman High School of New York City, by 40 points. Pittsburgh Central Catholic High School was third.

John Patek won in Original Oratory for the second year in a row. The junior debate team of Mark Miner and David Dreis became the first junior debate team ever to reach the semi-final round of the NCFL Grand Tournament. The senior debate team of Mark Foley and Jeff Clark also reached the semifinal round of debate.

As State Tournament winners, the following students represented Marquette High in the National Forensic League National Finals at Wake Forest University on June 19-24, 1972: John Patek (Original Oratory), Jon Daly (Dramatic Interpretation), Dean Richards (Boy’s Extemp), Bob End (Original Oratory), Jeff Clark and Mark Foley (Debate).

At the NFL Finals, Marquette capped a brilliant season by winning the national championship for the second year in a row. This victory gave the team an unprecedented total of five national championships since Mr. James Copeland became head coach in 1968. This total includes 3 NCFL championships and two NFL championships.

Individually, John Patek won in Original Oratory; John is now a three-time national champion, having won two NCFL tournaments and one NFL tournament. Mark Foley is the new national champion in Boy’s Extemp, his second event. Mark and his debate partner, Jeff Clark, won second place out of 82 teams. Dean Richards contributed to the wealth of hardware by winning fourth place in Radio Announcing.

—Flambeau, 1972

Sweepstakes Honors

Debate Honors

Oratory Honors

Interpretation Honors

Extemporaneous Honors

Other Individual Event Honors

National Forensic League National Qualifiers

National Catholic Forensic League National Qualifiers

National Tournament Locations

National Forensic League:
Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina

National Catholic Forensic League:
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

National Policy Debate Resolution

Resolved: That the jury system in the United States should be significantly changed.

Last Updated on July 4th, 2007

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