The Conway Classic

The Gonzaga University Debate Program extends an invitation to you and your students to attend the 60th Annual Conway Classic. The Classic is named in honor of Sister Margaret Mary Conway, former Director of Debate at Gonzaga University. Sister Conway is the major reason why Gonzaga has remained a perennial competitor in collegiate policy debate. Her commitment and dedication to forensics in the state of Washington served as a model for our entire community and it seemed only fitting to rename name this tournament in her honor.

As usual, you can count on high quality competition, excellent judging, and an efficiently run tournament. We are also pleased that once again our tournament is a TOC Qualifying Tournament in CX debate in finals.

Note: We have returned to our 3 day schedule in order to accommodate our large entry and the need for a double octa round in Open CX. Rounds will begin Thursday afternoon.

We request you enter the tournament via email. Email all entries to

This year’s tournament will be held Thursday - Saturday, January 3rd - 5th, 2008 on the campus of Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington. Our tournament will offer Open and Novice divisions in Cross Examination debate; Lincoln-Douglas debate and Student Congress. We will also offer Novice and Senior Divisions in 9 individual events; humorous interpretation, extemporaneous speaking; oratory, interpretive reading; expository; impromptu; duo, ed comm, and dramatic interpretations. The tournament will consist of six preliminary rounds and an appropriate number of elimination rounds in each division of debate as well as three preliminary rounds and finals of individual events. Note: We have eliminated conflict patterns in individual events. All 9 events will occur simultaneously and students will be limited to entering a maximum of 4 individual events. Lincoln Douglas will use the January/February topic. Kara Smith (Lake City), Mike Stovern (Mead), Sam Normington (Mead), and Glen Frappier (Gonzaga) will serve as your friendly tab room staff.

Registration: will be in The Montana Room in the COG beginning at 12pm on Thursday, January 3rd. This will also be the home of the ballot table and serve as our judges lounge. The main gathering area for the students is The Spokane Room in The COG. All pairings will be released in the Montana Room and The Spokane Room.

Debate Entry Limits: Room space is limited. As a results we need to limit the number of debate entries. Each school may bring a maximum of 8 debate entries. A debate entry is either one policy team or 2 LD debaters. If you have additional teams you'd like to enter please list those on your entry and indicate waiting list. There is no limit on IE or Student Congress entries.

Deadlines: We will accept entries until we are at max capacity.

We look forward to seeing you for what promises to be an exceptional tournament. We hope that you have a happy holiday season and that your travels bring you safely to Spokane in January.

 Sincerely,

Glen Frappier Steve Pointer

Director, Gonzaga Debate Assistant Director, Gonzaga Debate