[NU Sports] HIlarious

[Mike Nolan]

> In the early 70's I seem to remember that the mainframe guys developed a chess program
> that beat everyone else for a while. Was it called "Big Blue?"

No, it was just named "Chess", and was developed by Dave Slate and Larry Atkins, 
two programmers on the staff at Vogelback who were about expert strength chess
players.  

It won several computer world chess championships back in the 70's, running on
Northwestern's Control Data 7400 computer system, which was later replaced 
by a Cyber 76, I believe.  

Vogelback is the reason I decided to go to Northwestern.  I had received a letter
from them and scheduled a campus visit.  I remember taking a tour of Tech on
a fall Saturday in 1966.  At one point we walked out the SE door of the building, 
across the alley and into Vogelback.  I knew at that moment exactly where I 
wanted to go to college.  The happiest day of my life to that point was 
the day I got my acceptance letter.  I spent many many hours in Vogelback, 
initially just as a student but later as the first undergraduate student hired 
to work at the help desk.  
--
Mike Nolan