Plymouth Troubleshooting Contest

Feeling cheated.. We made 2nd place at state in 1977 ....no buckles, no trophy but I got a nice set of craftsman tools most of which I still have... helped me into a career and biz .... Guess I don't feel cheated.. but I would love the belt buckle lol

 

Kinda old thread, but I work for a vo-tech school in Tallahassee Florida, while cleaning out a long forgot about closet we unboxed these Plymouth troubleshooting contest trophies....

Be awesome to find the guys that earned them! The 1st place is from 1969 & 1975

Hopefully they are members here.

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While in college at SIU in Carbondale, IL in the early 1970s, I attended their VTI program which at the time was a 2-year automotive program.
Was a college sophmore as I remember it. The 1973 Illinois contest was held on Chicago's south side, probably Blue Island. My partner Dave and I won the 1973 Illinois Post Secondary Trouble Shooting Contest, which meant from there we would compete at the Nationals which were held in Boston, MA that year.
In Boston we won 1st again beating the second place team by almost 3 minutes which at that level was quite a feat as often the wins are mere seconds apart.
For those of you not familar with the contest here is a link to the one I won which explains it from "Popular Mechanics Jan 1974".
Link below will get you there and if you scroll down slowly you can read the article, take you 5 maybe 10 minutes at the most...brought back a lot of memories, oh I miss the days of youth when you thought you knew it all. No one does but was close in those days. Spent the rest of my working life in the automotive industry, and proud to admit it.

https://books.google.com/books?id=T...ERLC0-u4uiQy95ZBUwnmxlsZg#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Congrats from a fellow Saluki, same time frame, too. I got my BS in photography 1974.

 

My school participated in 69 & 70 but I didn't get picked for the team. Auto Shop teacher (Mr. Reppurt) picked guys that were heading for a career in the automotive fteld. All I wanted to do in shop class was stick V8s in old cars.

 

I think every national contest was covered in one magazine or another.

 

I had a Trophy or plaque in my office when I was teaching High Auto shop that someone who had taken the class before me in the early 60's had won.
I believe that was the guys who were Class of 1963 seniors and the last ones from the school that went to the trouble shooting contest as far as I remember. I graduated in 1965 and had a different teacher that year than the one I had the first two years.
We had heard of a couple of schools where the Auto Shop class focus was primarily towards that contest rather than turning out a well rounded mechanic. How much truth to that there was I don't know.

After several years working in shops I got the job and became the teacher in fall of 1977 when my predecessor handed in his resignation at the start of the school year and I started the first week of October. He was my teacher when I was a Sr so that may have been some help.

 

I was one of two team members who won the 1972 San Diego Regionals and went to Los Angeles Nations -- The year they left Indianapolis 500 raceway. 11th place - missed 10th Place by 6 minutes.
Still have trophy and watch -- we've seen better days.

 

Buddy here in Dallas Team won in 1973 or 1974 - but he still turned out a dang Chevy guy.

 

I was in the 71 regional in Pa. Still have my trophy. My buddy the carb guy forgot some thing and cost us the win, we were way ahead too. Ended up 4th. Local Chevy garage picked me right up though, which was cool cause I was the only one to work on the Vettes that came in for work. And, I got to test drive em when finished !

 

2nd place Amherst High School, Snyder NY, 1970, still have the trophy.

 

I found one of their fender covers years ago on a farm sale. Neat piece to have.

 

I am currently selling a 1965 Plymouth Troubleshooting Trophy on eBay if anyone here is interested.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/174837464052

It would be awesome to find the original winner. The writing on the bottom states the original winner was David M. Borders on Friday May 4th, 1965 who finished 1st over 3 counties.

 

SIU Automotive has quite a history with the Plymouth Troubleshooting Contest. I was on the team in 1970 when they first opened the contest to post secondary institutions. We won the state contest and got third in the National contest. The National was held on the front straightaway of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Mr Hullman was still alive and he started the contest by announcing, "Gentlemen, start your engines...if you can".

1970 was the year of the Kent State shootings and they closed SIU before the end of the semester. The head of the automotive program wasn't sure that we should go since school was closed. Our instructor, Jim White, my partner and myself convinced him that we should go.

I think that Rick was in the first in a series of SIU teams that won the National contest with Joe Cash as their instructor. I was at the new SIU Automotive buildings last summer (with Jim White and another retired instructor Joe Kazda) and the old trophy's are still on display.