Name that City! — April 15, 2021

Here’s a review of this week’s questions:

1. Where in Flyover Country was water skiing invented?
2. It has been described as one of the finest examples of Neo-Gothic architecture in the United States. What is the Scottish Rite Cathedral and in what city is it located?
3. The university in this city has as its sports mascot a Bluetick Coonhound named Smokey.

And here are the answers:

1. In 1922, on Lake Pepin in Minnesota, fisherman Ralph Samuelson convinced his brother to pull him behind a motorboat while he stood on two 8-foot pine boards and held on to a clothesline. His brother Ben towed him and they reached a speed of 20 miles per hour. Samuelson spent 15 years performing shows and teaching water skiing to people in the United States.
2. Indianapolis—The Scottish Rite Cathedral isn’t a place of worship. It’s a Masonic Lodge and event venue that was built in1929. Every dimension of the structure (in feet) is evenly divisible by three (reflecting the three degrees in Freemasonry), with many also being divisible by 33 (reflecting the degrees a member of the Scottish Rite can achieve).
3. Knoxville, TN—Smokey is the mascot for the University of Tennessee sports teams. In1953, the school’s pep club held a contest to select a coonhound (a breed common in Tennessee) to serve as the school’s live mascot, with the pooch getting the most cheers being selected. “Brooks’ Blue Smokey,” a coonhound owned by the late Rev. W. C. Brooks won the contest after he barked when he was introduced over the loudspeaker and then continued to howl until the students were in an uproar.