The Amy Perpetual Bowl

In 1986, the Students’ Club reinvigorated debating as a College activity with a new competition named the ‘Amy Perpetual Bowl’ after the winner’s trophy.

Amy was the much-beloved college dog, the companion of College stalwart George Mounsey and the Bowl was originally an aluminium vessel designed for canine use. This original bowl was quickly replaced with a silver-plated trophy, which was annually engraved with the names of the competition winners for many years.

In its first year, the debating competition was keenly contested; the rugby team, the SCR and a variety of undergraduates employed tactics including hippie costumes, leather skirts, haloes and ski goggles whilst debating a range of topics before enthusiastic crowds. Amy herself passed away the following year, but as The Chronicle reported, tongue-in-cheek, her debating competition lived on ‘as a testimony to Amy’s enduring interest in all things cultural.’

The Amy Perpetual Bowl has continued in the ensuing decades, with significant results. Over the years Ormond debaters have gone on to intercollegiate competition, national debating and even the World University Debating Championships, where the College has frequently fielded a team against tertiary institutions from around the world. Ormond debaters have also carried their skills into professions including the law and state and federal politics.

Topics in Amy Perpetual Bowl debates have included everything from the comic ‘That we should play with our food’ to the whimsical ‘That we should send in the clowns’ to the philosophical ‘Does Pauline Hanson has the right to be heard?’, which was debated in 1998. Since then debating has waxed and waned in popularity at Ormond, but the College still competes in intercollegiate debating.