Two DePauw seniors squared off in a debate Thursday evening against the National British Debate Team.
Earlier this year, seniors Jimmy Kirkpatrick and Robert McMuray sent in a bid to bring the British team to DePauw through the National Center for Discussion and Debate.
The DePauw debate team won the bid, and the British team came from Washington D.C. before arriving at DePauw arrived on campus Tuesday night.
"It'll look like we hate each other on stage," senior Jimmy Kirkpatrick said. "But after the debate, we will invite them to The (Fluttering) Duck."
Kirkpatrick and McMurray represented DePauw, and Willard Faxton and Ettie Bailey-King represented the British. The debate was less formal than a typical debate.
"There aren't skilled judges, just the audience [deciding the winner]," Kirkpatrick said. "There isn't a real winner or loser. We just want to give the people a good show."
McMurray saw this opportunity as a way to stretch the education he has received at DePauw.
"It's a culmination of a lot of hard work," McMurray said. "We're at a liberal arts college, and its nice to live that dream."
Before the debate, DePauw's team took time to prepare on Thursday. Typically, the team only prepares 15 minutes before a debate. Kirkpatrick and McMurray planned to cite specific theoretical examples in their arguments about how a third party would affect the American system or bring it closer to the current British system that has more than two parties.
"The British's big advantage is humor," Kirkpatrick said. "We're going to play up the patriotism card, but won't stray too much from what we typically do."
Debating American politics would give the DePauw debaters an advantage, but the British have an impressive knowledge to make them formidable opponents in the debate.
"Faxton writes a blog about American politics," McMurray said. "My assumption Ettie is just as fluent."
Bailey-King and Faxton tried out, then got selected to debate for England's National Debate Team. They debate on a circuit in England.
"[Faxton] was voted the funniest speaker in the world," DePauw debate team sponsor director of Forensics professor Geoff Klinger said.
Kirkpatrick and McMurray were selected by Klinger to represent DePauw. Both have been on the team since their freshman year, and both served as president of the Debate Club: Kirkpatrick last year, and McMurray this year.
"Jimmy is always ready to debate," Klinger said.
McMurray also cited the duo's experience in international debates; he and Kirkpatrick debated Japanese National Debate Team last year.
"This is considerably different," McMurray said prior to the debate. "We can run a different case [than against Japan]. We're going to run more theory and how it applies to the American system."
Thursday's debate in Watson Forum aired on local television. It was a public parliamentary debate in which the first person whom spoke also spoke last. Each team received an equal amount of time. Any time America was mentioned Kirkpatrick waived a miniature American flag.
McMurray blames DePauw's woes against the British team in the past to their accent.
"If anything [the accent] is in their favor," McMurray said. "And lord knows I can't do it. The British have wiped the floor with us in the past, and I blame the accent."
Jeff McCall, professor of communication and moderator of the debate, called the match a tie, telling participants to draw their own conclusion.
But Bailey-King thought differenly.
"Usually we win," Bailey-King said. "But not this one. They were tough."
