Syracuse Trivia
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154 free Syracuse trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
52 free Syracuse trivia questions with answers. Syracuse is the Salt City, the snowiest metro area in America, home to the nation's first state fair and the only traffic light with green on top. It is also Syracuse University: the Dome, Jim Boeheim's 47 seasons, Ernie Davis, Jim Brown, Otto the Orange and a Newhouse School that has produced half of American sportscasting. This quiz covers both, plus the ancient Sicilian city the name came from, the Onondaga Nation, the Erie Canal, Franklin cars, Syracuse China, Dinosaur Bar-B-Que and the Micron megafab going up in Clay. It works for a Salt City bar quiz, an alumni tailgate or a family that has argued about salt potatoes. Early questions are for anyone who has driven I-81; later ones expect you to know who hit the shot in 1987. Every answer has been checked against Wikipedia's articles on the city, the university, its teams and landmarks, and each question shows its source once you have answered.
30 of 154 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In the 1851 'Jerry Rescue', a Syracuse crowd stormed a police office to free a man held under which law?
The Fugitive Slave Act
The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 let federal marshals seize William 'Jerry' Henry, a cooper who had escaped slavery, on 1 October 1851; the crowd broke him out the same day, and he was smuggled to freedom in Kingston, Ontario.
Q 02Syracuse, New York, was named in 1820 after an ancient Greek city on which Mediterranean island?
Sicily
Sicily: the name was proposed by a villager who had read a poem about ancient Syracuse, which, like the New York settlement, faced water and had salt flats nearby; the village became a city in 1848.
Q 03Which famous mathematician was born in the original Syracuse and died during its Roman siege in 212 BC?
Archimedes
Archimedes, born in Syracuse about 287 BC, designed the war machines that defended the city; a Roman soldier killed him when the legions finally broke in during 212 BC.
Q 04Colonists from which Greek city founded the original Syracuse in the 8th century BC?
Corinth
Corinth: its settlers, led by Archias, founded the colony in the 730s BC, and four centuries later the mother city sent its general Timoleon to free Syracuse from its tyrants.
Q 05Which two interstates intersect in Syracuse?
I-81 and I-90
I-81 and I-90: the north–south I-81 meets the east–west New York State Thruway at Syracuse; in the 1960s urban renewal and I-81's elevated downtown stretch swept away the 15th Ward, the centre of the city's Black community.
Q 06Destiny USA, in Syracuse's Lakefront neighbourhood, holds what distinction?
Largest shopping mall in New York State
Destiny USA is the largest shopping mall in New York State; the name dates from a 2001 plan to triple the mall's size, of which only one addition, opened in 2011-12, was ever built.
Q 07What was Destiny USA called when it opened in 1990?
Carousel Center
Carousel Center: the mall opened in October 1990 on a former scrap yard beside Onondaga Lake and took its name from the antique carousel that still runs inside; it was rebranded Destiny USA in 2012.
Q 08Which two snow sources give Syracuse more than ten feet in a normal winter?
Lake Ontario and Atlantic nor'easters
Lake Ontario and Atlantic nor'easters: cold winds crossing the lake drop band after band of lake-effect snow on the city, and coastal storms add their own, for a seasonal normal of about 128 inches.
Q 09What is the annual prize for the snowiest large city in Upstate New York, usually won by Syracuse?
The Golden Snowball
The Golden Snowball began in the late 1970s as a friendly contest run by Rochester weather forecasters, lapsed in the 1990s and was later revived; Syracuse has won it far more often than Buffalo, Rochester, Albany or Binghamton.
Q 10What is unusual about the traffic light on Tipperary Hill?
The green is on top
The green is on top: by neighbourhood tradition, Irish-American youths in the 1920s kept breaking the 'British' red lens hung above the Irish green until the city agreed to turn the signal upside down.
Q 11What is painted on the road beneath the Tipperary Hill traffic light each St Patrick's Day?
A shamrock
A shamrock is painted on the street under the signal at Tompkins Street and Milton Avenue at midnight as St Patrick's Day begins, and flags are raised at the same light on the day itself.
Q 12Salt potatoes, the Syracuse summer staple, were originally the daily lunch of which labourers?
Irish brine-vat crews
Irish brine-vat crews: 19th-century salt workers boiled small unpeeled potatoes in the brine for lunch; the salt crusts the skin, and the hotter boil of very salty water cooks the inside creamier.
Q 13Which barbecue-and-blues chain opened its first restaurant on Willow Street in downtown Syracuse in 1988?
Q 21Which NBA team began life as the Syracuse Nationals and won the 1955 title?
The 76ers
The 76ers: the Syracuse Nationals, NBA champions in 1955, played 17 seasons in the NBL and NBA before moving to Philadelphia in 1963 and taking the 76ers name.
Q 22Which 1869 hoax began with a 'petrified man' dug up on a farm near Syracuse?
The Cardiff Giant
The Cardiff Giant, a carved figure ten feet tall, drew such crowds on show in Syracuse that P. T. Barnum tried to buy it; when its owners refused, he had a copy made and exhibited that in New York as the real thing.
Q 23What is Syracuse University's mascot?
Otto the Orange
Dinosaur Bar-B-Que
Dinosaur Bar-B-Que began in 1983 as a mobile stand feeding bikers at motorcycle rallies, spent five years on the road, then settled on Willow Street in 1988; it later opened in Rochester, Harlem and beyond.
Q 14The nation whose homeland surrounds Syracuse holds what role in the Haudenosaunee Confederacy?
Keepers of the Fire
The Onondaga are Keepers of the Fire: the Grand Council of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy meets on Onondaga territory, the central of the original five nations between the Mohawk and Seneca.
Q 15What dubious title did Onondaga Lake, beside Destiny USA, hold for decades?
Most polluted lake in the nation
Onondaga Lake was often called the most polluted lake in the nation after a century of industrial waste and sewage; a 15-year cleanup that dredged and capped parts of the lake bottom was completed in 2017.
Q 16Which Syracuse car maker, active 1902-1934, was famous for air-cooled engines?
Franklin
Franklin built only air-cooled cars in Syracuse from 1902 to 1934; Herbert H. Franklin's company favoured light aluminium construction, and Depression-era luxury sales collapsed before it could recover.
Q 17Syracuse China, which closed in 2009, began in 1871 under what name?
Onondaga Pottery Company
The Onondaga Pottery Company, organised in 1871, sold its hotel and railroad dinnerware under the Syracuse China name, and the line grew so well known that the firm renamed itself after it in 1966.
Q 18Which air-conditioning company was long headquartered in Syracuse and had a stadium named after it?
Carrier
Carrier's $2.75 million gift put its name on Syracuse University's new stadium in 1980, yet the Carrier Dome went without air conditioning until a renovation four decades later; JMA Wireless took over the name in 2022.
Q 19Which furniture maker's handmade empire was centred on Syracuse's Craftsman Workshops?
Gustav Stickley
Gustav Stickley built his plain oak Craftsman furniture, popularly called Mission style, on what is now Syracuse's east side; the cost of a twelve-storey showroom building in Manhattan pushed him into bankruptcy in 1915.
Q 20Which chip maker announced up to $100 billion of fabs in Syracuse's northern suburb of Clay in 2022?
Micron
Micron announced the plan in October 2022, two months after the CHIPS and Science Act put federal subsidies behind American chip plants; it chose a site in Clay, just north of Syracuse, for a complex of memory-chip fabs.
Otto the Orange: cheerleaders named the fuzzy orange Otto in 1990, rejecting 'Opie' because it rhymed with dopey, and the university later made him official.
Q 24What original Syracuse mascot grew out of a 1931 student-magazine hoax?
The Saltine Warrior
The Saltine Warrior: the 1931 hoax claimed that the remains of a 16th-century Onondaga chief had been dug up on campus; the mascot was retired in 1978 after Native American students objected to it.
Q 25In which athletic conference did the Syracuse Orange compete in 2025-26?
ACC
The ACC: Syracuse and Pittsburgh accepted the Atlantic Coast Conference's invitation together in 2011, and Syracuse began play there in 2013 after 34 seasons in its previous league.
Q 26Which famous television writer, later raised in Binghamton, was born in Syracuse in 1924?
Rod Serling
Rod Serling was born in Syracuse on 25 December 1924, but his family moved to Binghamton when he was a toddler; the creator of The Twilight Zone is honoured there with a statue unveiled in Recreation Park in 2024.
Q 27What nickname did Syracuse's Dome earn soon after it opened in 1980?
The Loud House
The Loud House: the Dome's original air-supported Teflon-coated roof trapped and bounced crowd noise, making it notoriously deafening; a fixed roof replaced it in 2020.
Q 28Which rival's 2019 visit drew 35,642 fans to Syracuse's Dome, an on-campus record for college basketball?
Duke
Duke drew the record crowd on 23 February 2019 even though its star, Zion Williamson, sat out with a knee injury suffered three days earlier when his shoe split open.
Q 29Which venue stood on the Dome's site from 1907 until 1978?
Archbold Stadium
Archbold Stadium, paid for by oil executive John D. Archbold, was one of the first all-concrete stadiums in the country when it opened in 1907; it was closed after the 1978 season so the Dome could rise on the same ground.
Q 30Which freshman led Syracuse to the 2003 NCAA basketball championship?
Carmelo Anthony
Carmelo Anthony had 20 points and 10 rebounds in the 2003 final and was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player, then left after that single season as the third pick in the NBA draft.