Drexel University
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40 free Drexel University trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Drexel University began as a banker's gift to Philadelphia, a school meant to teach practical skills to women and men alike, and it has kept that hands-on streak ever since. Its graduates have changed how the world shops, cooks, computes and flies, and its campus has a habit of trying new technology before anyone else. This quiz collects the best Drexel fun facts in one place. Expect questions on the founder and his famous business partner, alumni who became inventors, astronauts, entertainers and heads of state, the Dragons' strangest sports stories, and the kind of surprising details that make a good Jeopardy clue. It is written for Dragons past and present, prospective students getting ready for a campus visit, and anyone who enjoys college trivia. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you pick up the backstory even when you guess wrong.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which invention did Drexel graduate students Norman Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver patent, drawing on Morse code?
Barcode
Barcode lines began as Morse dots and dashes that Woodland drew in beach sand, then stretched downward with his fingers. The first product scanned, in 1974, was a pack of chewing gum.
Q 02Which newly launched personal computer did Drexel students receive at a steep discount in early 1984?
Macintosh
Macintosh machines for Drexel carried a blue D on the case, and Apple agreed to a $1,000 price for a model that sold to the public for $2,495.
Q 03Which future Wall Street titan became the junior partner of Drexel University founder Anthony Drexel in 1871?
J. P. Morgan
J. P. Morgan was sent to Drexel as a troubled young banker in need of a mentor. Two years after Drexel died, their firm was renamed for the junior man, and it is an ancestor of JPMorgan Chase.
Q 04Which classic American side dish did Drexel home economics graduate Dorcas Reilly invent in a Campbell's test kitchen?
Green bean casserole
Green bean casserole was one of hundreds of recipes Reilly created at Campbell's, alongside a tomato soup meatloaf. In 2002 her recipe was donated to the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
Q 05Which kind of Drexel student group has performed since 2005 under the name 'The Drexel Football Team'?
Improv comedy troupe
Improv comedy troupe members took the name because Drexel has had no varsity football since the sport was cut after the 1973 season. Former players have come to watch and praised the idea.
Q 06Which 1970s television talent contest spoof was hosted and produced by Chuck Barris, a 1953 Drexel graduate?
The Gong Show
The Gong Show made Barris a public figure in 1976, years after he had created The Dating Game. He also wrote the pop hit Palisades Park, first recorded by Freddy Cannon.
Q 07Virginia Halas McCaskey, who studied business management at Drexel, was the longtime principal owner of which NFL team?
Chicago Bears
Chicago Bears founder George Halas was her father, and she had gone to Drexel hoping to become his secretary. She instead inherited the team in 1983 and owned it until her death in 2025.
Q 08Sandra Lee, a 1998 graduate of Drexel's medical college, became a YouTube and TV star under which nickname?
Dr. Pimple Popper
Dr. Pimple Popper took off in 2015, when Lee saw how popular her skin extraction clips had become. TLC gave her a series of the same name in 2018.
Q 09Drexel graduate Christopher Ferguson commanded the final Space Shuttle mission in 2011 aboard which orbiter?
Atlantis
Atlantis flew that last mission, STS-135, with a crew of only four, the smallest on any shuttle flight since 1983. Ferguson had earned a mechanical engineering degree at Drexel in 1984.
Q 10Which name does Drexel's dragon mascot carry, honoring an alumnus who attended its basketball games for over 20 years?
Mario the Magnificent
Mario the Magnificent honors Mario V. Mascioli, a Class of 1945 graduate and trustee who was a fixture at Drexel games. The teams have been called the Dragons since the 1920s.
Q 11Drexel won its first intercollegiate basketball game in the 1890s by a lopsided 26–1 against which school?
Temple
Temple was still called Temple College when it managed that single point. Drexel's first season was 1894–95, which makes its program one of the earliest in college basketball.
Q 12In 2018 Drexel erased a 34-point deficit, then the biggest comeback in Division I basketball, to beat which team?
Delaware
Delaware led 53–19 at one point before the Dragons stormed back to win 85–83, a swing of 36 points.
Q 13Which future two-time NBA champion led Drexel to its 1996 NCAA tournament upset of fifth-seeded Memphis?
Malik Rose
Malik Rose averaged over 16 points and 12 rebounds a game at Drexel, then won his rings with San Antonio in 1999 and 2003. He went to the same Philadelphia high school as Wilt Chamberlain.
Q 21Which Drexel program, introduced in 1919, is one of the oldest of its kind in the United States?
Co-op education
Co-op education has Drexel students alternate classroom terms with full-time work in their field. A five-year student typically works 18 months for up to three employers.
Q 22Which famous inventor joined Andrew Carnegie among the guests at the 1891 dedication of Drexel's main building?
Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison sat in a crowd that also included Levi Morton, the vice president of the United States. Speaker Chauncey Depew praised the new school for preparing students for jobs in science.
Q 23When Congress refused in 1877, Drexel University founder Anthony Drexel's bank paid the wages of which institution?
Q 14Drexel's basketball rivalry known as the Battle of 33rd Street is played against which neighboring team?
Penn Quakers
Penn Quakers are Drexel's most notable rival, and the campuses sit so close that it is one of the nearest rivalries in college basketball. Both schools belong to Philadelphia's City 6.
Q 15Drexel's women won five national championships between 1947 and 1954 in which sport, dropped by the school in 2003?
Rifle
Rifle teams shot for Drexel from 1919 until 2003, when the program was shut down over public safety concerns and the cost of renovating the range.
Q 16Drexel's unbeaten 12–0 men's team of 1958 was voted national champion in which sport?
Soccer
Soccer had no NCAA playoff until the following year, so the sport's governing association simply awarded Drexel the 1958 title. For that reason the NCAA does not officially recognize it.
Q 17Drexel won eleven national collegiate team championships between 1988 and 2004 in which martial art?
Karate
Karate brought Drexel its titles in two team events, kata and kumite, at the National Collegiate Karate Association championships. The program practiced the Shotokan style.
Q 18From 2011 through 2019, Drexel's Daskalakis Athletic Center hosted the annual U.S. Open of which racquet sport?
Squash
Squash arrived at Drexel in a hurry: varsity men's and women's teams were added in 2011 under head coach John White, a former world number one.
Q 19Drexel crews have won gold at which regatta, the largest regular intercollegiate rowing event in the United States?
Dad Vail
Dad Vail is named for Harry Emerson Vail, a longtime rowing coach at the University of Wisconsin. The regatta settled on Philadelphia's Schuylkill River in 1953.
Q 20Drexel opened in 1891 as an institute of 'Art, Science and' which third field, completing its original name?
Industry
Industry rounded out the Drexel Institute of Art, Science and Industry, founded to teach practical skills to women and men of all backgrounds. It took the name Drexel University in 1970.
US Army
US Army pay for the whole force was underwritten by Drexel's firm to restore investor confidence. The same bank later helped rescue the New York Stock Exchange during the Panic of 1907.
Q 24Saint Katharine Drexel, niece of Drexel's founder, opened a New Orleans school that grew into which university?
Xavier
Xavier University of Louisiana grew from a high school she opened on the former site of Southern University. Canonized in 2000, she was the first saint born a US citizen.
Q 25Which Philadelphia research museum, founded in 1812 as the oldest of its kind in the Americas, joined Drexel in 2011?
Academy of Natural Sciences
Academy of Natural Sciences naturalists sponsored expeditions and amassed more than 17 million specimens. After the affiliation the institution added Drexel's name to its own.
Q 26Hahnemann Medical College, a forerunner of Drexel's College of Medicine, was named for the founder of which practice?
Homeopathy
Homeopathy was founded by Samuel Hahnemann, and the Philadelphia college that took his name opened in 1848. Drexel absorbed its successor, MCP Hahnemann University, in 2002.
Q 27David Shulkin, who earned his medical degree at a college since merged into Drexel, led which US cabinet department?
Veterans Affairs
Veterans Affairs was run by Shulkin from 2017 to 2018, after he had served as its under secretary for health in the previous administration. He was also a vice dean at Drexel's College of Medicine.
Q 28Drexel's Charles D. Close School is described as the first freestanding US school devoted to which subject?
Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship students there can launch companies through the school's Baiada Institute, an incubator that gives Drexel startups resources and mentors.
Q 29In 1961 Drexel founded an institute billed as the first in the United States for which branch of engineering?
Biomedical
Biomedical work at Drexel grew from that institute into a full school whose research spans biomaterials, neuroengineering and cardiovascular engineering.
Q 30Alassane Ouattara, who earned a Drexel business degree in 1965, became president of which West African country in 2010?
Ivory Coast
Ivory Coast first knew Ouattara as an economist: he worked for the International Monetary Fund and served as the country's prime minister in the early 1990s.