 Formed in 1949, the American Forensic Association was created with the goal of teaching students to utilize the skills of argumentation and advocacy.In the first decades of its existence, the AFA was primarily focused on promoting debate competitions, with little to no interest in individual events.As a result in the rapid rise of interest in individual events in the late 1960s, Dr. Seth Hawkins of Southern Connecticut State University, Dr. Raymond Beaty of Ohio University and Dr. Jack Howe of California State University, Long Beach began to propose ideas of an organized national tournament focused on individual events.