Quiz Kids Gain a Sponsor

If professional sports entrepreneurs can boost revenues by selling naming rights to such corporations as Staples and Home Depot, why shouldn’t the popular but cash-strapped California Academic Decathlon?

On Wednesday, officials of one of the best-known competitions for high school scholars announced a deal with a private equity firm aimed at easing a financial crunch that only a few months ago had threatened cancellation of this year’s state competition.

So when 50 teams of students from around California gather in Los Angeles next month to vie for the state championship and a shot at the national title, they will find themselves competing in the “California Academic Decathlon Presented by Leonard Green & Partners.”

And if that name doesn’t have quite the same ring as “Staples Center” or “Home Depot Center,” officials of the nonprofit, privately funded academic contest couldn’t care less.

“We are extremely happy,” said investment banker Jeff McCombs, president of the California Academic Decathlon’s board and an academic decathlete himself during all four years of high school. “They’ve been tremendously supportive and helpful.... We are very much looking forward to being long-term partners” with the firm, which will add a representative to the contest’s board.

McCombs would not disclose the amount of the equity firm’s annual commitment but said it represents “the majority of our annual cash needs” of about $150,000. The rest of the organization’s $250,000 annual budget comes from entry fees and study materials and such in-kind contributions as its office space in the San Fernando Valley.

John Danhakl, managing partner for the Southern California-based Leonard Green & Partners, said the firm was “proud to sponsor ... an organization that makes a difference in the lives and futures of thousands of high school students across our state.”

Since The Times published an article last fall about the California Academic Decathlon’s financial troubles, contributions have poured in for the competition that has spurred students of varying abilities to scale greater intellectual heights since its 1968 founding.

The larger benefactors included a coalition headed by California Education Secretary Richard Riordan that donated $65,000; the Draper Family Community Fund, which promised to match $30,000 in contributions, and Public Storage founder Wayne Hughes, who gave $10,000.

McCombs said the organization will continue raising money in hopes of expanding the contest to all 58 California counties.