The question of prizes to stimulate interest in mathematics was brought up again in 1957, but this time with respect to high school students. A committee was appointed to solicit university and industrial financial support for a competition among the high school students of Michigan, and to organize the project and proceed with the prize examinations. Financial support being forthcoming, the committee set up a procedure with two examinations, the first, which would be machine graded, would eliminate some of the contestants, and the second, more of an essay exam, would be individually graded and lead to the award of prizes.
Much credit goes to the first exam committee.
Their efforts to get the competition off the ground were monumental. The first contest was held in the spring of 1958 and drew 6100 students from 315 high schools. Since then the competition has mushroomed, reaching at times about 25,000 high school students from close to 600 schools participating in the preliminary contest. Along with competition committee members, one has to cite the untiring efforts of Jim McKay of Oakland University, who early on directed several competitions and helped to streamline the whole process. Computerization of some aspects of the competition began at Michigan State University, and later, at Western Michigan University, it was expanded to include most of the process.