Chris Haney, the co-creator of Trivial Pursuit, has died at age 59, The New York Times reports. The Times said Haney’s cause of death was not announced, other than to say that he had suffered from a long illness.

Acccording to the obituary, "On the evening of Dec. 15, 1979, Mr. Haney [a picture editor at The Montreal Gazette]  and Scott Abbott, who was then a sportswriter for The Canadian Press, were playing Scrabble. Mr. Haney wondered aloud whether the two of them could invent a game as good.

"Contrary to legend, they were neither in a tavern nor on their 18th round of beers. They were actually at Mr. Haney’s home in Montreal and on their first beers when Mr. Haney suggested a game based on trivia, they told The Hamilton Spectator in 1993. By the time Mr. Haney was opening the refrigerator to fetch their second beers, they were already mentally designing the board."

Thge game appeared on store shelves in 1982. In 2008 Hasbro took full control of the game for $80 million.