You should have heard of one of them (Edison), he invented allot. Tesla did not make many ground breaking inventions, he generally expanded on other inventors work and tended to go off on flights of fancy that led to nothing realistic that would end up in a history book.

If they did not cover "Nikola Tesla vs Thomas Edison" then they may have simply been knowledgeable teachers. "Nikola Tesla vs Thomas Edison" is an internet trope/myth.... they actually had very little to do with each other. Their paths sorta crossed in the electric power business but Edison retired from that business in 1890 and Tesla's inventions were not being implemented until 1893. More at http://edison.rutgers.edu/tesla.htm.