First some ground rules before we
officially begin. As with the 2000s, the 1990s is a slight misnomer as it
covered the period from 1994-2003.
Second of the fifteen players who
were invited back, aside from Brad Rutter, four of them have been invited back
in previous Invitationals. Pam Mueller was invited in 2024 and this year Robin
Carroll, Rachael Schwartz and Shane Whitlock all returned.
Three other players Babu
Srinivasan, Eddie Timanus and Bob Harris will be included in another article in
this series which I’ll deal with later. For similar reasons Dan Melia will not
be recounted here. That leaves us with six Jeopardy greats, none of whom have
been invited back since 2014 and all of whom have the kind of records both in
their original appearances and ‘post-season’ play to be brought back.
Finally all six of these players
are products of the era of the five-game limit on their wins and with one
exception, all of them played during the period between 1984-2001 in which the
dollar figures in the Jeopardy round ranged from $100-$500 and in Double
Jeopardy were $200-1000. Furthermore while there are four Tournament of
Champions winners here, all but two of them played in the era where the grand
prize was $100,000. As a result much of their record will appear low compared
to those used to the kind of play we’ve had over the last decade. All of them
rank among the all-time greats in regards to era and post-season play, all of
which are considerable.
DAVE ABBOTT
I have no real memory of Dave’s
original run in June of 1998, likely because I was getting ready to start
college in a few months’ time. His total of $68,599 was the highest amount won
of all fifteen participants in the 1999 Tournament of Champions. I do, however,
remember his appearance in the Tournament of Champions not only because I
recorded it but I was watching it with my father as we still do. It was one of
the few times I remember a player going into Game 1 in third place, coming back
to win the entire Tournament something that Alex Trebek frequently said
happened but I rarely have seen occur.
As it was Game 2 was a close
match between him J.J. Todor and Juliet Maly and was decided by Final Jeopardy.
I have never forgotten that question. The category was U.S. INDUSTRIES: “Around
1850 it used a fleet of over 700 ships; by 1930 this U.S. industry was
practically defunct.” Dave knew it and I didn’t: “What is whaling?” That won
him $100,000.
Dave would be invited back to
both the Ultimate Tournament of Champions in 2005 and the Battle of the Decades
in 2014. In both of his appearance he would go into Final Jeopardy with the
lead and end up losing because he was the only player to respond incorrectly.
I’ll withhold how it went in the Battle of the Decades because it affects later
entrants but I’ll deal with the UTC here.
In his first round appearance he
essentially spent almost the whole game ahead of both Mark Born and Paul
Gutowski. Then came Final Jeopardy. The category was FAMOUS PLACES: “The
appearance of this famous site gave England its old name of Albion. Both Mark
and Paul knew the correct response: “What are the White Cliffs of Dover?” (As
Alex reminded us it is from Albion we get words such as ‘alba’ and albino. Dave
did not look happy because he wrote down: “What is Stonehenge?” In both cases
he went home with $5000.
I think it’s well past time for
Dave to return.
JILL BUNZENDAHL CHIMKA
Alone among the invitees to the
Battle of the Decades: The 1990s Jill was the only participant who I had no
prior memory of in her original appearance. Furthermore I also had no memory of
her from a previous super-tournament such as the UTC. It was not until I did a
dive into the history of Jeopardy for a book I was trying to write that I
realized why she was included.
In May of 2002 Jill won four
games and $85,099. So what, I said initially? What I didn’t know until a long
search was that Jill had in her appearance broken the record for most money in their original run
won by a female contestant set by Amy Fine in 1994 when she won $72,803 in five
games. (The dollar figures had been doubled in November of 2001.).
Jill managed to win in her
quarterfinal appearance in the 2003 Tournament of Champions in large part
because she was one of the few players in the quarterfinals to respond
correctly in Final Jeopardy in her appearance. She ended up losing to Mark
Dawson in her semi-final appearance and went home with $10,000.
Unfortunately she ended up facing
Brad Rutter in her first round appearance and as was unfortunately the case for
nearly everybody who ran up against Brad Rutter over the years things went
badly. In her case she had the dubious distinction of being the only player in
the entire first round of the Battle of the Decades to be unable to compete in
Final Jeopardy at the end of the Double Jeopardy round. I think its well past
time she got a chance for redemption.
MARK DAWSON
Mark’s original run on Jeopardy
is importantly symbolic as he was one of the last players who, upon winning
five games, would receive a fancy sports car. And his last show in his original
run was famously Alex Trebek’s last show with a mustache. (Both of these facts
Alex pointed out when Mark returned for the Battle of The Decades.) Mark was
also significant because he was the first winner of the Tournament of Champions
when the grand prize went from $100,000 to $250,000.
Mark’s run took place two months
before the dollar figures were doubled, so his five day total of $52,599 is superficially
not that impressive. Most of participants in the 2003 Tournament of Champions had
done so and in fact in the finals of that year’s Tournament he faced off
against Brian Weikle, who one month earlier had set both the new one-day record
and five day record for money won on Jeopardy. (His total of $149,200 is
impressive even today; so far this season not a single Tournament of Champions qualifier
has won that much.) Nevertheless, at the end of Game 1 of the Final Mark was
ahead of both him and Eric Floyd because he had been the only player to give a
correct response in Final Jeopardy.
The category was GOVERNORS: “In
1967 she became the first woman governor of a state east of the Mississippi
River.” Mark, who is a native of Georgia, might have had an edge in knowing
that this clue referred to Lurleen Wallace.
In Game 2 Brian led the entire
way through but Mark was still close at the end of Double Jeopardy. It came
down to Final Jeopardy. The category was DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE SIGNERS. “On
the list of the signers, 2 of the 3 last names that appear twice.” All three
players had one combination of the last names: Adams, Lee and Morris. Mark won in
part because Brian may have miscalculated on how much to wager on Final
Jeopardy but it takes nothing away from his effort.
Mark reappeared on Jeopardy two
years later in the Ultimate Tournament of Champions. He did well in the first
round, winning $23,650 but poorly in the second and was eliminated by Lan
Djang, who I’ll talk about later.
In his match against Dave Abbott
and Claudia Perry Mark was frequently in the lead and found all three Daily
Doubles. He turned out to be his own worst enemy getting all three wrong which
allowed Dave to pass him in the final clues of Double Jeopardy. Still he was in a strong second with $13,600 to Dave’s
$16,200.
It came down to Final Jeopardy.
The category was PULITZER PRIZE WINNING AUTHORS. “He’s the most recent winner
of 2 Pulitzer Prizes for Fiction, winning in 1982 and 1991 for books in the same
series.” Mark knew the answer: “Who is John Updike?” (for his series on Rabbit
Angstrom). Dave, however, thought it was John Le Carre (not a bad guess) and wagered
too much.
Mark faced off against Chuck
Forrest from the 1980s and Colby Burnett from the 2000s in the last
quarterfinal game. It was by far the closest and evenly fought with all three
players finished with impressive scores: Mark was in third with $10,600, Colby
was next with $11,800, Chuck led with $14,400.
The Final Jeopardy was one of the
all time killers. The category was FAMOUS BOOKS: “It was published March 26, 1830;
a very popular work with the same name premiered March 24, 2011. As Alex said
after the lights came up: “The fellows are not looking happy.” With good
reason. No one (certainly not me at home) was thinking of The Book of
Mormon. All wagered cautiously on Final Jeopardy but Mark was the only one
who didn’t advance to the semi-finals. He went home with $10,000. Since Chuck
and Colby were invited back in the first Invitational I’d say it’s past time.
MIKE DUPEE
Mike’s original run stretches all
the way back to March of 1996. His five game total of $66,401 was the second
highest amount won by any participant in the 1996 Tournament of Champions. And
just getting to the finals was far from easy. He just won his quarter-final
match and was very lucky to get past College Champion Shane Whitlock in the
semi-finals. That said in the finals he was the first player I ever saw to have
locked up the Tournament of Champions by the end of Double Jeopardy in the
second game, a rarity which I’ve only seen happen five times while watching a
Tournament of Champions in my lifetime.
He used his experience to write
the best-selling book How to Get On Jeopardy and Win!, one of the
authoritative books on the show. Then in the UTC he continued to prove it,
running away with his first round victory and then facing off against Robert
Slaven and Eugene Finerman in one of the best Jeopardy matches I’d seen to that
point in my viewing experience. He led through the entire game, finishing Double
Jeopardy with $21,700 to Eugene’s $13,200 and Robert’s $11,200. And then, due
to circumstances that can only happen on Jeopardy, he lost (I’ll go into that
in a later entry.) His total winnings were $32,500.
He had the misfortune of drawing
Brad Rutter in Round 1 – seemingly. In fact Mike was one of the few players in
Jeopardy history in a long time to give Brad a run for his money. It was only
because Brad responded correctly on the very last clue of the game that he
finished with $30,600 to Robert’s $14,300. And that clue was critical because of
how Final Jeopardy went.
The category was BIBLICAL NAMES: “In
Genesis 4 this name is chosen because God “hath appointed me another seed.” Mike
knew the correct name: “What is Seth?” Brad, however, wrote down Ishmael. Brad
knew how lucky he was to have won that day.
Considering that Ken has written
his share of books as well, I imagine Mike and he would have a lot to talk
about.
RYAN ‘FRITZ’ HOLZNAGEL
First of all, Ryan Holznagel used
the former name in his original appearance, his Tournament of Champions
appearance and his appearance in the Ultimate Tournament of Champions. For some
reason in the Battle of The Decades he used Fritz and we never got to learn why.
Nor was that the oddest thing
about Ryan’s play. Even in his original run waay back in November of
1994 Ryan had the habit of having strange wagers in Final Jeopardy. In his
first game he won with $12,173. In his third game he won with $18,228. In win
number 4, he was incorrect in Final Jeopardy so he won with $6112.
So far he seems like the 1990s
version of James Holzhauer. That trend actually continued because in the
Tournament of Champions, not just in Final Jeopardy but in the Daily Doubles.
Getting won in Game 2 he chose to wager $1111. Ryan seemed to know he was
entering uncharted territory – he actually asked Alex if that was possible
before he did it. (Did James Holzhauer watch Ryan do this growing up?) He won
the Tournament of Champions by the way.
It now looks as if Ryan has a
predilection for wagering in multiples either of $1111 or $111. He did so in
the UTC on Daily Doubles on two occasion; the latter time wagering $2222. He
managed to win his first round game but narrowly lost the second.
Then in his Battle of the Decades
appearance he leaned in hard to this narrative. On his Daily Double in the
Jeopardy round, he wagered $1111. When he found the Daily Double in Double
Jeopardy he wagered $777.
Ryan was always fun to watch no
matter when he played, not just because of the math but because he had a good
back and forth with Alex. On the latter Daily Double he said: “I’m not crazy
about this category.” Alex in mock offense: “Well, I’m sorry! I’ll report that
to our writers.” None of this made Ryan anywhere as brusque as Holzhauer often
appeared to me; he was always affable and good-humored. That’s another reason I’d
like him back – as well as to know – why Fritz?
CLAUDIA PERRY
Sadly Claudia has the burden of
being one of the few women of color – really any minority player of any type –
to be successful during much of the Trebek era overall. I suspect, though I can’t
say for sure, she may have been brought back for Tournaments less because of
her ability (she was a great player) but perhaps due to charges of racism the
show sporadically and occasionally faced with the never-ended criticism of the fact
that so many of its champions were white men. (This trend didn’t begin to shift
until at least the 2010s, sadly.)
It's a pity because Claudia was
one of the best players in the pre Ken Jennings era. Her run in January of 1997
of four wins and $45,303 was still a superb showing for that season. She played
superbly in her quarterfinal match and ended up being defeated by Dan Melia,
who ended up winning the 1998 Tournament of Champions that same year.
She was invited back to the participate
in the Million Dollar Masters and in her quarterfinal match she played
brilliantly against Brad Rutter before earning a wild card berth and spent much
of the semi-final ahead of both Chuck Forrest and Bob Verini before the last
Daily Double dropped her into third. She was also the beating heart of that
Tournament as much fun to watch play as being a great player, before leaving
with $25,000.
She was invited back to
participated in the Battle of the Decades against two more Tournament of
Champions winners: Dave Abbott and Mark Dawson. She had moments of brilliance
but spent most of the game in a distant third. She did get Final Jeopardy right
but Mark’s response negated that and she went home with $5000.
Claudia worked in journalism
during the 1990s, both pop music and sports copy editing and she had the
ability to tell fascinating stories in her returns to the show. In her last
appearance she said she used her winnings to spend her fiftieth birthday in Antarctica
“because one should always spend a milestone birthday surrounded by penguins.”
If nothing else I’d like to hear a story about how she spent her sixtieth
birthday.
In the last article in this
particular series I will deal with those contenders from the 1980s who I think
should still return.
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