Email This PageSwarthmore’s ‘Jeopardy!’ Hall of Fame
2014 Arthur Chu is the fourth in a line of Swarthmore alumni to appear and win on Jeopardy! His 12-day total was $297,200.
2012 David Gard ’78 was a four-day winner, earning $84,700.
2009 Jove Graham ’96 was a one-time winner, beating a five-time champion and winning $34,401 plus $1,000 for his third-place finish on his second day.
1989 Cigus Vanni ’72 became a five-time champion, winning $40,400, and a Tournament of Champions semifinalist, garnering another $5,000.
If there are more of you out there, we’d love to hear from you. Write us at bulletin@swarthmore.edu or leave a comment below.
Many thanks to Terry Armstrong Thompson ’57 for pointing us the direction of this December 1967 piece about her run on Jeorpardy!:
July 14th, 2014 2:32 pm
Thanks for including us "other" Swarthmore Jeopardy champions in the
sidebar on the article about Arthur Chu this month. I wanted to add
another name to your list: in 1997, Patrick Friel '96 was a two-time
champion winning $30,021 and a vacation to Tahiti (back in the days when
they gave such consolation prizes). I know about Patrick because as
sophomores at Swarthmore, we traveled together to a Jeopardy "College
Tournament" audition being held in Philadelphia one weekend. Neither of us
made the cut that time, but you know what they say: "if at first you don't
succeed…."
-Jove Graham '96
July 17th, 2014 4:43 pm
I was a two-time champion in April 1993. First game I won over $20,000 (which would now be $40k, as the point values were subsequently doubled), defeating a four-time champion. Second game I won just over $4,000, coming from behind in Final Jeopardy! by holding back on the bet—none of the contestants got the answer and I backed into the win.
Fun fact: I looked up and called Gigus Vanni, whom I knew quite well @
Swats (we started in the same class of '72) before my trip to Hollywood, to
get pointers. Turns out the guy I overtook in my second game also knew
Cigus (he was a resident of the Borough of Swarthmore and had mutual
connections through their kids) and had also called him for tips. A
Harvard man. I beat him.
I won $24,500 in all (and an assortment of skin-care products, etc for my
third-game loss).
Carl Courant '73