Takoma Park Middle School teacher Joseph Evans doesn’t sit around memorizing facts. He has only participated in a couple of trivia competitions at bars, so when he got the call that he was going to be on Jeopardy! he wondered, “am I one of the lambs going to the slaughter kind of contestant?”
Turns out he did just fine, winning Tuesday night and coming in second on Wednesday’s show. He earned a total of $18,529.
The 42-year-old Beltsville resident who lives with his husband and dog, Boomer, described himself as “a nerd” who loves history, sports and old movies.
Much of his knowledge comes from trying to keep up and even stay one step ahead of his seventh-grade students.
“I think as a teacher, you are always reviewing facts. You are always going over details,” he told MCM. He admitted to memorizing all the presidents when he was in second grade.
Evans has taught at Takoma Park close to 10 years. He currently teaches global humanities, which he described as social studies, and is a team leader with other teachers.
His episodes were filmed during the first week in October, and Evans had to keep the results quiet, according to Jeopardy! rules. But Wednesday, he was able to fill in his coworkers and students on how he did the previous evening.
“I was able to show them the YouTube of (Tuesday’s) Final Jeopardy. They were cheering very loudly when I got the right answer,” he said. But when they pressed him on how he did on future shows, he knew he wasn’t allowed to tell. So, he just said, “I told them I won less than eight games. It could be anywhere from one to eight games.”
He was asked more than a few times on Tuesday if he was flying out to California after school to compete for a second time. He explained the show was taped earlier, he said.
Winning the first day brought on lots of feelings, he recalled. “I was very emotional. I watched Final Jeopardy a few times. You can see the trepidation,” he said. “I was also kind of disassociating. I was kind of in a fog.” He was thinking, “I can’t believe I’m going to win this.”
Going into Final Jeopardy!, Evans was in second place, so he needed to bet $6,001 to have a higher score than his competitor who was in first place. Rather than just adding one dollar more than the first-place competitor, he made it $529 extra in memory of his late mother-in-law’s May birthday, betting $6,529.
“I think she was with me the whole way,” he said.
On the following night, another contestant was so far ahead, he couldn’t catch up.
Evans has been a Jeopardy! fan most of his life. He first began watching the show “since I was eight or 10 years old.” When he was in high school in Pennsylvania, he tried out for Teen Jeopardy. Only one student per high school was chosen to advance, and he came in second.
He enjoyed his Jeopardy! time meeting other contestants and Jennings. During a commercial break, Jennings posed with the contestants for photos. On an impulse, West asked if he could shake his hand. “He was like, sure. I found him very personable.”
He expected some recognition from neighbors and coworkers after his victory, but he’s received much more. “I’ve been very happy with all the outpouring.”
