Billy Baxter '88 won the Jeopardy! College Tournament in 1992.
John Brown '93 appeared on Jeopardy! on June 5, 2008.
Pasha Paterson '97 appeared on Jeopardy! on September 27, 2017.
Dave Fuller, a former Collegiate teacher/coach, appeared on Jeopardy! for two nights in January 2004.

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Remembering Alex Trebek

12/9/2020

There’s no disputing the fact.

Alex Trebek was one of a kind, a breath of fresh air, a classic, and an icon in a world where true icons are hard to come by.

For 37 years, he appeared front and center (in a manner of speaking) on Jeopardy!, the popular game show which airs nightly in Richmond on ABC in the 7:30 time slot.

Really, though, it was the three contestants who appeared front and center. That was Trebek’s intention anyway. They were the stars, he felt, and he was just the facilitator who read the answers, challenged them gently to provide the questions, bantered with them during breaks, congratulated them when they succeeded, and softened the blow when they stumbled. With his avuncular bearing, he became the face of the show whether that was his design or not and in no small measure a reason for its very long run.

Though he was diagnosed a year and a half ago with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer, Trebek persevered, always resolute with a smile on his face and speaking honestly and earnestly about his health so as to encourage others facing daunting challenges.

Since he passed away November 8 just a couple of weeks after taping his final show which will air December 25, tributes have poured in attesting to the professionalism, resilience, and courage of a man whom legions of Jeopardy! devotees consider a trusted member of their families.

What follows are reminiscences and reflections of four from the Collegiate community – three alumni and one former teacher – who appeared as contestants and shared the unforgettable experience of reasoning out the questions after Alex provided the answers.

Billy Baxter ’88, an attorney with Dominion Energy in Richmond, won the Jeopardy! College Tournament in 1992, his senior year at William & Mary.

A lot of people look upon Alex as being very gracious and incredibly smart. He was also very encouraging. I’ll always remember his warmth and his smile. You had a chance to chat with Alex while the credits are rolling. He was a loving husband and father, he wanted the contestants to do well, and he really poured his heart and his soul into Jeopardy! He made the show modern, and he made it friendly.

Given the severity of Alex’s diagnosis, I was crushed. I was hopeful that he could battle the odds. I admire him for being so public and transparent and helping inspire others whether it was pushing for a cure for pancreatic cancer or helping others through their trials and tribulations.

John Brown ’93, a humanities teacher at Wellington School in Columbus, OH, appeared on the show on June 5, 2008.

We didn’t have a lot of opportunities to interact with Alex Trebek directly, but when we did during commercial breaks, he was really nice, really down-to-earth, really conversational, really good-natured.

I remember watching Jeopardy! with my family at a very, very young age. Seeing him soldier on through the episodes and be a professional was really admirable. We’re going to miss him. He made trivia cool. He made the pursuit of that type of knowledge cool. That’s his gift to our society. It’s hard for me to contemplate a world without Alex Trebek. I wonder how the show will continue without him, but I know it will. It just won’t be the same.

Pasha Paterson ’97, a software engineer for Northrop Grumman in Richmond, appeared on Jeopardy! on September 27, 2017.

Part of the magic that Alex worked was always making sure he wasn’t the star. The contestants were the stars, and he really was just hosting them. He had his dose of wit that he would inject into the situation, particularly when the situations themselves got ridiculous. There was the now-famous “Football” category when nobody buzzed in and he poked some lighthearted jabs at them while they were not answering. Even then, he was making sure the attention was on the contestants.

He never dug into the wound when people were having trouble. He was very respectful, and that has a way of making you reflect that respect back. In a figurative sense, Alex was very much the visiting uncle who’s always there at the dinner table, this unshakeable constant in so many people’s lives.

Watching the show since his passing, there’ve been moments where he’s said something that in hindsight hits really hard. I remember one of the episodes where they were going to commercial and he said, “Well, now we’ll go to our first break as we always do. We’ll come back as we always do.” How could he have known when he said those words in the taping that it would be broadcast when, in fact, he wouldn’t be coming back?

Dave Fuller, who appeared on Jeopardy! for two nights in January 2004, taught history and coached soccer at Collegiate from 2005 through 2017. He now teaches history at Nova School in Olympia, WA.

Alex knew his stuff. He would have been a really good contestant himself. He was very personable and genuine and had a great sense of humor. He did a really good job of making contestants feel at home and spoke to each person as if he knew them. That (appearing on the show) was a nerve-wracking experience. I remember playing in the second game and feeling very, very relaxed, and I attribute some of that to (Alex’s style). It was a great experience. All good memories.

(When I learned of his death), my thought was, Who will replace him? Who could do the job justice? There’re people who could fill the role knowledge-wise. There’re people who could fill the role personality-wise. He had a really nice blend of the two. This is the end of an era.

~ Weldon Bradshaw

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