This Is Jeopardy! Possible Invitees For Future Tournaments
Part 2: The Battle of the Decades: The 1990s
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 of2 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.