SHSU CAN Beat Ken

Jeopardy! champion Ken Jennings (left) and the blue team reveal conflicting answers to the geography question in the "Can You Beat Ken Jennings?" challenge Tuesday afternoon. Jennings was correct.

The audience sings the final Jeopardy! tune as the contestants write their responses to the last question, or answer in Jeopardy! fashion, during the “Can You Beat Ken Jennings?” contest Tuesday afternoon.

Jennings gives a big smile, moving his head side to side as he listens to the audience, and responds on his transparency to the question: “Name the three volumes in JRR Tolkein’s “Lord of the Rings” trilogy.

Both the Orange and Blue teams, as well as Jennings, get the answer correct. Unfortunately for Jennings, his correct answer still leaves him 200 points short of first place in the challenge that pitted two three-person teams against the all-time winning Jeopardy! champ who was visiting SHSU’s campus as part of the President’s Speaker Series.

The test question, or practice question given at the beginning of the game, might have indicated that Jennings was in for some tough competition. The question: “The Big 12 team that SHSU most recently beat in basketball, to the consternation of ESPN.” (Jennings guessed Nebraska).

The winning team included (from left) SHSU professor Don Bumpass, senior Anela Leon-Guerrero and junior Paul Levine.

The Orange team, comprised of junior music education major Paul Levine, senior history major Anela Leon-Guerrero and economics professor Don Bumpass, did indeed beat Ken Jennings by a score of 1100 points to 900 in the three-round competition.

The Blue team, comprised of speech communication professor Richard Bello, junior international business major Grant Keener and freshman general studies major Sean Fennel, didn’t beat Jennings, but tied him, also earning 900 points.

“It did take teams of three coming together to beat him,” said philosophy program coordinator and SHSU’s Alex Trebek stand-in Frank Fair.

The teams of three were allowed to collaborate, or “gang up” as Fair said, on each of the 15 questions in the competition. The challenge questions came from University Games, the maker of Jennings’ board game by the same name.

The questions spanned a range of fields, including geography, transportation, art, movies and sports, with each question coming from a different category.

In the style Jennings became known for on the syndicated television show, many of his responses, which were written on transparencies, were accompanied by a comment, or a drawing in one instance.

For the science question inquiring what the “Rh” factor in blood types referred to, along with his correct answer (rhesus monkey), Jennings drew a picture of a monkey, his Curious George as he later said.

In the literature question asking which Australian author won Booker prizes for two of his novels, Jennings wrote and marked out “Paul Hogan” above his correct answer, “Peter Carey.” One of his responses also included “General Hospital or GH as we kids call it” for the question for which “General Hospital” was the correct answer.

“I thought these (questions) were pretty tough,” Jennings said. “I had a great time.”

As winners, the Orange team received copies of the “Can You Beat Ken?” board game.

—END—

SHSU Media Contact: Jennifer Gauntt
Nov. 15, 2005
Please send comments, corrections, news tips to Today@Sam.edu.