Tag: Alex Trebek

Eagles DC Jim Schwartz credits the late Alex Trebek with ‘training him’ to be a football coach

Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz says Alex Trebek played a huge role in his development as a football coach

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Alex Trebek’s influence will carry on for decades and hours after the news of his passing, one NFL coach is crediting the Jeopardy host with helping to hone his skills as a play-caller.

While speaking with Peter King of NBC’s FMIA, Jim Schwartz opened up about how the game show host helped him craft his skills as a defensive coordinator.

“Alex Trebek and Jeopardy! trained me to be a football coach,” Schwartz said.

“In football, as a play-caller, you’ve got to be very quick, you’ve got to enunciate the play well when you call it, you can’t make errors. Those are all things Alex was so good at. His command of the show and the contestants was incredible. You need that kind of command when you’re in charge of a team too.”

A Georgetown University graduate, Schwartz admitted that his love for Jeopardy started during his Sophomore year and carried over to his time as a coach.

“When I was a sophomore, junior and senior at Georgetown [in 1986-89], every night after dinner, me and a big group, maybe six guys, would watch the show,” he said. “Very smart guys. We were speed-readers, very competitive. It was a challenge to see who could blurt the answer out the fastest. You might know the answer, but if you don’t do it very fast, you’d lose. With my friends, if you were a little slow, you’d get steamrolled.”

Trebek, 80, passed away after a 20-month battle with pancreatic cancer.

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Remembering Alex Trebek with a rundown of golf’s history on Jeopardy!

We remember Alex Trebek, who passed away at 80, and golf’s long history on Jeopardy!

The history between golf and Jeopardy! goes all the way back to the popular television trivia show’s first episode.

Jeopardy! featured a golf clue in its pilot episode on Sept. 18, 1983, and according to Golf.com, more than 800 clues have been golf-related over the years. In fact, Phil Mickelson was recently the answer to “Final Jeopardy!” (but nobody got it right).

On Sunday, the Jeopardy! Twitter account announced the show’s longtime host, Alex Trebek, had died at 80 years old. The cause of death has yet to be confirmed, but the beloved television host had been battling pancreatic cancer since March 2019.

Think you know your golf? As a way to remember the beloved television host, test your knowledge using this golf-exclusive category, which aired March 15, 2019.

These signature moments perfectly capture the magic of Alex Trebek

Some will make you laugh. Some will make you cry.

Fans took to Twitter to mourn and celebrate Alex Trebek after the longtime and much-beloved Jeopardy! host died on Sunday following a battle against pancreatic cancer. Trebek’s admirers began sharing some of their favorite moments from his storied career to show what made Trebek so endearing, impactful and, at times, hilarious.

Let’s first touch on one of Trebek’s most recent moments on Jeopardy! when one of the contestants, Burt Thakur, explained that the show was life-changing for him. Though tears, Thakur thanked Trebek, because watching Jeopardy! was the way Thakur learned English.

Check out the moment (and make sure you’ve got tissues nearby). Trebek made an impression — and in ways many of us couldn’t imagine.

There was another tear-jerker that made rounds on Twitter. Contestant Dhruv Gaur wagered $1,995 of his $2,000 in Final Jeopardy to share his answer: “What is we ❤️ you, Alex!” As Trebek read the message, he clearly got choked up. The moment came a few months after Trebek announced he’d been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

OK, so Trebek wasn’t always the sweetest. He was also funny — and often biting with his sass and sarcasm. One of his funniest moments resurfaced on Twitter on Sunday. Trebek was learning about Nerdcore Hip-Hop, a contestant’s favorite music genre. She explained who makes the music: “People who identify as nerdy, rapping about the things they love: video games, science fiction, having a hard time meeting romantic partners.”

Trebek responded: “Losers, in other words.”

There’s also the time he got a good chuckle out of three contestants who were thoroughly overmatched by questions about football.

Trebek was a larger-than-life figure, who was captivating and consistent since becoming host of Jeopardy! in 1984. He will be missed.

The late, great Alex Trebek showed his formidable football knowledge on ‘Jeopardy’

The late, great Alex Trebek enjoyed talking football on “Jeopardy,” but his contestants weren’t always up for the challenge.

Alex Trebek, who hosted the game show “Jeopardy” from 1984 through 2020, lost his battle with pancreatic cancer on Sunday. He was 80. Trebek was an outstanding host and television personality in every dimension, and he also had a particular love for football, which sometimes showed in his frustration when “Jeopardy” contestants — who have to have a formidable base of knowledge to get even close to getting on that show — came up short in their football understanding.

In particular, the above example, in which none of the three contestants knew to answer the challenge, “By signaling for one of these, a returner can reel in a kick without fear of getting tackled,” by asking, “What is a fair catch?”

“These people are really stupid,” Trebek said when asked by NFL Films’ Charissa Thompson what his thoughts were when everybody drew a blank. “Even though they’re here competing on ‘Jeopardy.’ The categories are the determining factor, really, to your success as a contestant on ‘Jeopardy.’ It wasn’t their category.”

And when nobody knew who the “Purple People Eaters” were… well, Trebek’s facial expression was classic.

“We’ve had categories where no one rang in, but very, very seldom.” Trebek told Thompson.

There’s also awesome footage of Aaron Rodgers as a contestant.

The world mourns the loss of Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek, who died on Sunday

Alex Trebek passed away on Sunday morning at the age of 80. The world mourned the loss of the great longtime Jeopardy! host.

On Sunday the official Jeopardy! Twitter account announced that the show’s longtime host, Alex Trebek, had died that morning after a long battle with cancer. He was 80 years old.

Trebek made a longtime career as a television host, first in his native Canada with the CBC and later on a host of American shows and game shows. His most iconic job, however, was as the host of the popular quiz show, Jeopardy!, where he was nominated for 37 Daytime Emmy Awards, winning seven.

Trebek’s warm demeanor, droll sense of humor, and deep intelligence made him beloved for millions of fans of the show. This loss feels deep for many of us, I believe, because of how much time we spent with the man, and how much so many of us trusted him.

He took a difficult quiz show with a weird, answers-as-questions format, and made it warm, familial, and surprisingly funny. That show is nothing without Trebek — under someone with less talent, Jeopardy! would have been too confusing, too high brow, too slow. With him, it became one of the most successful and long-running television shows of all time.

Fans and past contestants were devastated to hear the news:

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Alex Trebek revealed he struggled with suicidal thoughts during cancer treatment

Wow.

Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek’s positivity about his cancer diagnosis had been consistent, at least when he was facing the public. But in his new memoir, “The Answer Is … Reflections on My Life,” Trebek admitted he has struggled with suicidal thoughts.

The publication of the book comes after he publicly addressed TV viewers last week to say treatment for his Stage IV pancreatic cancer was “paying off.”

Though he seems stressed by the challenges of so much public attention amid a fight against cancer, Trebek said his star status was also a factor in his decision to continue his treatment. He didn’t want to disappoint.

Here’s what Trebek, 80, said of his mental health struggles in an interview with the Boston Herald:

“You can’t be telling people ‘Keep your chin up, fight on!’ and then all of a sudden you counter that by: ‘What happened to Trebek?’ ‘Oh, he killed himself. He just got too discouraged. Well, hell, he was telling us to be positive. And then he did this negative thing.’ So, yeah. That’s the responsibility that has bothered me.”

Trebek’s memoir, which published Tuesday, is dedicated to “those who are hoping to become survivors.” It’s not a full autobiography of his life, but instead includes “a series of quick look-ins,” Trebek said. It paints a picture of his habits, routines and day-to-day life, but it sounds like Trebek’s honesty about his fight against cancer may be what fascinates and moves readers the most. He is candid about his wide range of emotions in a way that he hasn’t been previously.

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Alex Trebek turned into a NFL referee in a delightful ‘Jeopardy’ category

Good job with those signals, Alex.

We love Jeopardy! sports categories here, especially really tough ones or at least sports-themed clues that contestants totally whiff on.

But now there’s a new type of sports category to love: the one that we saw on Tuesday’s episode. Alex Trebek explained that football has given competitors trouble in the past — see 2017 and 2018 — so they were trying something new in which he would be giving contestants referee hand signals.

It’s as wonderful as you imagined, and the cool thing is Jeopardy! used it’s Twitter account to show Trebek’s development of the category on paper, complete with cursive write-ups and Trebek’s various signals scribbled out:

As for the clues? The competitors got three of five. Not bad!

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Alex Trebek shares encouraging health update a year after cancer diagnosis

The beloved Jeopardy! host offered some inspiring news about his health.

Last year, beloved Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek announced that he’s battling Stage IV pancreatic cancer. And a few months later after such a “positive” response to chemotherapy that even his doctors were surprised, Trebek shared that he was “near remission.”

Well, a year after his initial diagnosis, the 79-year-old game show host offered another encouraging update about his health and fight against cancer. In a video tweeted by Jeopardy!‘s official account, he noted the particularly low survival rate for pancreatic cancer and said the one-year survival rate for those in Stage IV is just 18 percent.

“I’m very happy to report I have just reached that marker,” he said in the video update.

He continued:

“Now, I’d be lying if I said the journey had been an easy one. There were some good days but a lot of not-so-good days. I joked with friends that the cancer won’t kill me; the chemo treatments will. There were moments of great pain, days when certain bodily functions no longer functioned, and sudden, massive attacks of great depression that made me wonder if it really was worth fighting on.

“But I brushed that aside quickly because that would have been a massive betrayal — a betrayal of my wife and soulmate, Jean, who has given her all to help me survive. It would have been a betrayal of other cancer patients who have looked to me as an inspiration and a cheerleader of sorts of the value of living and hope. And it would certainly have been a betrayal of my faith in God and the millions of prayers that have been said on my behalf.

“You know, my oncologist tried to cheer me up the other day. He said, ‘Alex, even though the two-year survival rate is only 7 percent,’ he was certain that one year from now, the two of us would be sitting in his office, celebrating my second anniversary of survival.

“And you know something, if I — no. If we — because so many of us are involved in this same situation — if we take it just one day at a time with a positive attitude, anything is possible.”

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Jeopardy! GOAT: James Holzhauer coldly roasted Brad Rutter for finishing with zero points

Ouuuucchhhhh!

Jeopardy! legend James Holzhauer always likes to have a little fun when he’s playing the game and he did just that during Tuesday night’s episode of the Greatest of All Time tournament… at the expense of fellow Jeopardy! legend Brad Rutter.

The three players were heading into the night’s second game when Alex Trebek stated that they would clear the points from the first game. Rutter finished that game with zero points, which is something that Holzhauer was too happy to point out.

We’re going to miss this tournament when it’s over because boy has it been some great television.

Check out this sick burn by Holzhauer:

Ouuuuuuuuuch.

Jeopardy! GOAT: James Holzhauer paid a sweet tribute to Alex Trebek with Final Jeopardy answer

What is GHOST?

The third episode of the Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time tournament is in the books, and it was another fun night of trivia between three very smart people.

I won’t play the role of spoiler here, so if you want the results check out my pal Charles Curtis’ great recap of the episode right here.

I will tell you about a fun moment when James Holzhauer paid a sweet (and funny) little tribute to Alex Trebek with his Final Jeopardy question. Jeopardy James didn’t know the answer so he wrote down “GHOST: Greatest Host of Syndicated TV.”

But he also had some fun with it, as did Trebek:

Well played.

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