Ben Chan, Matt Amodio, Aaron Rodgers and other 'Jeopardy!' winners with Wisconsin connections
Chris ForanThe clue: More than you might think.
The question: Have people from Wisconsin won on "Jeopardy!"?
Here are some of the winners of television's most popular syndicated game show with Wisconsin ties.
Ben Chan
Chan, a philosophy professor at St. Norbert College in Green Bay, won in each of his first three appearances on the show, which aired in April 2023, netting a total of $69,001. But then an "ill-timed illness" during filming — the episodes were taped in January of that year — forced him to delay his return to the competition until May 15.
Matt Amodio
One of the biggest "Jeopardy!" winners of all time, Amodio, a native of Medina, Ohio, earned a master's degree in artificial intelligence from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2017. He won 38 contests on the show in July through October of 2021, and returned in 2022 to play an exhibition match against fellow mega-winners Amy Schneider and Mattea Roach before bowing out in the semifinals in the 2022 Tournament of Champions.
Aaron Rodgers
The future NFL Hall of Famer — for now, anyway, still a member of the Green Bay Packers — won on an edition of "Celebrity Jeopardy!" in May 2015, collecting $8,399 for himself and $50,000 for the MACC Fund, his chosen charity. Later that summer, he had a 10-episode run as guest host of the show, auditioning to fill the shoes of late host Alex Trebek. (Fellow "Jeopardy!" winner Ken Jennings and actor Mayim Bialik were chosen instead.)
Nick Heise
A technical services engineer from Madison, Heise collected $25,900 for his "Jeopardy!" win in February 2022. He added another $2,000 with a second-place finish the next day.
Morgan Wilbanks
Wilbanks, an emergency medicine physician at Froedtert Hospital in Wauwatosa, won on "Jeopardy!" twice in June 2020. His three-day total: $46,000.
Nick Klotz
Klotz, a Milwaukee financial analyst, won $22,801 in his sole victory on the show in March 2020. He finished third in the next game.
Gilbert Collins
Collins, a 1992 graduate from Milwaukee's Rufus King High School and a university administrator in Princeton, New Jersey, had a five-day winning streak in January 2018, taking home more than $84,000 and qualifying for the Tournament of Champions in November 2019, making it to the semifinals.
Sara Holub
A choral director at Green Bay Preble High School, Holub made it to the semifinals in the "Jeopardy!" Teachers Tournament in May 2017.
Susannah Jacobson
Then a computer assistant from Madison, Jacobson — now a writer who now goes by Susannah Brooks — won twice on the show in June and July 2006, winning more than $56,000. (According to J-Archive, she later won $100,000 on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?", and was a trivia expert on the Game Show Network show "Best Ever Trivia Show" in 2019.
Michael Falk
Falk, at the time a University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee meteorologist, had a four-day run on the show in April 2006, collecting more than $59,000. That was good enough to get him into the Tournament of Champions the following month — which he won, collecting an additional $250,000. He returned to compete in the show's "Battle of the Decades" competition in 2014, which brought back winners from the first three decades of Alex Trebek's tenure as "Jeopardy!" host. Falk, then a math teacher at St. Mary’s Visitation School in Elm Grove, collected $5,000 for that encore appearance, according to fan site J-Archive.
Heather Groggel
Groggel, a junior at Concordia University Wisconsin in Mequon, made it to the semifinals in the College Championship tournament in 2003, taking home $12,200 in her sole victory.
Pam Mifflin
A Brookfield native, Mifflin, a computer trainer, won three contests on "Jeopardy!" in September 1997, taking home $42,300 and earning a slot in the Tournament of Champions in February 1998.
Greg Mayer
Mayer, a Racine resident and a biology professor at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, won $8,290 in the first of two appearances on the show in February 1997.