This past summer, Upper School Director Andy King wrote himself into Hackley folklore, appearing twice on and winning the Jeopardy! game show. Millions of people across the country, including a myriad of Hackley students, alumni, and faculty, tuned in on July 30 and 31 to watch Mr. King take on fellow trivia whizzes in an acute battle of the brains. Mr. King qualified for not one, but two rounds of Jeopardy! by completing an Internet screening, an in-person audition and besting two opponents outright in the first episode of the show, winning a total of $20,000.

Mr. King’s feat, however, did not come after intense or extreme training on his part. “I adopted this sort of cavalier attitude before my appearance on Jeopardy!, figuring that there was no real way to prepare myself for the real thing. I consigned myself to either doing well or not doing well,” he explained.

Mr. King admitted that he was a bit nervous at the outset of the first Jeopardy! episode, but eased into its fast pace as it progressed. He said that the quickness with which the game evolves was one of his biggest personal obstacles as a competitor.

“The speed at which the game is played intimidated me at first, especially since I was hearing the questions for the first time.” Mr. King explained that accurately pressing the buzzer was another challenge he faced. “Pressing the button has to be a very precise motion; pressing too early means that your buzzer is delayed due to being locked out, while pressing too late allows your opponent to buzz in before you,” he said. As the game show began to draw to a close, Mr. King played more conservatively in Double Jeopardy. “After doing some rough math in my head, I was relatively certain that I couldn’t be caught by the other competitors, so I decided to play it safe going into the Daily Double,” he explained. Ultimately, Mr. King’s tactics prevailed, as he was crowned champion of the first episode of Jeopardy! – a victory, he said, that took time to sink in. Mr. King was certainly satisfied with his win, which met the expectations he had set for himself before appearing on the show, and his eagerness carried over into the second taping of Jeopardy!. He said, “The second show was a much more anxiety-driven one, as I was outplayed by two very skilled and intelligent competitors. I knew the answers to most of the questions, but I got beat to the punch on the buzzer,” he said.

Jeopardy was an important part of Mr. King’s life growing up. While Jeopardy! wasn’t a TV show he watched religiously, it was something he watched a fair amount with his mother. Mr. King’s fondness for Jeopardy has similarly extended into his day-to-day routine. After dinner, Mr. King will usually settle down with his wife and three-year-old son to watch the latest Jeopardy! episode; during the broadcast, Mr. King cited his son as a personal reason for pursuing an appearance on the show.

Hackley has also had a history of contestants on the game show. “There has been a thread of Hackley students and faculty featured on Jeopardy! — former Latin teacher [Rowena] Fen- stermacher and Hackley alumnus Rachel Gottesman ‘08 had previously appeared on Jeopardy before I did,” Mr. King said.

Support for Mr. King extended from the Hilltop as well. Junior Seth Tilliss watched reruns of both Jeopardy! episodes, and said that “it was very interesting to see some- body representing Hackley on live national television.”

Mr. King ultimately likened Jeopardy! to standard- ized testing. He advised anybody potentially interested in appearing on Jeopardy to “watch the show, because — like the SAT — the clues are often embedded in the question. — they’re just waiting to be uncovered.”