Samford University professor George Keller knows what 15 minutes of fame feels like. After his appearance on the popular “Jeopardy!” game show Sept. 19, news of the event was carried in two Birmingham papers, and he gave interviews to two local radio stations before class one morning. “The students were real excited,” said Keller, who has taught biology at Samford since 1993.
By finishing second on the nationally televised show, he won a six-night stay at Hilton Head Island. He has a year to schedule the trip, a prize valued for income tax purposes at $3,000.
Keller, who had won $1,700 going into the final round, missed the final question which dealt with what German-born person was given the title “The Great Relative” by Hopi Indians in Arizona in the 1930s.
“I put down the only German I could think of, Kaiser Wilhelm,” said Keller. The correct answer was Albert Einstein. The champion left the show with $11,001.
Keller said two things make the experience especially memorable.
“For one thing, it was the first time I’ve worn makeup,” said Keller. “Another was the fact that it was my wife who got me on the show.”
In late May, soon after Samford graduation weekend, Keller and his wife, Cindy, were in Los Angeles for him to attend a meeting of the American Society for Microbiology.
“I watch the show (“Jeopardy”) all the time at home, and my wife has said that I should be a contestant if I ever had the chance,” said Keller. “While we were in Los Angeles, she called the studio and found that they were having tryouts on the day we were to leave.”
The couple arranged to go by the Sony Studios in Culver City, where the program is taped, on the way to the airport. After taking a written test, he was chosen to participate in a simulated game. In early June, he was told to be present for a taping that took place in late August.
During the part of the show in which host Alek Trebek chats with contestants, he talked to Keller about a choir tour of France.
Keller told Trebek about a 1996 tour in which his 45-member choir of Independent Presbyterian Church had performed in seven cathedrals in and around Paris. (SU)
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