Local teacher eliminated from ‘Jeopardy!’ tourney

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Steven Evenhouse, of Orland Hills, with "Jeopardy" host Alex Trebek during Evenhouse's recent appearance on the TV game show. The episode aired Thursday. | Supplied photo

Updated: March 21, 2012 8:05AM

FRANKFORT — Steven Evenhouse doesn’t know as much as he probably would like to about presidents and lakes.

As a result, the Summit Hill Junior High School history teacher is going to know more about second-guessing than he probably would like.

“There’s definitely a lot of ‘armchair Jeopardy!’ going on now,” he said.

That’s because Evenhouse was eliminated in the first round of the “Jeopardy!” Teachers Tournament.

Although Evenhouse has known that since late January, when the show was taped, the episode didn’t air until Thursday on WLS-TV, and he wasn’t allowed to talk about the outcome until after the broadcast.

Evenhouse was one of 15 teachers nationwide selected to compete on the show, which is taped in Los Angeles.

With his long-awaited shot to appear on the show at hand, Evenhouse stood between two other teachers in Thursday’s show. All were ringing the famous buzzer and giving answers for a chance to advance to the next round in pursuit of the grand prize of $100,000.

Doing well in the category “Filling up in the gas station,” Evenhouse broke out to a strong early lead. But ultimately, it was Brooks Humphreys, a teacher from Omaha, who advanced.

Evenhouse said he got a little too adventurous during the second round of questions.

“Normally, I wouldn’t want to ring in until I was sure (of an answer),” Evenhouse said, “but when Brooks opened up a lead, I started to get a little more daring. In hindsight, not the best move, but I at least went for it.”

It boiled down to the categories of “Lakes” and “Presidents.”

“There were two questions where I narrowed my answer down — I knew it was one of two things,” he said, “and both times I guessed wrong. The question about lakes, I knew it was either Lake Victoria or Lake Tanganyika (both Great Lakes in Africa), and I knew it was Thomas Jefferson or Andrew Jackson. I just went the wrong way both times and it killed me.”

Evenhouse didn’t walk away empty-handed, nor did the students at his Frankfort school. Contestants eliminated in the first round received $5,000, and the teachers also get a classroom version of “Jeopardy!” courtesy of Educational Insights.

“We haven’t gotten to break it out yet. I just got it,” said Evenhouse, of Orland Hills.

He’ll likely be getting something else now that the show has aired: A little grief from students.

“Oh, I’m sure,” he said. “They’ve already started (Thursday) with somebody who saw and walked up to me and said, ‘Come on. Lake Victoria?’ ”