UMd. Graduate Wins Big on Jeopardy

There are not many people who have stood on the iconic Jeopardy stage, in front of a national audience, and proclaimed: “Let’s do it Alex!”

But that’s exactly what former University of Maryland student Jeff Amoros found himself announcing to host Alex Trebek, king of the quiz show, during his debut Jeopardy competition. (The show aired for the first time Wednesday night.)

During the show, the 24-year-old, a 2009 UMd., graduate held his own against his competitors and despite being in a $400 deficit following the first round, Amoros took home the win (and more than $30,000) after answering correctly the Final Jeopardy question about “Poetic Subjects.”

“It was saved from destruction by a poem and submitted to the Boston Daily Advertiser in 1830,” read Trebek to the contestants.

Amoros was the only one to hold the right answer. (Old Ironsides. The USS Constitution.)

While the show taped in Los Angeles in March, Amoros, his girlfriend, and his family had been keeping the results a secret.

However the secret was out Wednesday night when Amoros watched the show with more than 30 family and friends at his home in Ellicott City. The party was replete with lighthearted hecklers who got rowdy as Amoros climbed into the lead. And when he won—the crowd went wild.

“Everything else was a blur and remains a blur—Thank god it worked out or I wouldn’t have invited any of you,” Amoros joked after the show.

Amoros is not new to the trivia world by any means. Resembling a football player rather than a trivia geek, the clean-cut, ruddy-cheeked Amoros is a veteran trivia whiz. While he grew up watching Jeopardy (his parents swear by it), he was on both his high school and college trivia teams.

While a senior at , Amoros captained the quiz bowl team that won the Baltimore regional trivia championship. In addition, Amoros has competed numerous times on television, including a stint on the Game Show Network’s “Chain Reaction” show, when he won $7,500 alongside his dad and a family friend.

“Jeff was always a whiz,” said his mother, Irene Amoros. “Reading is like breathing for Jeffrey.”

For their part, Jeff's parents raised their kids to be lovers of knowledge. They read to their sons constantly, while trivia questions were always a part of dinners or long drives.

“We’re very proud of him,” said dad Scott Amoros about his son’s ascension to the ultimate quiz show. In fact, Scott Amoros tried out for the show himself but couldn’t get past the online round. He called the Jeopardy experience “exciting” and described Trebek as a genuinely nice guy.  

In preparation for the competition, Jeff Amoros boned up on trivia using thousands of note cards he’s accumulated over the years. He had also been feeding his trivia appetite with pub trivia nights and Trivial Pursuit.

"I used lots and lots of note cards to prepare for this and I studied everything under the sun," Amoros said in a Jeopardy video posted on the gameshow’s website. “I watched a lot of Jeopardy growing up and using bi-nary relations. If Alex says X, I need to say Y. So getting in that mind frame really helped.”

At the moment he’s working at 2tor, Inc., which provides technical and post-enrollment support to higher education institutes establishing online degree programs. In the fall, he plans to enroll at New York Law School in New York City and to use his winnings to pay student loans, and to buy a new computer.

“It’s been a good year so far,” he admits.

A self-described competitive person, Amoros says that besides being happy he won, he is relieved that he didn’t finish third.

“My goal was to get out of the hole,” he said of the game.

And when asked if he was nervous during the competition, he answered with a smile. “Not until I stepped on stage and realized, ‘Oh my god-I’m on Jeopardy.”

Watch Amoros tonight, June 30 during his second Jeopardy match-up, which airs at 7 p.m. on WMAR-TV and 7:30 on WBOC-TV and WJLA-TV.

Watch a clip of Amoros on the Jeopardy site talking about his win.