Saturday, February 20, 1999

Sharonville man is 'Jeopardy!' champion

---

BY JOHN KIESEWETTER
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Dave Abbott answered correctly 27 times during the half-hour, more than the other two contestants combined. | ZOOM |

        For Dave Abbott, the Sharonville man who won the Jeopardy! $100,000 Tournament of Champions broadcast Friday, the greatest joy was knowing his brother was watching from heaven.

        “I know he knows now that I won, and that's some comfort,” the General Electric attorney said of his brother, Doug, to whom he dedicated his Jeopardy! preparation.

        Doug Abbott, 47, died from a brain tumor last Saturday. In a coma since May, he did not know his brother had won $68,599 in June and had qualified for the tournament.

FINAL JEOPARDY

Dave Abbott won the Jeopardy! $100,000 Tournament of Champions by doubling his $7,200 earnings in the final round.   He successfully wrote the right question to this answer under the “U.S. Industries” category:   • “Around 1850, it used a fleet of over 700 ships; by 1930, this U.S. industry was practically defunct.”   • His answer: “What is whaling?”   • Try out for the show

Dave Abbott, 42, was on a mission to win the TV trivia contest for Doug, who was buried Thursday before the two-day final round was broadcast nationally.

“I know this sounds corny, but I think God let me win to help me get through this. It's helping,” he said.

In third place going into Friday, Mr. Abbott clinched the title with an impressive comeback. Down by minus-$100 early in the game, he nailed 17 of 19 answers in the second round to defeat J.J. Todor, 24, of Pataskala, Ohio, and Juliet Wiley, 34, of Plano, Texas.

Dave Abbott

He blamed his concentration lapse on having to tape three shows — Tuesday's semifinals and the finals — in one day last month in Los Angeles.

“I was thinking about everything else — my brother, or who was going to be watching, people I went to high school with — everything but the game,” said Mr. Abbott, a 1974 graduate of Highlands High School in Fort Thomas.

He blew a “video daily double” bonus early in the game by failing to say that Patrick Duffy was taking a shower in his 1986 return to Dallas.

His answer: “Coming to life.”

“I knew he came out of the shower,” Mr. Abbott said Friday, “but I was thinking about my brother.”

Mr. Abbott broke out of his funk after the first commercial break, when host Alex Trebek asked him if his wife, Janet, was in the studio audience. Thinking about his spouse, who had read him Trivial Pursuit cards, “really got me to focus,” he said.

The turning point came later in the first round on his correct response to a category called “Common Bonds.” The answer was: “Capistrano swallows, undeliverable mail and Jeopardy! champs.”

His reply: “What are things that come back?”

He dominated the Jeopardy! board after that. He answered correctly 27 times during the half-hour, compared to 11 for Mr. Todor and 10 for Ms. Wiley.

But Mr. Abbott won the tourney by only $900, with a two-day total of $21,500. Mr. Todor was second with $20,600; Ms. Wiley was last with $7,500.

Mr. Abbott couldn't remember much that happened on the show, except that the studio audience — including last year's three finalists — gave him a standing ovation. “I'm in an exclusive group of nerds,” he said with a laugh.

“I don't remember a clue, not a bloody thing. It's completely gone,” he said Friday afternoon, before watching the show with friends at his home.

Mr. Abbott already has spent part of the prize money. He has replaced his 1986 Toyota Corolla with a new Infiniti I30.

“I don't know what I'm going to do yet with the rest. Frankly, it wasn't for the money that I went out in the first place. Then it turned into a mission,” said the former church choir director. He bought a new tuba with his June winnings to play in the Northern Kentucky University Quintet.

Now that he has won it all on Jeopardy!, Mr. Abbott plans to spend more time with his wife and children, Adrienne, 11, and Doug, 9.

“I've told a couple of people that I'm on the "Jeopardy! patch,” he joked about his TV addiction.

“I promised the kids that I would stop watching, but it hasn't worked out that way yet.”

'Jeopardy!' to hold local tryouts

---

BERRY DIES SILENTLY
Watching Berry die: Nothing like a movie
Evanston marks Berry's final hour
Outside prison walls, moods clash
Berry's last day
Key dates in Wilford Berry case
Sharonville man is 'Jeopardy!' champion
Tristate cost of living up 2% in '98
$325M Sabin expansion urged
Girl's beating death inspires offers of help, money
Strong-mayor plan closer
'Baby Hope' goes home to father
Chamber confirms: They're great
Hamilton Co. expects no Y2K disruptions
Columbia Twp. trio plead guilty to thefts
Gardeners: You now have a network
Sex offender law gets test
Warrant out for court rebel
Butler won't allow Monroe to annex Liberty Twp. land
Lackluster Lotto goes to smaller base
Lincoln Heights marks Black History Month
Man indicted for trying to kill wife
McConnell likes GOP's chances in 2000
Newport leaders to visit business areas
Pendery outlines Campbell vision
Principal answers charges a 2nd time
School bus drivers strike
Seniors protest graduation delay
State's original suburbs unite
Tenants who lacked heat sue landlord
TRISTATE DIGEST