Contact: Kenneth Billings
Recent MSU graduate Joey Beachum catapulted himself and his alma mater to the national stage today when he realized his lifelong dream of competing on his favorite game show--and walked away with the $100,000 top prize.
The Saltillo native emerged victorious after beating out more than 14,000 hopefuls in preliminary screening and competitions to be one of 15 contestants in the College Championship series of the long-running television game show "Jeopardy!"
Beachum rose above contestants from 14 other colleges and universities in episodes taped in April at the Kohl Center on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison to win the championship.
"The experience was nothing short of an amazing once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," said Beachum. His fondest memory was having his fiance, Nicole Dilg, in the audience for his victorious moment.
"Right before the final scores were revealed, I looked out into the crowd and saw Nicole watching me live my dream--I will never forget that," he said.
Beachum graduated from Mississippi State two weeks ago with a perfect 4.0 grade point average in political science. An ROTC student at MSU, he now is second lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force. His favorite pastimes include playing soccer and baseball. He is currently teaching himself how to play the piano and violin.
When asked what he'll do with his winnings, Beachum said, "We have a wedding coming up in a couple of years, so I definitely need to save for that; however, we do have a beach trip planned."
Danielle Zsenek, a senior at Marquette University, finished second in the tournament, winning $50,000. Third-place winner Andrew Chung, a sophomore at Harvey Mudd College, pocketed $25,000.
Jeopardy!, a winner of 27 Emmy awards since its debut in 1984, was recently inducted into the Guinness Book of World Records for the most awards won by a TV Game Show. The series is the No.1-rated quiz show in syndication, and has held that title for more than 1,000 weeks.