The College of the Holy Cross’ 11 appearances on Jeopardy! were featured in the Telegram & Gazette twice in one day last week. In one story, “I’ll take Holy Cross for $500, Alex,” the local outlet listed all of the famous question/answer-styled pairings in which the College was featured, including “Founded in 1843, it’s the oldest Catholic college in New England.”
The second mention, “‘Jeopardy!’ writer says HC popular,” explains that Holy Cross has appeared on the show 11 times due the contestants’ and audience’s familiarity with the College. Susie Eun, senior publicity coordinator at CBS, told the Telegram & Gazette “Here is a response from our show’s head writer: Obviously we have found that Holy Cross is a college that our contestants and audience are familiar with despite its relatively small size,” she reported. “We often base our college clues on famous graduates but in this case we’ve only mentioned two people as alums, Clarence Thomas and Chris Matthews. Maybe we’ll get around to Jon Favreau and Tommy Heinsohn someday.”
This “Holy Cross in the News” item by Jessica Kennedy.
While Clarence Thomas and Chris Matthews ’67 may be interesting foils for a question, I would hope the Jeopardy writers might also pick up a question around Dr. Joe Murray HC1940 who in 1990 received the Nobel Prize for his work in organ transplantation