A kickball team captain from St. Louis, Missouri...

Tom Kavanaugh

What do you think makes a great Jeopardy! player?
I think, uh, to be a great Jeopardy! player, you have to, uh, be fast. [Laughs] You have to know a lot of stuff. I mean, you have to--you have to study, because, you know, obviously everybody has certain areas that are weak points. Um, but... You--you have to be calm and, uh, quick. So, I--you know, you can't let your nerves take over, or else... There's--there's not a lot of time to get nervous and get frazzled, so you have to be--you have to be alert and always be ready. [Laughs]

What categories are you hoping for?
Um, categories that I--I would like, uh, would probably be... anything Irish. I mean, IRISH LITERATURE, IRISH HISTORY. Uh, THE SIMPSONS I think I could do pretty good on. Uh... [Laughs] Uh, I'm--I'm pretty good at '80s MUSIC. Any--any '80s bands that, uh... (STYX.) [Laughs] Late '70s, early '80s. (Journey.) Uh... But yeah, and TV, I think.

How has your life changed since your appearance on Jeopardy!?
My life hasn't really changed that much since I was on. Ummm... I got a, uh, an interview in a screenwriting magazine, which hopefully will help me sell some screenplays. Um, but, really haven't had many people recognize me. Maybe, like, three people. [Laughs] So, nothing's really changed that much.

How did you prepare for this Tournament?
I prepared, uh, for the Tournament by studying anything I could. Uh, when I was on the first time, I had, uh, taken a lot of notes, just because I've always been able to remember things better when I wrote them down, so I would go through encyclopedias and look up anything I felt were weak areas, and, um, so I went back and studied those things. And I prepared by watching the shows and trying to, you know, figure out the timing and stuff like that, so...

2014 Battle of the Decades invitee: $5,000.
2006 Tournament of Champions quarterfinalist: $5,000.
Season 22 8-time champion: $142,602 + $2,000.

As Tom's run concluded, his high school's web site displayed a banner on the front page reading "Bishop DuBourg High School Congratulates... Tom Kavanaugh '96 On his success on Jeopardy!"

Tom appeared in the following archived game:
#5000, aired 2006-05-12 Tom Kavanaugh vs. Bill MacDonald vs. Nico Martinez 2006 Tournament of Champions quarterfinal game 5.
Tom previously appeared on Jeopardy! as Tom Kavanaugh in the following 9 archived games:
#4912, aired 2006-01-10 Tom Kavanaugh vs. Constance Swinger vs. Kevin Marshall Tom Kavanaugh game 9. Kevin Marshall game 1.
#4911, aired 2006-01-09 Tom Kavanaugh vs. Marty Miller vs. Carolyn Proulx Tom Kavanaugh game 8.
#4910, aired 2006-01-06 Tom Kavanaugh vs. Eve Bjork vs. Joseph Willis Tom Kavanaugh game 7.
#4909, aired 2006-01-05 Tom Kavanaugh vs. Craig Smith vs. Stephanie Lutz Tom Kavanaugh game 6.
#4908, aired 2006-01-04 Tom Kavanaugh vs. Jim Burkhard vs. Andy Gefen Tom Kavanaugh game 5.
#4907, aired 2006-01-03 Tom Kavanaugh vs. James Calhoun vs. Leslie Birdwell Tom Kavanaugh game 4.
#4906, aired 2006-01-02 Tom Kavanaugh vs. Joan Tosh vs. Jamie Hodari Tom Kavanaugh game 3.
#4905, aired 2005-12-30 Tom Kavanaugh vs. Robert Bethard vs. Lauren Dean Tom Kavanaugh game 2.
#4904, aired 2005-12-29 Rex Babiera vs. Tom Kavanaugh vs. Keara Depenbrock Tom Kavanaugh game 1.
Tom would later appear on Jeopardy! as Tom Kavanaugh in the following archived game:
#6808, aired 2014-04-02 Tom Kavanaugh vs. Larissa Kelly vs. Russ Schumacher Battle of the Decades: The 2000s game 3.

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