A freshman from University of Colorado-Boulder...

Than Hedman

Will you use your Jeopardy! appearance to impress people?
I plan on using my appearance on Jeopardy! to get the ladies at college parties, y'know? They know I get that money and I'm smart.

What do you love most about Jeopardy!?
Well, what I love most about Jeopardy! could best be expressed in the words of the Wu-Tang Clan: "Cash rules everything around me (C.R.E.A.M.). Get that money. Dolla dolla bill."

How did you react when you were selected as a contestant?
When I found out I was going to be on Jeopardy!, I acted like I was a fifteen-year-old girl for about five, ten minutes. Just, "Oh, my God, oh, my God..." It was kind of embarrassing.

What's harder: preparing for Jeopardy! or cramming for a mid-term?
I'd say that preparing for Jeopardy!'s much harder than preparing for an exam, because I have no idea what to study for. I have no clue what's coming.

What do you think of your competition?
Better start crammin'!

2008 College Championship quarterfinalist: $5,000.

19 and from Denver, CO at the time of the College Championship.

Than won $5,000 on Who Wants to be a Millionaire on 2017-09-26.

nathaniel blogification
Posted May 2, 2008

It was late too late for class because I had pushed my cellphone off the too-small top-bunk in before the alarm could sing me out of bed and I cursed and bumped my head on the ceiling and jumped out into the empty room. The cellphone and battery were unnested but still resting on each other on the bedroom floor but the sim card and plastic backing had fled, not under the bed or elsewhere on the expanse of tile and carpet. The panicked urge of uncorrected disconnection grabbed the pit of my stomach and I pushed the stack of beds to the side looking along the wall and then tore up my roommates bed until I found them under a ball of sheets. I made the four pieces back into a blackberry and stared at the white screen as an hourglass turned over and over and waited for some sign from the world which perhaps still existed outside of my sleep-glazed rented room. Arrows and bars appeared and told me that signals were passing in and out of the plastic lump in my hand and it came to life buzzing and vibrating to me with a sequence of unfamiliar numbers flashing at me and I answered. Hello this is maggie from jeopardy! it said and I remembered her voice that just like her typing seems to be all capitals (I had only heard it once before when we spoke at my interview on that endless day that seemed to be over with a chem lecture but then I passed a line for something in the university memorial center that someone said was for jeopardy! tryouts and I said what the hell ten questions won't take long. The room was flooded with filing in and filing out and filing completed quizzes and I answered a question about coal production before they told me I should come back later for the second part and I did with caroline and we sat through 50 blue-backed answers to question and I missed all the ones about black culture but I rocked the ones about country so they told me to stay. After standing and grinning like the nerd who I am sometimes or often am they broke into the interview portion and they didn't have to tell me to enunciate or project and one of the categories was chemistry so maybe I looked good and I told them about wanting to start an indie rap label with my brother which was good but after me a kid forced sympathy and a bit of admiration out of every hostile competitor in the ballroom when he said that he had just recovered from brain cancer and wished to start a research foundation with his winnings. Hell I wanted him to be picked and win it all and anyways I was already chatting up a redhead from denver loud enough to force them to tell me to quiet down but at the end I as happy even though I never got her number just to have made it as far as merit in trivia would allow me to progress and bragged to anyone who would listen.). She said she was happy to hear me react almost speechlessly with a nonsensical ohmygod and invited to compete and almost before she said goodbye I was dialing sean who said he knew I could do it and told me something about his sister I didn't really care about and left jack on the coast a message since he wasn't up. Then I danced a few times across the floor and wikipediaed the college tournament and with not a little satisfaction noted the prizes and realized that I was the first Colorado Buff to make it and decided that maybe a little work was in order. I watched some cash cab (© discovery channel) and even missed a few innings of baseball to watch jeopardy! and aggressively questioned anyone who claimed to know an obscure fact. By the week of the tournament I was exhausted but ready and everyone seemed to know saying so in the cafeteria and at the gym and at least two people gave me goodluck charms and I knew it was good.

- Than's quarter-final game is May 9th. Check back for his next blog entry! [Never posted]