To his friends and colleagues, it came as no surprise that Tucker Shope would compete on the trivia game show “Jeopardy!” Shope, a Ph.D. student studying history at Mississippi State University, has always had a knack for trivia.
Shope competed in an episode that aired on Nov. 11 against Willa Perlmutter, a lawyer from Portland, OR, and Andrew He, a software developer located in San Francisco, CA. Shope placed third in the episode.
Shope performed well, answering questions primarily related to his favored subject of history. He had correct answers for questions about historical figures, including Leon Trotsky, John D. Rockefeller and Vlad Dracula, also known as the Impaler.
Longtime friend and trivia partner Justin Brinkmeyer knew Shope when he was an undergraduate student at Lee University in Cleveland, TN. The two competed in bar trivia in the Cleveland and Chattanooga areas together.
“He’s a smart guy, so I knew he’d be very good at it,” Brinkmeyer said. “Of course, his specialty was history and religion. When you create a trivia team, everybody has their specialty. He knows some music and pop culture as well.”
Another person who knew Shope during undergraduate school is John Coats, professor of history at Lee University and Shope’s former adviser. Coats talked about Shope’s time in his classroom. 
“He came in not a history major but became intrigued with the discipline. He’s very eclectic and curious about many things. That makes him a good student because when you’re curious about things, you study them and pursue them. Tucker always marched to his own beat,” Coats said. 
Coats discussed Shope’s performance on “Jeopardy!” and what strategies winning contestants use.
“He definitely did not embarrass himself. I’ve had other students go on Jeopardy before, and it seems like the real trick is buzzing in fast enough. If you notice, the guy who won almost never jumped straight into the answer, he would talk slowly because he was figuring out the answer as he was saying it,” Coats said. 
Brinkmeyer provided insight into the preparation of contestants for “Jeopardy!”
“The actual amount of knowledge that the show tests on is not that extensive. It’s a fairly narrow thing over the last fifty years, so the questions are revamped and recycled. You have to come up with those answers quickly, and then get lucky with the buzzer. You can memorize so much information but get unlucky with the buzzer,” Brinkmeyer said.
Coats spoke about the best ways to prepare for trivia, especially as it relates to his field of history.
“I would say read it. That’s one thing Tucker does well, and he has a good recall of what he reads. I would start with general textbooks, American history, European history and African history. If you had time, I would keep working my way down from the textbook into more specific things,” Coats said. 
Brinkmeyer agreed that reading was one of the best ways to study trivia, and gave several other suggestions as well. 
“I would suggest reading a lot. I would find bulletin board websites where other people talk to one another about trivia. Finding out what other people do is helpful,” Brinkmeyer said.
Shope said he had been subtly preparing to compete on the show his whole life. 
“You have to really take in things throughout life and be observant. You have to be open to learning things regardless of where they are,” Shope said. “Being good at trivia is not just about studying an encyclopedia. It’s if you learn something interesting, if you read about it in a book, you go and search for more information about it. You try to remember the names of people you see on TV; you watch the Oscars every year, that sort of thing.”
Shope mentioned his grandparents as a key influence on his decision to pursue a spot on “Jeopardy!”
“I lived with my grandparents during undergrad, and every night we’d make dinner, watch ‘Wheel of Fortune’ and then watch ‘Jeopardy!’ We would compete against each other, and I would normally come out on top. After I graduated in 2018, I took the online test for the show. It wasn’t about being on TV, it was about being able to play Jeopardy in person, live with the board and the buzzer and the contestants,” Shope said.
Shope spoke about his experience of being on “Jeopardy!” and said the opportunity was valuable and rewarding.
“Just being on the show was amazing. Competing against other people was fun. It was great being in the studio. Walking through there, people pointed out ‘By the way, “Wizard of Oz” was filmed in there, “Singing in the Rain” over there, “Shark Tank” is filmed right up there.’ It was a great experience to be there and get to do it regardless of the outcome,” Shope said.

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Jeopardy! | Courtesy Photo

Tucker Shope competed on the Nov. 11 episode of “Jeopardy!” He came in third place.