Jonah Knobler '03 dreamed of appearing on "Jeopardy!" as a child growing up in Cincinnati, Ohio. Last month, the Winthrop House sophomore's dream came true, as he earned $15,000 for himself and $15,000 for Harvard in the show's 2000 College Championship.

Knobler won second place in a field of 15 contestants in the Seattle tournament--a group he said was eager to see a Harvard student lose.

"I sometimes felt like the type-cast Harvard guy to be defeated by the wholesome All-American state school student," he said.

The third place recipient told his local newspaper that all of the contestants were united in the goal of preventing the "Harvard guy" from winning.

The college tournament will air beginning in early November.

Knobler's "Jeopardy!" experience began last May, when the linguistics concentrator was procrastinating by playing the game online. He noticed a link for applications for the 2000 college tournament. After typing in his name and e-mail address, Knobler promptly forgot about the contest, he said.

But when he received a call in July from the producers inviting him to compete in regional tryouts for the chance to appear on the show, Knobler said he figured, "Why not?"

Contestants for the tryouts were chosen randomly from the information they had entered online, according to Knobler.