\u201cMy hope was to see how the magic was made, and that I wouldn\u2019t severely embarrass myself,\u201d he says.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAnd when I lost, I\u2019d have a great story to tell.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Mission accomplished, and then some.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Sibley, an Episcopal priest in Walla Walla, Washington, mounted a four-day winning streak and raked in more than $78,000 before being \u201cPannulloed,\u201d a term Sibley coined for then reigning \u201cJeopardy!\u201d champion Cris Pannullo.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Sibley with his wife, Em, and their daughter, Nora, in 2022 at Palouse Falls, Washington \/ Courtesy photo<\/p><\/div>\n \u2018I SURPASSED MY WILDEST DREAMS\u2019<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Sibley says keeping a loose hold on the experience and not taking himself too seriously were keys to his success. Taping for the show on Aug. 8, Sibley arrived at Sony Pictures Studio in Culver City, California, fully anticipating a loss.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cSomehow, I got picked to play in the first game against the returning champ, and somehow, I won the game. I thought, \u2018Well, this is pretty cool. I get a bonus game now.\u2019 I didn\u2019t embarrass myself. I won \u2013 I never won\u2019t be a \u2018Jeopardy!\u2019 champion now,\u201d he says.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Then he won the second game and got to play again. Sibley was gunning for a fifth game because a five-game winner is guaranteed a spot in Jeopardy\u2019s Tournament of Champions.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n He remembers \u201cfeeling very Zen\u201d as the fifth game unfolded.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhen the last daily double (a chance for contestants to double their winnings) went off the board and Cris had put the game out of reach, I thought, \u2018This has been fun, you know?\u2019\u201d Sibley says. \u201cI had a really fun day I won\u2019t forget. I surpassed my wildest dreams and got to play four free games of \u2018Jeopardy!\u2019 I never thought I\u2019d play.\u201d He says his experience in front of a congregation \u2013 and immersing himself in the moment \u2013 helped him to perform under pressure.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI think by embracing the whole thing as an opportunity rather than a moment that must be conquered allowed me to perform better.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Once he learned he would appear on the show he watched as many \u201cJeopardy!\u201d episodes as he could, all the while practicing with his improvised clicker \u2013 a retractable pen.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n BEWARE THE ANGRY-BUZZ<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n Sibley\u2019s multi-day run was marked with flashes of brilliance and moments he wishes he could revisit.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Jeopardy Productions Inc.<\/p><\/div>\n Appropriately, the Furman chemistry major ran the category, \u201cNon-Nye Science Guys,\u201d in which he was relieved to give the correct response: Niels Bohr, Nobel Prize winner who developed a model of the atom. \u201cI\u2019m glad I didn\u2019t disgrace my chemistry degree. I would never live it down if I\u2019d gotten the wrong name,\u201d he says. Another moment came when he conflated the image of Beck with that of Ed Sheeran in the category, \u201cOne-Named Rockers.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0Turns out Sibley was subjected to an endless Sheeran playlist in his Uber ride the morning of taping.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>(He\u2019s not a fan.) Visions of Sheeran lingered in his head when he saw the photo of Beck.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201c\u2018It\u2019s my enemy from that morning, he must be vanquished!\u2019 I remember thinking. So, I buzz in rather<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>quickly, very confidently, and reply \u2018Who is Ed Sheeran?\u2019 And before the words have finished escaping my mouth, I realize what I\u2019ve done \u2013 I have angry-buzzed in with the wrong answer.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Sibley advanced despite the misstep. \u201cIf you\u2019re appearing on \u2018Jeopardy!,\u2019 you\u2019ve got to be prepared to be wrong in front of a million people. And that\u2019s okay because that\u2019s part of life.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n A PLATFORM FOR SUPPORT<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The freedom that came with treating each game as a gift was just one of the takeaways from Sibley\u2019s<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>time in the limelight. Another was the overwhelming support he received from friends, the Furman<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>chemistry department, family and parishioners. The experience also showed him that you don’t always get to see how much other people are invested in you or care about you.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhen you get that moment, you should soak it up because that sort of love can help get you through when things are really tough,\u201d says Sibley, recalling the tweets, emails and pictures of friends enjoying watch parties with their kids. \u201cAnd not because I could answer a few questions on national TV, but because there was some connection that made it important to any number of people to see me and to reach out to me.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Through those connections, it became apparent that he was creating a \u201cweird little \u2018Jeopardy!\u2019<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>platform,\u201d a Twitter following of 5,000, and he seized it to offer his support of the LGBTQIA+ community.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI realized people are paying attention, and it won\u2019t hurt to say something.\u201d So, he did, tweeting, \u201cI\u2019m sure the occupation of \u2018Episcopal Priest\u2019 is traumatizing or triggering for some #Jeopardy fans, so I want to be unequivocally clear: this priest is 100% affirming of the lives, loves and vocations of LGBTQIA+ people.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Jeopardy Productions Inc.<\/p><\/div>\n Later he tweeted, \u201cGod loves everyone without exceptions.\u201d That kind of unconditional affirmation is what Sibley received from the Furman chemistry department as he wrestled with whether to pursue a Ph.D. in chemistry or follow a path of ordained ministry.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201c(If I chose the ministry) I worried I would become the black sheep of the department \u2013 or be cast into the outer darkness where there\u2019s wailing and gnashing of teeth,\u201d Sibley jokes. \u201cYes, the faculty was forming me into a good scientist, but more than that, my Furman experience was about pulling all the<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>threads of my life together.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n He notes the influence of Professor of Chemistry Paul Wagenknecht and retired professors Noel Kane Maguire and Lon Knight and others in the department who showed him \u201cunrelenting support\u201d regardless of his career choice.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAll the lessons, both as a scientist and as a person, continue with me to this day. I learned how to think analytically in the chemistry department in a way that I\u2019m not sure I could have anywhere else. And I continue to apply that in my job as a priest,\u201d says Sibley, who ended up defending his master\u2019s in<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>chemistry one day, graduating the next, then two days later, packing to move to New York City for seminary.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cFurman made me who I am in many important ways. I remain in deep gratitude to the chemistry department and the whole university,\u201d he adds. \u201cIt\u2019s an intrinsic part of who I am and something I value so much.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n He\u2019s happy to be home with his wife, Em, and baby, Nora, who now has a nice head start on college funding thanks to his winnings.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n For now, Sibley will enjoy \u201cJeopardy!\u201d as the fan he\u2019s always been. He\u2019ll also be waiting on word from the producers on a possible bid to the Tournament of Champions.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n And if Sibley gets the nod? \u201cI\u2019ll be there in a heartbeat.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" David Sibley \u201907 M\u201908 came home with more than his winnings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":257,"featured_media":25947,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1967,1963,1964],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-furman-magazine","category-spring-2023"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/257"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24103\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Sibley](\"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/218\/2023\/03\/Feature-Jeopardy-Inline2-150x150.png\")
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