When Alma College alum Pete Johnston stepped onto the stage of television’s Jeopardy! for his first appearance last summer, he carried the same anxiety shared by many lifelong fans of the show.

He wasn’t worried about losing. He was worried about embarrassing himself.

Instead, the Alma native and member of the Class of 2007 delivered one of the strongest performances of the season before ultimately falling to a contestant who would later become one of the show’s standout champions.

I happened to play against a super champion, Johnston said. At that point, you’re like, ‘What can I do?’

Months later, Johnston received another opportunity: an invitation to compete in Jeopardy!’s Second Chance tournament, which gives standout non-winning contestants another shot at advancing through the show’s postseason competitions.

The tournament quickly turned dramatic. After advancing through his opening matchup, Johnston entered the two-game finals trailing badly after the first day. With little choice but to gamble, he made an all-in wager during Final Jeopardy!.

I figured that was the only chance I had, he said. You either bet it all, or you bet small and lose anyway.

The category: movie inspiration. The clue referenced two holidays, Halloween and Christmas, and how they intersected on the silver screen. Johnston immediately knew the answer: Tim Burton’s 1994 hit The Nightmare Before Christmas.

The risk paid off. Johnston rallied to win the tournament and advance to the Champions Wild Card competition, extending a remarkable run that earned him national attention — and plenty of hometown support from Alma.

Johnston’s run concluded in the Wild Card competition, where he finally met his match on a Final Jeopardy! clue about Biblical art. He ended up taking home $38,000 in winnings.

Though he now teaches at Michigan State University, Johnston made sure his Jeopardy! appearances remained connected to his hometown and alma mater.
During contestant introductions, he specifically requested pronunciation guidance so hosts Ken Jennings and Johnny Gilbert would correctly say Alma. He and wife Katie also hosted watch parties at a local bar, where friends, relatives and community members gathered to cheer him on.

It felt natural, Johnston said. That’s where I grew up. I went to Alma College. I wanted to show a little Alma love and put Alma on the national spotlight.
The Alma connection runs deep in Johnston’s family. Multiple siblings attended Alma College, as did both of his parents and several extended family members. Johnston’s brother-in-law, Andrew Bare, has worked at Alma College for two decades.

For Johnston, his eagerness to acquire knowledge plus the wide scope of Alma’s curriculum became ideal preparation for Jeopardy!’s famously eclectic categories.
Having that kind of broad curiosity about the world that you get from a liberal arts education — that is perfect training for something like Jeopardy!, he said. Alma College encourages critical thinking and experiential learning. It teaches you to ask questions and want to find out the answers.

Long before appearing on national television, Johnston was already building a career as an award-winning filmmaker and scholar. His documentary work has explored topics ranging from the Muslim world to Afrofuturism, and he is currently in post-production on his first feature-length documentary as director.
The film, titled Magic Town, traces the history of a rural Michigan magic convention that first captured Johnston’s imagination as a child after former Alma art professor Bob Rozier took him there at age 12.

That sort of set my brain spinning for the rest of my life, Johnston said.

Bob had this way of looking at the world with wonder, Johnston said. There was a playfulness and a curiosity to the way he processed things visually. I think about that a lot when I teach now.

Johnston credits Rozier and other Alma professors, namely Sandy Lopez-Isnardi and Carrie Parks-Kirby, with profoundly shaping both his artistic life and his teaching career.

For more on Magic Town, and Johnston’s run on Jeopardy!, visit his website, www.pizzageni.us.