Wheaton College Alumni Magazine Spring 2013 | Page 36

alumni association

As Seen on TV
You might recognize these two alumni if you watch either the game show Jeopardy!
or Monday Night Football.

photo: IndIanapolIs Colts

by Annette Heinrich LaPlaca ’86

Jeopardy! champion Paul Nelson ’11 with Alex Trebek, the host
of this #1-rated quiz show in syndication with 25 million viewers
each week.

Referee Jeff Otterby ’91 scrutinizes a play by Indianapolis Colts
quarterback Andrew Luck as he throws his first pass as an NFL
player (it went for a touchdown).

Paul Nelson ’11

Jeff Otterby ’91

didn’t watch Jeopardy! while a student at Wheaton,

coaches and teaches social studies to middle school-

even though he’d loved it as a kid. But when he tuned

ers in St. Charles, Illinois, most days, but “loved every

in again, Paul decided it might be fun to try the game

minute” of his experience as a replacement ref at seven

himself. Paul passed an online test of rapid-fire, rapid-

NFL games this past football season. “I loved the travel,

response questions; he then tried out near Washing-

the people I met, everything about it,” Jeff says. The

ton, D.C., where he’d been working since college as a

travel took him to Atlanta, Dallas, and Green Bay for try-

legislative correspondent for Senator Chuck Grassley

out and training—and to Indianapolis, New York, Hous-

of Iowa. Eventually Paul spent six great days on TV’s

ton, and New Orleans for four pre-season games and

longest-running game show.

three regular-season games.

“It was a blast!” says Paul, whose family in Iowa City, a

“The NFL people,” Jeff insists, “were so professional, so

grandmother in Canada, and friends from around the

nice, so encouraging.” And he surprised fellow alumnus,

world cheered him to victory during his first run and later

Andy Studebaker ’08 of the Kansas City Chiefs, by calling

in a tournament of champions.

out to him on the field, “Hey, Andy, Traber or Fischer?”

What’s next for Paul? Two men he greatly admires—

Jeff didn’t mind the pressure of being televised interna-

Wheaton political science professors Drs. Mark Am-

tionally: “You just concentrate and do the job,” he says,

stutz and Bryan McGraw—were shaped by their ser-

confident from years of officiating at high school, col-

vice and leadership in the American military. Inspired,

lege, and college Division I games. Jeff is more than

Paul is leaving the Hill to attend the United States Navy’s

content with the season: “It’s the best experience I’ve

Officer Candidate School with plans to become a pilot.

ever had!”

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