$50K for Farabaugh: MHS teacher scores on Jeopardy

A savvy teacher from Monticello High School, Michael Farabaugh, has won $50,000 by taking second prize in a special tournament on the Jeopardy! game show.

“It felt amazing to make it all the way to the finals and come away in second place,”  Farabaugh says in a release about the two-week event in which 15 of America's top K-12 educators faced off.

No stranger to brainy games, the 42-year-old Farabaugh has reportedly seen three crossword puzzles he designed appear in the New York Times. He reveals that his biggest Jeopardy! gambit was betting $5,000 of his then $9,000 stash on a Daily Double question in the category "science fun."

With three degrees in science– including two in chemistry– this chemistry teacher reveals that he quickly felt a sigh of relief when the topic was narrowed to the periodic table of elements.

Not everything went his way during the two-day final match. A Chicago-based history teacher, Colby Burnett, took home the grand prize of $100,000.

“At the end of the first game, Colby and I were pretty much even," Farabaugh says in the release, "but in the second game, he had a great run, and I couldn’t catch him once he got on a roll.”

With four daughters age 16 and under, Farabaugh claims to be weighing whether to buy an extra car or stow the money away for college tuition. Considering where knowledge got him, that shouldn't be too tough a call.