Maplewood Grad's Appearance On 'Jeopardy!' Becomes British Tabloid Fodder This Week

MAPLEWOOD, NJ — Dan Oxman, a graduate of Columbia High School in Maplewood, isn't the first bright young man from the school to appear on the quiz show Jeopardy! — only the most recent.

Back in 1988, then-Columbia High School student David Javerbaum appeared on the teen tournament. As a runner-up, Javerbaum won $21,000. He graduated from Harvard, became a writer on the Late Show with David Letterman and the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and was eventually inducted into the South Orange Middle School Hall of Fame.

Oxman, of South Orange, appeared on the 2018 teen tournament 30 years after Javerbaum did. And this week, he returned for the High School Reunion Tournament and won $5,000.

Oxman is now a senior at the University of Maryland, majoring in chemical engineering.

He's also five years older, and apparently a bit more flirty.

Back in 2018, Oxman told Patch, “I like game shows and I started watching 'Jeopardy!' every day. I told my Dad it would be fun to be on the show and he encouraged me to look up how to audition ... I’m so happy I did it. I’ll have the best dinner conversation of anyone for years to come."

Oxman added a twist this week.

Oxman "shocked" game show fans by flirting with Jeopardy! host Mayim Bialik, according to a report in a British tabloid.

He told her he had a crush on her when he was younger, and "You haven’t aged a day.”

Apparently, Twitter erupted with fans saying he should "shoot his shot," and some felt old because he said he remembered her from "The Big Bang Theory" and not "Blossom."

(Those "old" people are likely the Gen X'ers who remember Javerbaum and not Oxman.)

Want to know more? The tournament concludes on March 9.