Season 22, Day 10 - "You Know the Drill"

It's John week, and today's quiz is inspired by John Henry.

Hi everyone! Lawrence Long, Sam Stapleton, and Josh Saak won their first round matches in the Jeopardy! Champions Wild Card event and advanced to the semifinals. Lawrence and Sam are facing off tonight while Josh plays on Monday’s show. Congrats and good luck all!!

John Henry

John Henry is an American folk hero. He’s said to have been a freedman working as a “steel-drivin’ man” in the 1870s, helping to construct the Big Bend Tunnel through the Alleghenies in West Virginia. According to legend, he took his two 20-pound hammers up against a steam-powered drill in a drilling race, saying “Before I’d let your steam drill beat me down, Lord, I’d die with this hammer in my hand.” Henry won the contest, but his heart unfortunately gave out from the exertion and he died with his hammer in hand as he’d foretold. The story of John Henry is often told in a folk song called “The Ballad of John Henry.” “John Henry” is also slang for a signature, but this came from cowboy slang and is unrelated to the steel-driving folk hero. A champion thoroughbred racehorse in the 1980s was named after John Henry.