Roger Craig leaped to Jeopardy fame Tuesday night, winning $77,000 and unseating legendary Ken Jennings as the contestant with the highest one-day jackpot.

“Breaking Ken Jenning’s record is simply amazing. I knew that I had a chance to set the new record going into Final Jeopardy so I thought, ‘What the heck, I’ll go for it,’” the University of Delaware graduate student said. Jennings set the previous single-day high in 2004 when he won $75,000.

Craig’s success came after wagering big on the Daily Doubles. “I lucked out on my first game with a chemistry Daily Double,” he said. “My undergrad degree is in biochem.”

Craig bet $30,000 on the category “Literary and Movie Title Objects” in Final Jeopardy, after winning $47,000 during the regular part of the game. The clue was: “The inspiration for this title object in a novel and a 1957 movie actually spanned the Mae Khlung River.”

The 33-year-old correctly replied, “What is ‘The Bridge on the River Kwai?’ ”

Tuesday’s win brings Craig’s two-day winnings to $114,000. He won $34,000 the previous night during the Jeopardy season premiere. He continues his search for even bigger winnings tonight. Jeopardy airs locally on WPVI-TV Channel 6 at 7 p.m.

Craig is currently studying bioinformatics as a doctoral student in UD’s Department of Computer and Information Sciences. He received his bachelor in science degrees in biology and biochemistry, both in 1999 from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Annandale, Va.

For more on Craig, see the earlier UDaily article.

Photo courtesy of Jeopardy Productions Inc.

Editor’s note: Roger Craig continued his winning streak on Wednesday’s Jeopardy, adding another $24,401 to his total.