‘Jeopardy!’ GOATS Ken Jennings, James Holzhauer And Brad Rutter Mourned The Death Of Alex Trebek

For the past two years, Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek has battled Stage IV pancreatic cancer, but throughout the grueling treatment he continued to host the show with the same delight and passion as always. On Sunday, we learned that Trebek had passed at the age of 80, with TMZ reporting he died at home surrounded by his family.

Trebek had been open about his cancer diagnosis and the timetable doctors had given him, but made it his stated purpose to continue living as he had and hosting the show he loved and had made into a phenomenon of pop culture. In that time, he brought three of the shows greatest contestants back for the Jeopardy! GOAT Tournament back in January, as Ken Jennings, Brad Rutter, and the newest Jeopardy! juggernaut James Holzhauer all faced off in a primetime special.

As the news of Trebek’s death emerged on Sunday, those three all paid tribute to the man they had become close with, remembering him as a one-of-one who gave them and the world something special.

Trebek had just taped a number of new episodes and while he continued on with business as usual, the past two years had seen contestants recognize the importance of making sure the legendary host was given his flowers while he was still with us. In the Tournament of Champions, a contestant used Final Jeopardy to say “We love you Alex,” and recently, a newly crowned champion Burt Thakur explained to Trebek that he had learned English by watching Alex host Jeopardy! with his grandfather, thanking him for all he’d done.

The influence of Trebek and Jeopardy! on American culture and millions of people who have competed on the show or became regular viewers is hard to overstate. He will be missed tremendously, but if there is any silver lining in all of this it is that the gratitude and love people have for him was able to be shared fully with him in the final years of his life.