BETHLEHEM, Pa. — When Ryan Bilger was on the television game show “Jeopardy!” in 2019, he calmed his nerves by recalling a similar competition from his high school years.
That's when he competed on "Scholastic Scrimmage," the televised PBS39 quiz show for Lehigh Valley teens.
“Whether it’s Alex Trebek or Dr. Karen Walton or whoever else it may be reading the questions, this is what you do to enjoy yourself, so just relax,” Bilger said he told himself at the time.
The advice worked.
Bilger, a 2015 Emmaus High School graduate, won four games on "Jeopardy!" and took home nearly $110,000 in prize money.
But that wasn’t his first experience with an on-air victory. During his senior year at Emmaus, Bilger and his teammates won the "Scholastic Scrimmage" championship game.
Being a part of "Scholastic Scrimmage" was fun and “good for confidence,” said Bilger, now a visitor services coordinator at a national museum in Washington, D.C.
It taught him about teamwork, leadership and “all those sorts of things for later in life," he said.
Bilger and other "Scholastic Scrimmage" alumni are reflecting on their time competing on the Lehigh Valley television show as it celebrates its 50th anniversary.
In June, they will come together for a networking event and a screening of a retrospective video at the Univest Public Media Center, where "Scholastic Scrimmage" games are recorded.
“It’s an amazing group of young people who compete with each other and bond over this,” said PBS39 Director of Education Cate Reifsnyder.
“The idea that this has gone on for 50 years is just incredible.”
'Depth and breadth of knowledge'
In each "Scholastic Scrimmage" game, teams of four from opposing high schools face off in 26 minutes of competition, featuring toss-up questions on science, math, history, current events and other topics.
There are also bonus questions and a lightning round. The team with the most points at the end of the competition wins and gets to take on another high school in the hopes of making it to the championship game.
"The idea that this has gone on for 50 years is just incredible."Cate Reifsnyder, PBS’s director of education
Karen Walton, who hosted "Scholastic Scrimmage" for 20 years starting in the late 1990s, said she enjoyed getting to know all the smart teens who competed throughout the years.
“I just loved seeing the depth and breadth of their knowledge, especially by the time you get to the end of that bracket — those students are very good,” said Walton, former provost and vice president for academic affairs at DeSales University.
Tom Schoeninger, a former English teacher who coached academic teams at Pen Argyl Area High School in the 1990s and Moravian Academy in the 2010s, said the students who excel at "Scholastic Scrimmage" are “very quick-witted,” “competitive” and “want to succeed.”
“They think they know a lot and a lot of times they do, and then they learn more and they become very good at it,” Schoeninger said.
'Particularly gratifying'
Judith Harris, a 1979 Allen High School graduate, said the answers to "Scholastic "Scrimmage" questions about English, art and the humanities came easily to her.
But when she got the one-off math or science question right, “it was particularly gratifying,” she said, noting those weren’t her strong suits.
Harris, a local estate, trust and tax attorney, said she remembers reading encyclopedias as a teen to prepare for "Scholastic Scrimmage" games.
Nowadays, student competitors have access to unlimited study material via the internet.
“I think about these contestants currently and how they prepare now in a way that we did not have available,” Harris said.
Still, Harris and her teammates came ready to win.
As the academic team captain, Harris led her teammates to victory in the "Scholastic Scrimmage" final against Freedom High School during her senior year, she said.
“We didn’t imagine that we could win, but we did, and it was exhilarating,” said Harris, who is also among PBS39’s 2025 Good Neighbor Award winners for her community service in the Lehigh Valley.
'Cool to be a nerd'
Dan Fitzpatrick, a 2011 Allentown Central Catholic High School graduate and past "Scholastic Scrimmage" participant, said it was exciting to be on TV as a teenager.
“It was always cool being in the studio,” said Fitzpatrick, now a writer, editor and comic based in New York City.
Back then, "Scholastic Scrimmage" was filmed at PBS39’s old Bethlehem studio on Mountain Drive. The new Bethlehem studio — the Univest Public Media Center off Founders Way on the SteelStacks campus — opened in summer 2011.
Throughout high school, Fitzpatrick competed in "Scholastic Scrimmage" alongside his twin sister Claire, also a 2011 Central Catholic grad.
She said bus rides to the academic competitions were particularly fun because of her teammates.
“We were with kids cut from a similar cloth, and it was cool to be a nerd,” said Claire Fitzpatrick, now a Chicago-based corporate strategist for a large grocery company.
Providing the perfect stage
But Eric Smith, a 1988 Pen Argyl Area graduate, described his team’s drives to "Scholastic Scrimmage" competitions as “nerve-wracking.”
“We were trying to make jokes to keep ourselves calmed down,” Smith said. “You don’t want to make a fool out of yourself on local television.”
Smith, now principal of Nitschmann Middle School in Bethlehem and a former physics teacher, said he’s taught students who’ve participated in "Scholastic Scrimmage," too.
The competition celebrates quick-thinking, academically high-achieving students who might otherwise be overshadowed at school, he said.
“I think it caters to [the sometimes] forgotten group of kids and gives value to that academic side that we don't get to do very often,” Smith said.
It’s usually high school sports that grab headlines, but academic triumphs deserve the spotlight, too, he said.
And "Scholastic Scrimmage" provides the perfect public stage.
“I was a big fan when I was a kid, still a big fan when I became a teacher,” Smith said.
“I think it’s great that it’s still going on and kind of amazing. Not a lot of things are still around from when I was a kid.”
EDITOR'S NOTE: LehighValleyNews.com is part of Lehigh Valley Public Media, along with PBS39 and 91.3 WLVR radio.
