by Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — Wellington, Kansas seems to be finding itself on the national stage from time to time lately – thankfully for trivial reasons.

Friday afternoon, Wellington, Kansas was a topic of a clue on the popular syndicated gameshow “Jeopardy.”

Avid television viewers of the show know the routine. There are two rounds of 30 clues – divided by six categories with five clues on a blue checkerboard of television monitors. Gameshow host Alex Trebek gives an answer and three contestants try to answer the clue in a form of a question for big money.

On Friday, Trebek stated: “The Amber Rolling Fields of Wellington, Kansas make it this grain ‘capital of the world.'”

And collectively Sumner County residents watching the show uttered, “What is Wheat?” – if they weren’t in shock seeing Wellington mentioned on national television.

The clue was featured in the category “U.S. Capitals of the world” It was an $800 clue. Adrian Ho from Palo Alto, Calif. answered it correctly.

The clue and answer gave Wellington just 10 seconds of fame but it was nice to see Wellington featured in a positive light.

In the past few years that hasn’t been the case. A couple years back a Wellington Daily News headline blooper “Spelling Bee Winer announced,” made the Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

A year ago, over the New Years holiday, Wellington was on several national news shows like Good Morning America on a segment called “Strange and unusual laws past in 2012.” National news pundits thought it was hysterical that the city of Wellington passed an ordinance that made it illegal to own four or more cats per household.

Most of the time, these blasts of national fame come unexpectedly and are forgotten by about everybody except those who call Wellington home. And on this quick-fire clue-giving show, that is no exception to the ru.

Shelley Hansel-Williams, Wellington Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director, said she was as caught off guard as anybody.

“I was having trouble with my cell phone and when I got it working Friday evening, all these messages kept popping up about Wellington being on Jeopardy,” Hansel-Williams said. “I was like going, ‘what the heck?'”

When she got home she saw the Facebook posts and was delighted.

“I take it as a sign from God,” Hansel-Williams said. “Anytime you get national recognition it’s a good thing. How’s that saying go? ‘There is no such thing as bad publicity’?”

Ron Levan, a 1979 Wellington High School graduate, is now a first year Chaparral High School principal. He may be the one credited for alerting the local non-Jeopardy watching masses that such a question was asked.

“I try to catch Jeopardy as many times as possible which doesn’t usually happen because I’m usually at ballgames,” Levan said. “I just happened to be home this Friday afternoon when the question popped up. My wife told me to stop the DVR, back it up and take a picture of it.”

He then posted the picture on Facebook.

Levan couldn’t remember the specific category or how much the question was worth or if the question was answered correctly. Sumner Newscow has e-mailed some specific questions to the Jeopardy producers in Culver City, Calif. hoping for answers to the answer (or question). It appears to have occurred during the second round since the DVR was stopped at 4:45 p.m. which would put it halfway through the show.

Hansel said she is calling KSNW-TV in Wichita to see if she can obtain a copy of the Friday Jeopardy show.