My personal favorite – 1) My friend and housemate Jack is family friends with the majority owners of the Tampa Bay Rays (a professional baseball team). 3) What you may not know, however, is that Franklin was an avid chess player -the first known by name in the American colonies – and was elected to the U.S. 2) As you may know, UPenn was founded by the one and only Benjamin Franklin in 1751. Chess Hall of Fame: three steps.īefore coming to Hopkins, our esteemed President Ron Daniels was a provost and professor at the University of Pennsylvania. The president that year – none other but Tricky Dick. In addition to the Kentucky Derby, American Pharaoh won the Belmont and Preakness Stakes, making him the first Triple Crown winner since Secretariat in 1973. For a little extra fun, let’s connect American Pharaoh to disgraced former president Richard Nixon. 3) American Pharaoh – who is, to be clear, a horse – won the Kentucky Derby in 2014. 1) My friend Theo is from Lexington Kentucky, 2) home to the famed Kentucky Derby Horse Race. Theo to Triple Crown winner American Pharaoh: three steps. So, with your permission, let’s play a few rounds. This game has uncovered so many delightfully random connections between people in my school life to those outside it, and has made me realize that those two worlds aren’t that separate after all. It’s pretty much exactly like “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon,” but at least one of the people involved has to go to Hopkins, and Kevin Bacon need not be included (but you get extra points if he is). Throughout my time at Hopkins, I’ve developed a version of “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” I call “Six Degrees of Hopkins”.