1934- American football player Hall-of-Fame quarterback Bart Starr led the Green Bay Packers to six division championships, five NFL championships, and two Super Bowl titles; he was Most Valuable Player for Super Bowl I and Super Bowl Bart Starr II, and NFL Most Valuable Player in 1966. He later coached the Packers for nine seasons, from 1975 to 1984. Address: c/o Celebrity Speakers and Ent…
1956- Czech hockey player Peter Stastny was one of the dominant offensive players of the National Hockey League (NHL). In the 1980s he was second only to Wayne Gretzky in points scored; the 1,239 points Stastny scored during his sixteen-year career with Quebec, New Jersey and St. Louis rank him as the second-best European scorer in NHL history. Of equal significance, when Stastny and his brother A…
1942- American football player Roger Staubach A star quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys for nearly a decade, Roger Staubach endeared himself to fans of "America's team" with his last-minute heroics that led Dallas to two Super Bowl victories and four National Football Conference (NFC) championships. As successful as he was on the gridiron, both in college and in the Nat…
1930- American baseball executive Called by the Tampa Tribune "Tampa's biggest icon," George Steinbrenner is best known today as the owner of the New York Yankees baseball team, arguably the best baseball team in the United States. Under Steinbrenner, the team won six World Series championships by 2002 (in 1977, 1978, 1996, 1998, 1999, and 2000). On the occasion of Steinbrenne…
1890-1975 American baseball manager Charles Dillon "Casey" Stengel is a legendary figure in baseball, as well known for his comedic talent and long-winded, convoluted way of speaking, called "Stengelese," as for his gift for managing some of the best and worst baseball teams in U.S. history. He led the New York Yankees to ten American League pennants and seven World Ser…
1956- Swedish skier Ingemar Stenmark won a record 86 World Cup racesduring his 15-year career. He dominated the slalom and giant slalom courses, winning titles in both events for seven consecutive years, from 1975 to 1981. A three-time winner of the overall World Cup, Stenmark also has two Olympic and three World Championship gold medals. Known as the King of Slalom because of his unmatched techni…
1939- Scottish race car driver The name Jackie Stewart is synonymous in America with auto racing. The series he became a legend of, Formula One (F1), however, is virtually unknown in the States. Arguably the most watched sport internationally, F1 is the most advanced auto racing series in the world. From 1964-73, The "Wee Scot" established a race-win record in his trademark tartan he…
1972- American football player Star quarterback of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Kordell Stewart led his team to the Super Bowl his very first season in the National Football League (NFL). After seven seasons as a quarterback with the Steelers, Stewart boasted a pass-completion rate of 55.7 percent for a total of 12,173 yards and sixty-four touchdowns. Despite his obvious prowess as a quarterback, Stew…
1962- American basketball player The NBA all-time leader in assists and steals, John Stockton loves to play basketball. Holding the record for most NBA games with the same team, the Utah Jazz, Stockton became one of the best shooting point guards and helped the Jazz to 19 straight play-off appearances. Eagle-eyed on the court, he holds the record for most assists in a single game, most assists in …
1972- Canadian figure skater During the 1990s Canadian skater Elvis Stojko (pronounced STOY-ko) revolutionized the field of men's figure skating with his athletic prowess. In 1991 he became the first figure skater to land a quadruple jump followed by a double jump at the world championships, and then in 1997 he surpassed himself by becoming the first person to land a quadruple-triple combin…
1962- American baseball player When Darryl Strawberry was sentenced to an eighteen-month prison term in April 2002 for violating the terms of his court-ordered drug treatment, it marked the lowest point in a decline that had stared two decades earlier. Signed to the New York Mets in 1980 right after he had finished high school, Strawberry's career as a baseball player got off to a promising…
1971- American skier Picabo Street can be called many things, from a "skiing phenomenon" to a "Brat" to an "Amazing Super-G Downhill Force." Street, one of the greatest downhill skiers in U.S. downhill women's history, accumulated an Picabo Street incredible collection of World Championships and Olympic medals in her short career before choos…
1977- American gymnast Most notable sports figures cannot—and would not want to—claim that their fame is derived from a single moment. This, however, is the case with Kerri Strug. Before the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, Strug had earned a reputation as a solid performer in the gymnastics world. The shy, reserved Strug, however, was never a household name like some of her other,…
1967- Turkish weightlifter Naim Suleymanoglu, known as the "Pocket Hercules" because he combined a very small stature with great strength, is the only weightlifter ever to win gold medals in three different Olympics. Born in Kircali, Bulgaria in 1967, Suleymanoglu was the son of very poor parents who were members of that country's oppressed ethnic Turkish minority. His father …
1858-1918 American boxer John L. Sullivan was the last of the "bare-knuckle" boxing champions. Heavyweight champion of the world from 1882 to 1892, he lost his title to Jim Corbett in the first heavyweight boxing championship to be fought with gloves. Considered by many to be the first American sports star, Sullivan was undefeated in his twenty-seven-year career until his bout with C…
1952- American college basketball coach Patricia Head Summitt is one of college basketball's greatest coaches. In 2003, during her 29th season with the University of Tennessee Lady Volunteers, Summitt earned her 800th win. She is the first women's basketball coach and one of four Division I coaches to hit that mark. Summitt's six National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)…
1950-1998 American surfer Surfing champion Rell Sunn fought almost single-handedly to grant women access to the sport at a time when it was still very much a male-dominated pursuit, and along the way emerged as one of the top female longboarders in the world. Often compared to Duke Kahanamoku, considered the founder of modern surfing, Sunn was "the modern archetype of the Hawaiian water-wom…
1973- Japanese baseball player Ichiro Suzuki—already a bona fide hero in his native Japan—made a sensational debut in American baseball in the opening years of the 21st century. Suzuki, adjudged the best-known person in Japan—even better known than Emperor Akihito, who came in second—in a popularity poll during the 1990s, ended his first two seasons in Major League Base…
1952- American football player Blessed with incredible speed and an ability to catch the football with leaps almost ballet-like in gracefulness, wide receiver Lynn Swann also had an impeccable sense of timing. He joined the Pittsburgh Steelers just as the team embarked on its most spectacular winning streak in history. Swann, an All-American at USC, was the Steelers' No. 1 draft pick in the…
1971- American basketball player Sheryl Swoopes has played on college, professional and Olympic championship basketball teams. She has won all sorts of individual awards, owns countless records and even had a sneaker named after her. She has also played one-on-one against the redoubtable Michael Jordan. And, she has rebounded from serious knee injuries to earn league honors. But perhaps her most n…
1930- American college basketball coach Followed by controversy throughout much of his coaching career, Jerry Tarkanian put together one of the most enviable records in college basketball. Known by admirers and detractors alike as Tark the Shark, Tarkanian led his teams to four appearances in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) Final Four and one national championship duri…
1940- American football player Few professional football players have burst upon the scene as spectacularly as Fran Tarkenton. In his very first pro game, Tarkenton came off the bench to toss four touchdown passes, leading his Minnesota Vikings team to a decisive 37-13 victory over the Chicago Bears. After eighteen seasons in the National Football League (NFL), Tarkenton left professional football…
1959- American football player Lawrence Taylor lived on the edge. Quite possibly one of the best linebackers to play the game, Taylor starred for the New York Giants and set a new standard for how linebackers played the game. He brought about a new statistic (the sack), and was a dominant player whose personal life was plagued with substance abuse problems. His induction into the Hall of Fame, in …
1973- Indian cricket player The "Super Natural," the "Willow Prince," "the King," and even "a god" are terms that have been used to describe Indian cricket batsman Sachin Tendulkar, yet he refers to himself as a normal person who is satisfied with being counted among the best batsmen in the world. A young prodigy, Tendulkar began playing cric…
1967-2000 American football player Derrick Thomas As a linebacker, Derrick Thomas was a presence feared by opposing quarterbacks. He possessed great quickness and unbelievable strength, and always found a way to bring down the ball carrier. Consistently at the top of his game, Thomas was a perennial selection for the Pro Bowl, and in ten seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs, became not only …
1968- American baseball player Immense and powerful, at six-feet five-inches tall and somewhere between 250 and 300 pounds (depending on the season), Frank Thomas is a giant menace to opposing pitchers, who start worrying about this powerhouse before he even steps to the plate. Thomas, known as "The Big Hurt" (a nickname that stuck when White Sox broadcaster Ken Harrelson said it in …
1961- American basketball player When Isiah Thomas joined the Detroit Pistons in 1981, they were among the worst in the league, a disheartened group of guys struggling through each season. Thomas, however, transformed them into a proud, poised cohesive team. Under Thomas's direction—and attitude—the Pistons became known as the "Bad Boys" of the NBA. As their imag…
1966- American football player Thurman Thomas was a running back and pass receiver who, although short, was graceful and elusive on the gridiron. He was also powerful, breaking through the line and racking up yardage, becoming one of the premier offensive players in the National Football League (NFL). While playing with the Buffalo Bills, Thomas led the league in total yards for four consecutive s…
1973- American swimmer With eight Olympic gold medals, the most ever awarded to an American woman, a stellar NCAA record, and world record-setting times in two events, Jenny Thompson was the most dominant American woman in swimming during the 1990s. Her career has been filled with many dramatic chapters, including medal-winning performances in relay events at three Olympic games and the failure to…
1982- Australian swimmer Athletes in the men's competitive swimming arena typically reach their physical peak just after the age of twenty. Yet while only a teenager Ian Thorpe repeatedly set and broke a number of world freestyle records. His accomplishments left the sports world in awe, as he repeatedly won gold medals in international competition. The 200-, 400-, and 800-meter freestyle s…
1888-1953 American football and baseball player Born in a cabin in Indian Territory (now Oklahoma), the Sauk (or Sac) and Fox Indian athlete Jim Thorpe began a climb to fame in 1907 as a college track-and-field and football star at Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania. He competed in the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm, Sweden, where he won gold medals in both the pentathlon and the d…
1893-1953 American tennis player Bill Tilden has been called the greatest men's single players of all time, a player's player whose cannon of a serve, psychological know-how, paralyzing drop shot, and canny backcourt play transformed the game of tennis. Tilden's dazzling eighteen-year career as an amateur took him to three Wimbledon titles and seven U.S. singles championships.…
1966- Italian skier For thirteen years, Alberto Tomba was the face of skiing. He was known as much for his off-the-slopes carousing and womanizing and for his outrageous comments as he was for his skiing, but his on-the-slopes prowess alone would have been enough to win him a place in skiing history. Over the course of his career he won fifty World Cup skiing events, thirty-five in slalom and fift…
1940- American baseball manager Best known today as the manager of the New York Yankees, Joe Torre began his career in major league baseball as a player. Torre was 20 years old when he was signed with the Milwaukee Braves in 1960, and he remained a professional baseball player until 1977. In 1977, Torre began a new career as a manager of baseball teams, starting out as manager of the New York Mets…
1965- American track and field athlete In 1995, sprinter Gwen Torrence was ranked No. 1 in the 100 meters and the 200 meters by Track and Field Gwen Torrence News; the magazine also named her the top American athlete overall. She has won numerous championships, and at the 1992 Olympics, won gold medals in the 200 meters and 4 × 100 meter relay, as well as a silver medal in the 4 �…
British ice dancers For followers of sport, the insinuating rhythm of Maurice Ravel's instrumental composition "Bolero" may forever evoke images of the swirling figures of the ice-dancing pair who electrified the 1984 Olympic winter games in Sarajevo, in the former Yugoslavia. Great Britain's Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean are perhaps best remembered as the "…
1952- Russian hockey player Often called the greatest goaltender of all time, Vladislav Tretiak continues to impact the world of hockey with his words of wisdom and his vast experience. Vladislav Tretiak He made his mark in hockey at the tender age of 20 in the 1972 Summit Series, where the Soviets played against the Canadians. He continually crafted his game and became feared in the hockey…
1939- American golfer Completely self-taught, Lee Trevino's unorthodox swing has made golf pros shudder throughout his career. With a wide stance and a closed club face, he drives through the ball with a flat baseball-type swing. By the standards of traditional golf, he does everything wrong, which somehow turns out right. Trevino, who has long shunned golf instructors, once told the San An…
1973- American boxer Throughout most of the 1990s Felix Trinidad was perhaps the most underrated professional boxer in the world. In a sport where the heavyweights get most of the publicity, recognition of Trinidad was hampered further by the more glamorous of the smaller champions. By the end of the decade, however, Trinidad proved he was a fighter to be reckoned with. Felix "Tito" …
1956- Canadian hockey player Bryan Trottier One of the greatest two-way centers ever to play professional hockey, Bryan Trottier is finding success these days on the sidelines as a coach. Trottier was an assistant coach with the Colorado Avalanche in 2001 when the Denver-based team won the Stanley Cup. During his 18 seasons on the ice, Trottier played on six Stanley Cup-winning teams-includ…
1977- British cricket player An up-and-coming right-handed fast bowler, Alex Tudor was a powerful young British cricket player who showed plenty of promise as a bowler and a batter, but injuries and inconsistency plagued his early career. …
1897-1978 American boxer Considered one of the giants of sports in the 1920s, Gene Tunney became heavyweight boxing champion of the world when he defeated Jack Dempsey in 1926. In a rematch with Dempsey in 1927, Tunney held on to his title in the hotly debated "battle of the long count," Gene Tunney in which Tunney got the benefit of an extra long count when the referee, follo…
1962- American speed skater Cathy Turner At the 1994 Olympics, speedskater Cathy Turner was being just like the Cathy Turner everyone knew; tough, competitive and controversial. She took a tight corner in the 500 meter short-track race, shoulder to shoulder with her competition. A speedskater's hands glide over the surface of the ice to keep balance, but in this case, some said she u…
1938- American baseball executive World-class sailor. Sports impresario. Stadium developer. Philanthropist. Media maverick and tycoon. Ted Turner These are just some of the many roles played by Robert Edward Turner III, better known as Ted Turner. "He has set ocean racing records that will never been equaled. (With the launch in 1980 of Cable News Network) he has revolutionized the b…
1966- American boxer He was one of the best, and he blew it. The youngest heavyweight champion in history, the most inspiring champ since Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson became the most notorious modern boxer when he went to jail for rape, and then, in his comeback tour, for biting off a piece of Evander Holyfield's ear. Even before that, Tyson was the man who bragged about wanting to kill his opp…
