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baseball player and executive, was born Henry Aaron in the Down the Bay section of Mobile, Alabama, the third of eight children of Herbert Aaron and Estella (maiden name unknown). His parents had left the Selma, Alabama, area during the Depression for greater opportunity in Mobile's shipbuilding industries. In 1942, as the family grew and Down the Bay became more crowded with wartime job seekers, the Aarons moved to a rural suburb of Toulminville. Working as a boilermaker's apprentice, Herbert Aaron suffered through the frequent layoffs that plagued black shipyard workers before wartime demand dictated full employment. Ever resourceful, Herbert Aaron bought two lots in Toulminville, hired carpenters to frame out the roof and walls of a house, and set about with his family to find materials to finish the property. The Aarons continued to live in the house even as Henry achieved superstardom.

Making balls from such scavenged ...

baseball player, baseball executive, civil rights advocate, and businessman. Henry Louis “Hank” Aaron was born and raised in Mobile, Alabama, the son of Herbert and Estella Aaron. He was a member of the second generation of black baseball players to enter the major leagues following Jackie Robinson's breaking of the color line in professional baseball in 1947. Aaron began playing for the Milwaukee Braves in 1954; at about the same time Willie Mays joined the New York Giants and Ernie Banks joined the Chicago Cubs. They were among the last black players who began their careers in the Negro Leagues. In 1974 Aaron broke Babe Ruth's lifetime home run record of 714. When he retired from baseball in 1976 after twenty three seasons Aaron held the career records for most home runs 755 most runs batted in 2 297 most total bases ...

The third of eight children, Henry Louis Aaron was born in Mobile, Alabama, to Estella and Herbert Aaron. His first experience with professional baseball came in the Negro Leagues, as he moved up through the ranks with the Pritchett Athletics, the Mobile Black Bears, and the Indianapolis Clowns. In 1952, the Boston Braves of the newly integrated major leagues signed Aaron to play shortstop in their farm system. Moving from Eau Claire, Wisconsin, to Jacksonville, Florida, Aaron made it to the majors in 1954, playing for the Milwaukee Braves (now the Atlanta Braves).

Aaron is considered by some to be the best baseball player in history. Over his twenty-three-year major league career, Aaron compiled more batting records than any other player in baseball history. He holds the record for runs batted in (RBIs) with 2,297, and was a Gold Glove Winner in 1958, 1959 ...

was born in Bay City Texas Raised in Van Vleck Texas he was the youngest of ten children of a single mother Ernestine Austin who worked as a maid Charles Austin who played football and basketball in elementary school competed in track and field at Hitchcock Junior High School concentrating on the high hurdles and the high jump Undefeated in the high jump as an eighth grader he achieved a personal best height of 5 feet 10 inches 1 77 meters Although Austin played football and basketball at Van Vleck High School track and field remained his remained his favorite sport which he watched on television at every opportunity In his senior year he wanted to compete in track and field again specializing in the high jump in the hope of gaining a scholarship to attend college The coach told Austin that he would have to clear 6 feet 1 ...

basketball player. David Bing was born and raised in Washington, D.C., where he attended Spingarn High School. He starred on the Spingarn basketball team, earning All-Metro honors and in 1962 being named a Parade All-American. That success drew the attention of the University of Michigan and the University of California at Los Angeles, but Bing instead chose to attend Syracuse University, reasoning that he would be more successful at a basketball program with a lower profile. He was correct. In three of his four seasons at Syracuse, Bing led the team in scoring, averaging more than twenty points a game. In his senior year (1966) Bing averaged 28.4 points a game—fifth highest in the country—and was named an All-American. Meanwhile he turned the perennially struggling Syracuse into a winning program. Professional scouts noticed, and in 1966 the Detroit Pistons drafted Bing in the first round of ...

was born in Washington, D.C., to Juanita, a housekeeper, and Hasker, a bricklayer. He was the second of four children in a two-bedroom, one-story home. Bing’s father nicknamed him “Duke” because he was good with his hands (his “dukes”). When Bing was five he was playing with a rocking horse he had made with two sticks nailed together. He tripped and accidentally poked his left eye with a rusty nail. His family could not afford to pay for an operation, and his vision became somewhat impaired. Bing’s father suffered a severe head injury while working at a construction site, when a brick fell four stories onto his head, causing a brain clot.

As a youngster Bing frequented far northeast D C s popular Watts playground where older boys such as Marvin Gaye hung out His hero was local product Elgin Baylor a Los Angeles Lakers superstar Bing enrolled at Spingarn ...

athlete, actor, civic activist. Jim Brown is generally recognized as the greatest football player and the greatest lacrosse player of all time. At 6 feet 2 inches tall, weighing 228 pounds, and with a 32-inch waist, Brown combined great speed with a powerful running style and fearsome stiff-arm to terrorize National Football League (NFL) defenders for nine years. The only person in history voted into three halls of fame (college football, college lacrosse, and the NFL), Brown is arguably the greatest athlete of the twentieth century.

James Nathaniel Brown was born on Saint Simons Island, Georgia, to Swinton “Sweet Sue” and Theresa Brown Swinton Brown left his family barely two weeks after his son was born and they rarely heard from him afterward When Jim was two his mother left him in the care of his great grandmother and moved to Great Neck Long Island where ...

Anita L. DeFrantz is one of the most influential people in sports in the early twenty-first century. She became involved in the Olympic field as a competitor when she won a bronze medal on the U.S. women’s eight-oared shell at the 1976 Montreal Olympics. She was the first woman to represent the United States on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1986 and, in 1997, she became the first woman, as well as the first African American, to be vice president of the IOC. DeFrantz has worked on the Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, and Atlanta Olympic Games as a member of the United States Olympic Executive Committee.

DeFrantz was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Robert and Anita P. DeFrantz Her father directed the Community Action against Poverty organization her mother taught and eventually became a professor of Education at the University of San Francisco DeFrantz s ...

was born Frederick Douglass Downer in Elberton, Georgia, one of three children from the first marriage of Enoch Downer, a grocer, and his wife Mary Grimes (some sources say her name was Mamie).

Fred and his two sisters were raised in nearby Royston, Georgia, where some of his earliest memories involved playing baseball. Royston, like other southern towns, was segregated, yet he recalled playing on integrated teams with other local boys. Royston was also home to several amateur and semi-pro teams, which were all white. One of the white players with whom he became friendly was Ty Cobb, later a major league baseball star, who was at that time a player for the Royston Reds. Fred became the batboy and sometimes pitched batting practice or hit balls to the outfielders before the games.

Fred attended Morehouse College in Atlanta where he was an outfielder on the varsity baseball team he ...

football player and entrepreneur. Melvin Farr was born and raised in Beaumont, Texas, the son of Dorothea Farr, a domestic worker, and Miller Farr, a truck driver. There he attended the segregated Hebert High School, where he played baseball and basketball and earned All-State honors in football and track. Farr played at Hebert in the shadow of his older brother Miller, who went on to play collegiate football at Wichita State before a long professional career as a defensive back. Mel's success, however, drove him far from Wichita or Beaumont: he earned a football scholarship to UCLA in 1963 Although Farr remained healthy throughout his high school career he broke his arm the first of many football related injuries during his sophomore year in college Following that injury Farr was an All American running back as a junior and senior gaining 1 630 yards in those ...

Curt Flood was the youngest of six children born to Herman and Laura Flood. The family moved From Houston, Texas, to Oakland, California in 1940. His success as a high school athlete led the Cincinnati Reds to sign him in 1956. He was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals in 1957.

The Cardinals flourished in the mid-1960s, playing in the World's Series in 1964, 1967, and 1968. In October 1969 after a disappointing season for the Cardinals Flood who had been the starting centerfielder for the team for twelve years was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies Flood shocked and disappointed by the trade refused to accept it He decided to sue team owners over the reserve clause in contracts which prevented Flood from being able to negotiate with any team he wished who might desire his services The Players Association the ballplayers ...

first African American Yale University football captain and corporate executive, was born in New Haven, Connecticut, to Virginia-born parents, Adaline Hogan Jackson, a house cleaner, and George W. Jackson, a Yale dining hall chef. Not much is known about his childhood, but from his earliest years, Jackson became known for his athleticism and academic achievements.

He joined Hillhouse High School football team after he moved from Branford, Connecticut to New Haven. The Hillhouse football team was 0-7-1 the previous season. In his first year in 1943 he led the team to a perfect 7-0 season and rushed for 272 yards, scoring six touchdowns and adding four extra points in a 52-6 victory over their rival, West Haven. In 1945 Levi Jackson s senior year at Hillhouse the team s record was 7 1 He was selected for the All State team twice He also starred in basketball ...

basketball player, activist, urban developer. Born Earvin Effay Johnson Jr. to Christine and Earvin Johnson Sr. in Lansing, Michigan, Johnson won the 1979 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) basketball championship and five National Basketball Association (NBA) championships before launching a career of public activism and urban development that made him one of the most successful African American businessmen of the late twentieth century.

Both Christine Johnson, a school custodian, and Earvin Sr., an assembly worker, worked hard to support Earvin as a child. The sixth of ten children, Earvin exhibited an enthusiasm for life and, most significantly, basketball, from an early age. In 1974, Johnson enrolled in Everett High School in South Lansing, and quickly earned the nickname “Magic” as an emerging basketball prodigy. In 1977 as a junior he led Everett to the Michigan state championship and in his senior year he averaged almost ...

Born in Lansing, Michigan, Earvin Johnson acquired the nickname Magic after a high school Basketball game in which he scored 36 points, grabbed 18 rebounds, and made 16 assists. At Michigan State University, the 2.1 m (6 ft, 9 in) Johnson helped the Spartans, the university team, win the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) championship in 1979.

Johnson left college after his second year (1979) to join the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He helped lead the Lakers to five NBA championships (1980, 1982, 1985, 1987, and 1988). Johnson was named the NBA's most valuable player three times (1987, 1989, and 1990). He played in many All-Star games and, at the time of his retirement, held the NBA record for assists (9921 Johnson helped the Lakers become one of the ...

basketball player, businessman, and NBA owner. It is always something of a mystery how those born in unremarkable circumstances achieve transcendence within and beyond their fields of expertise. By whatever alchemy of talent, hard work, and historical circumstance, perhaps no one in recent history has better embodied the earthbound problems and gravity-defying aspirations of the United States than Michael Jordan.

Growing up in Wilmington, North Carolina, Michael Jeffrey Jordan took to heart his parents lessons in diligence and human relations Instructed to treat everyone equally and with courtesy he experienced relatively few of the racial incidents that had occurred routinely in previous generations Jordan s anger flared once as a boy though when in response to a girl s racial slur he planted his popsicle on her head He acquired his work ethic like his height over time fueling himself with the real and imagined slights of ...

Kipchogo Keino was the first of Kenya’s world-class distance runners to make his mark on the world sports scene. He won gold and silver medals at both the 1968 and 1972 Olympic Games, set long-standing world records in both the 5000- and 3000-meter races, and inspired a generation of Kenyan track and field athletes. Keino, an ethnic Nandi, was born in Kipsamo, Kenya. He was orphaned at the age of two and raised by his grandmother. His first racing success came in 1962, when he set a national record for the mile. In 1964 while working as a physical fitness instructor for a police academy Keino participated in his first Olympic Games where he finished fifth in the 5000 meter race The following year he broke world records in both of his main events the 3000 and 5000 meter races Sports analysts believe Keino s training ...

professional boxer, entrepreneur, boxing promoter. Born in North Carolina, Ray Charles Leonard grew up in Palmer Park, Maryland. At the age of fourteen he started boxing. As an amateur, he won 145 of 150 matches. In 1975 he won a gold medal in the Pan American Games. He would then win a gold medal at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, Canada.

In the midst of labor unrest that year, resulting in strikes in the automotive, newspaper and magazine publishing, and brewing industries, the United States looked to the bicentennial celebrations and American success in the Olympics as much-needed sources of pride. Leonard's outgoing personality and skills made him popular in the media that summer. Leonard turned professional in February 1977. Angelo Dundee, who trained Muhammad Ali, would serve as his trainer. On 11 November 1979, Leonard fought and knocked out Wilfred Benitez ...

John Henry Lloyd, known as Pop, was born in Palatka, Florida. His father died during Lloyd's infancy, and Lloyd was raised by his grandmother after his mother remarried. A grade school dropout, he began his career on the sandlots of Jacksonville, Florida, at age nineteen.

Mild-mannered, clean-living, and genial, Lloyd had high cheekbones, a lantern jaw, and piercing eyes. Similarities in physique, temperament, style, and talent led to comparisons with white baseball's preeminent shortstop, and Lloyd was often called the black Honus Wagner. Connie Mack felt the two were of equal caliber and Honus Wagner remarked After I saw him I felt honored that they should name such a great ballplayer after me Like Wagner Lloyd was a big man for a shortstop 5 11 180 pounds with long arms and large strong hands Both had wide range in the field and scooped up unusual amounts ...

football player, lawyer, and business executive, was born to Lawrence C. Perry, a dentist, and Lillian Bass Perry, a homemaker, in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Perry's father set an example for his children with not only professional but also civic success, running a prominent dental practice and serving as a member of the city's board of education.

The youngest of four children, Lowell attended Ypsilanti High School, where he played quarterback on the football team, receiving All-State honors in 1948. After graduating in 1949 Perry attended the University of Michigan his father s alma mater As an ROTC cadet majoring in history with an eye toward law Perry found triumph in athletics running track and playing for the Wolverines football team In his sophomore year Perry played both sides of the ball as offensive end and safety helping Michigan to the Big Ten Championship and a ...

and as of the 2020s runs a successful design-build firm in the Miami area. Stephenson was born in Murfreesboro, North Carolina to Eugene and Louise Stephenson. His father was farming in North Carolina but moved his family to the Hampton, Virginia area where he found employment as a shipyard machinist. Dwight did not play football until his junior year at Hampton High School where he excelled as an offensive center. As a senior he was a prize recruit who chose to play at the University of Alabama for legendary coach Paul “Bear” Bryant. Stephenson had quick hands and feet, a natural for the center position in Alabama’s wishbone offense, and although quiet, he was all business on the football field. Bryant called Stephenson a man among children and the best center he had ever coached. With Stephenson anchoring the offensive line Alabama won back-to-back national titles in 1978 and 1979 ...