Curated category
20th-century American sportsmen
- Clyde DrexlerClyde Austin Drexler was born on the 22nd of June 1962 in New Orleans, Louisiana. He grew up in the South Park area of Houston, Texas.
- Kobe BryantKobe Bean Bryant entered the world on the 23rd of August 1978, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His father Joe played eight seasons in the National Basketball…
- Elvin HayesIn the senior year of 1963, Elvin Hayes led his Britton High School team to a state championship in Louisiana. He averaged thirty-five points per game during…
- Jerry WestJerry Alan West was born on the 28th of May, 1938, into a poor household in Chelyan, West Virginia. He grew up as the fifth of six children to Cecil Sue West…
- Karl MaloneKarl Anthony Malone was born on the 24th of July, 1963 in Summerfield, Louisiana. He grew up as the youngest of nine children on a farm run by his single…
- Tim DuncanTimothy Theodore Duncan was born on the 25th of April 1976, and raised in Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. He grew up as the son of Ione, a professional…
- Larry BirdLarry Joe Bird was born on the 7th of December 1956 in West Baden Springs, Indiana. His father worked as a veteran of World War II and the Korean War before…
- Tom BradyThomas Edward Patrick Brady Jr. was born on the 3rd of August 1977, in San Mateo, California. He grew up as a fan of the San Francisco 49ers and attended…
- Hakeem OlajuwonHakeem Olajuwon was born on the 21st of January 1963 in Lagos, Nigeria. He grew up as the third child among eight siblings in a working-class family that…
- Isiah ThomasIsiah Lord Thomas III arrived in Chicago on the 30th of April 1961. He grew up as the youngest of nine children on the city's West Side.
- Bill RussellWilliam Felton Russell was born on the 12th of February 1934, in West Monroe, Louisiana. The town operated under strict segregation laws that dictated every…
- Chuck Cooper (basketball)Charles Henry Cooper entered the world on the 29th of September 1926 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His father Daniel worked as a mailman while his mother Emma…
- Chuck DalyCharles Jerome Daly was born in Kane, Pennsylvania on the 20th of July 1930. He grew up in a small town where basketball became his first love and later his…
- Charles BarkleyCharles Wade Barkley was born on the 20th of February, 1963 in Leeds, Alabama. He grew up as the first black baby to be born at a segregated, all-white town…
- Scottie PippenScottie Maurice Pippen Sr. was born on the 25th of September 1965, in Hamburg, Arkansas, to Ethel and Preston Pippen. His father worked at a paper mill while…
- Magic JohnsonEarvin Johnson Jr. was born on the 14th of August 1959 in Lansing, Michigan. His father worked at General Motors while his mother cleaned homes and prepared…
- Chris BoshChristopher Wesson Bosh was born on the 24th of March 1984 in Dallas, Texas. He grew up in Hutchins, a suburb where his father played pick-up games at a…
- Dave CowensDavid William Cowens was born on the 25th of October 1948, in Newport, Kentucky. He grew up as one of six children to Jack and Ruth Cowens.
- Norm DruckerNorm Drucker entered the world on the 4th of July 1920 in New York City. He grew up in Brooklyn and learned basketball from the first generation of…
- John StocktonJohn Houston Stockton was born on the 26th of March 1962 in Spokane, Washington. He grew up as the grandson of Hust Stockton, who played professional…
- Paul TagliabuePaul Tagliabue was born on the 24th of November 1940 in Jersey City, New Jersey. He grew up in The Heights neighborhood as the third son of Charles and May…
- Landon DonovanLandon Timothy Donovan was born on the 4th of March 1982 in Ontario, California. His mother Donna Kenney-Cash worked as a special education teacher while his…
- Bob CousyBob Cousy fell out of a tree when he was twelve years old. The fall broke his right hand and forced him to play left-handed until it healed.
- George GervinGeorge Gervin was born on the 27th of April 1952 in Detroit, Michigan. He attended Martin Luther King Jr. High School where he struggled until his senior…
- Chauncey BillupsChauncey Ray Billups was born on the 25th of September, 1976 in Denver, Colorado. He grew up in a city that would later become his professional home base for…
- Dolph SchayesAdolph Schayes arrived in the world on the 19th of May 1928, within the Bronx borough of New York City. His parents were Romanian-Jewish immigrants who…
- Walt FrazierWalter Frazier Jr. was born on the 29th of March 1945, in Atlanta, Georgia. He grew up as the eldest of nine children attending David Tobias Howard High…
- Lou FerrignoLou Ferrigno was born on the 9th of November 1951 in Brooklyn, New York. His parents were Victoria and Matt Ferrigno, a police lieutenant who instilled…
- Kareem Abdul-JabbarFerdinand Lewis Alcindor Jr. grew up in the Dyckman Street projects of Inwood, Upper Manhattan, after moving there at age three in 1950.
- Phil JacksonPhilip Douglas Jackson was born on the 17th of September, 1945 in Deer Lodge, Montana. His parents Charles and Elisabeth Funk Jackson served as ministers for…
- Rick BarryRichard Barry was born on the 28th of March 1944 in Elizabeth, New Jersey. He grew up nearby in Roselle Park, an urban middle-class community where his…
- Artis GilmoreArtis Gilmore Sr. was born on the 21st of September, 1949 in Chipley, Florida. He grew up as one of ten children in a family where his father worked as a…
- Christian LaettnerChristian Donald Laettner was born on the 17th of August 1969 in Angola, New York. This small town sits near Buffalo and Niagara Falls.
- Ossie SchectmanOssie Schectman entered the world on the 30th of March 1919 in New Brunswick, New Jersey. His parents were Jewish immigrants who had fled Russia to build a…
- George HalasGeorge Halas was born on the 2nd of February 1895 in Chicago, Illinois. He grew up in a home filled with Czech-Bohemian immigrants from Pilsen…
- Gregg PopovichGregg Charles Popovich was born on the 28th of January 1949, in East Chicago, Indiana. His father came from Serbia and his mother from Croatia.
- Pete MaravichPeter Press Maravich was born on the 22nd of June 1947 in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania. This steel town sat near Pittsburgh and shaped his early years.
- Red AuerbachArnold Jacob Auerbach arrived in the world on the 20th of September 1917. He grew up in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, as one of four children born to Marie and…
- Wat MisakaWataru Misaka grew up in a basement apartment on 25th Street in Ogden, Utah. His family lived between a bar and a pawn shop during the early 1930s.
- Andrei KirilenkoAndrei Kirilenko was born in the Soviet city of Izhevsk on the 18th of February 1981. The same place that manufactured the AK-47 rifle would later give him…
- Charley RosenCharles Elliot Rosen entered the world on the 18th of January 1941 in The Bronx. He attended Theodore Roosevelt High School before stepping onto the court at…
- Damon JonesDamon Darron Jones was born on the 25th of August 1976. He played for the Ball High School Golden Tornadoes basketball team before graduating in 1994.
- Earl LloydEarl Francis Lloyd was born in Alexandria, Virginia on the 3rd of April 1928. His father worked in the coal industry while his mother stayed home to raise…
- Harold Hunter (basketball)Harold Hunter Sr. entered the world on the 30th of April 1926 in Kansas City, Kansas. He walked through the doors of Sumner High School and graduated there…