Portal:American football/Selected biography
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Selected biographies list
Selected biography 1
Portal:American football/Selected biography/1
B. May 28, 1888 – d. March 28, 1953
Jim Thorpe was an American athlete of both Native American and European ancestry. Considered one of the most versatile athletes of modern sports, he won Olympic gold medals for the 1912 pentathlon and decathlon, played American football (collegiate and professional), and also played professional baseball and basketball. He lost his Olympic titles after it was found he was paid for playing two seasons of semi-professional baseball before competing in the Olympics, thus violating the amateurism rules. In 1983, 30 years after his death, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) restored his Olympic medals. Of Native American and European American ancestry, Thorpe grew up in the Sac and Fox nation in Oklahoma. He played as part of several All-American Indian teams throughout his career, and "barnstormed" as a professional basketball player with a team composed entirely of American Indians. He played professional sports until age 41, the end of his sports career coinciding with the start of the Great Depression. Thorpe struggled to earn a living after that, working several odd jobs. Thorpe suffered from alcoholism, and lived his last years in failing health and poverty. (Full article...)
Selected biography 2
Portal:American football/Selected biography/2
Upon graduating from Southwestern Oklahoma State University, Ryan spent the next 22 years serving as an assistant coach on different teams at both the college and professional level. At the behest of their head coach Brian Billick, Ryan joined the Baltimore Ravens in 1999 and spent nine years there. In 2005 he earned the title of defensive coordinator and in 2008 became the assistant head coach. Hours after the Ravens lost to the Steelers in the 2008 playoffs, Ryan accepted a contract offer from the Jets for their vacant head coaching position.
Ryan has become known throughout the league for his outspoken manner, boisterous attitude and success with the Jets, and his teams are highly regarded by critics for their defensive capabilities. (Full article...)
Selected biography 3
Portal:American football/Selected biography/3
A graduate of Ringgold High School and the University of Maryland, Zolak was selected 84th in the 1991 NFL Draft by the New England Patriots. He did not play in 1991, but started a few games in 1992 and had his most productive season statistically. When Drew Bledsoe was drafted in 1993, Zolak became his backup for the next six seasons. He appeared as a replacement for Bledsoe when he was hurt, but only started three games during this time.
He was released at the end of the 1998 season, and signed with the New York Jets and Miami Dolphins in 1999, playing in one game for Miami before retiring. After his retirement, he became a sportscaster and football analyst in the New England area. (Full article...)
Selected biography 4
Portal:American football/Selected biography/4 Tyrone Wheatley (born 1972) is a former professional American football player and current assistant coach who played 10 seasons in the National Football League (NFL) and was one of the most successful high school and collegiate athletes in Metropolitan Detroit history. He earned All-America track honors in both high school and college.
Following his graduation from high school as one of Michigan's best athletes, he attended the University of Michigan on an athletic scholarship and earned first-team All-Big Ten Conference honors on Big Ten Champion football and track teams. Following his graduation from the University of Michigan, Wheatley was selected by the New York Giants of the National Football League in the first round of the 1995 NFL Draft.
As a running back for the Giants, he was the team's all-purpose yards leader in 1996 and their leading ballcarrier in 1997. Despite his success on the field, he developed a reputation as a tardy dawdler. He was traded to the Miami Dolphins, but cut before the 1998 season began.
He signed with the Oakland Raiders and flourished, leading the team in rushing three times and twice finishing among the NFL's top ten players by rushing touchdowns. With Wheatley, the Raiders went to the playoffs three years in a row, including one Super Bowl appearance. As of August 2008, Wheatley is the assistant coach for Ohio Northern University's football team. (Full article...)
Selected biography 5
Portal:American football/Selected biography/5
He grew up in Waukegan, Illinois, and entered Northwestern University in 1940 on a basketball scholarship, although football became his main sport. After a brief stint in the military, and a season playing basketball for the Rochester Royals, Graham joined the Browns, where he thrived. With him at quarterback, the Browns posted a record of 114 wins, 20 losses and 4 ties, including a 9–3 win–loss record in the playoffs.
While most of Graham's statistical records have been surpassed, he still holds the NFL record for career average yards gained per pass attempt. After he retired from playing football in 1955, Graham became head football coach at the Coast Guard Academy in Connecticut for seven years. He then spent three unsuccessful seasons as head coach of the Washington Redskins before returning to the Coast Guard Academy as athletic director until his retirement. (Full article...)
Selected biography 6
Portal:American football/Selected biography/6
Born into a prominent family from Philadelphia, he enrolled at Princeton University in 1910. Baker excelled on the university's hockey and football teams, and became a noted amateur hockey player for the St. Nicholas Club in New York City. He was a member of three national championship teams, for football in 1911 and hockey in 1912 and 1914, and helped the St. Nicholas Club win a national amateur championship in 1915. Baker graduated from Princeton in 1914 and worked for J.P. Morgan Bank until he enlisted in the United States Army Air Service.
When the Hockey Hall of Fame was founded in 1945, Baker was named one of the first nine inductees, the only American among them. In 1973 he became one of the initial inductees in the United States Hockey Hall of Fame. He was also inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1975, and is the only person to be in both the Hockey and College Football Halls of Fame. (Full article...)
Selected biography 7
Portal:American football/Selected biography/7
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Johnson has a rare combination of size, hands, speed, strength, leaping ability, body control and hand-eye coordination. His nickname "Megatron" was given to him by former Lions wide receiver Roy Williams and the name caught on with fans.
On December 22, 2012, Johnson broke Jerry Rice's single-season record for receiving yards, which had previously been 1,848. In that same Saturday night game versus the Atlanta Falcons, Johnson also set the NFL records for consecutive 100-yard games (8) and consecutive games with 10 or more receptions (4). He also tied Hall of Famer Michael Irvin's record for most 100-yard games in a season with 11. (Full article...)
Selected biography 8
Portal:American football/Selected biography/8
His primary event is the 100 metres, in which he has the second fastest time by a British sprinter. He is the European record holder for the 60 metres and 4×100 metres relay events with 6.42 seconds and 37.73 s respectively. Chambers ran a 100 m world junior record of 10.06 s in 1997 and became the youngest ever world medallist in the event at the 1999 World Championships, taking the bronze. On his Olympic debut at the 2000 Sydney Olympics he was the best European performer in fourth place.
Due to his doping ban, he was barred from the Olympics, Commonwealth Games, and much of the European racing circuit, from 2006 to 2012. The Court of Arbitration for Sport overturned his lifetime Olympic ban, deeming it non-compliant with the World Anti-Doping Code, and he competed in the 2012 London Olympics.
He tried other sports, including a spell with the Hamburg Sea Devils of the NFL Europa league and a rugby league trial with Castleford. He produced a ghost-written autobiography with writer Ken Scott, Race Against Me, in 2009. He is of Afro-Caribbean descent and has two sons with his partner Leonie Daley. (Full article...)
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