Shoeless Joe Jackson was one of the players banned from baseball as a result of the Black Sox Scandal of 1919. Early in his career, Joe had a new pair of spikes and got blisters on his feet when he started wearing them. The next day, the team was short of players and Joe had to play. So he played without shoes and in his socks. A fan shouted " You shoeless son of a gun" when he hit a triple. A sportswriter picked it up and began calling him " Shoeless Joe ". White Sox fans have been trying for years to get him elected to the Hall of Fame as it is generally felt that he was banned erroneously for fixing the Series.

George Gipp died during his senior season at Notre Dame, but his name wasn't made famous until eight years later. Playing Army in 1928 and needing a win to clinch a winning season, Knute Rockne told the team of Gipp's dying wish. " I've got to go, Rock. It's all right; I'm not afraid," Rockne recalled of Gipp's words from his hospital bed. " Sometime, Rock, when the team is up against it, when things are wrong and breaks are beating the boys, tell them to go in there with all they've got and win one for the Gipper."

Martin Van Buren was born in Kinderhook, NY. " Old Kinderhook" was one of his nicknames, and, during the race for presidency in 1836 the slogan read " Vote for Martin Van Buren he's O.K." and thus the phrase okay was born.

Thomas Crapper

Inventor of the syphonic flush (toilet). Now this is not a lot of " crap". And, oh, by the way, he also worked for Queen Victoria and installed enough pipe to produce a " royal flush".

Former heavyweight champion George Foreman who lost his title to Mohammed Ali in the " Rumble in the Jungle" has five sons named George, George Jr., George III, George IV, George V, and George VI by George!

Called a communist when he arranged a massive wheat sale to the Soviet Union during a famine in the 1920s and became the USSR's unofficial American liaison. The Arm & Hammer Baking Soda logo is curiously similar to the hammer and sickle of the Soviet regime.

Who

The first baseman in Abbott & Costello's famous skit about baseball players. Who's on first, What's on second, I Don't Know's on third, Why is the left fielder, Because is center field, Tomorrow is the pitcher, Today is the catcher, Yes, the big hitter is in right field, and I Don't Give A Damn is the shortstop.

Born Meadow George Lemon, the man in the middle of the famous Globetrotter figure eight weave spent 24 years with the travelling ambassadors of Hoop Time.

Heavy Kevy

Two time winner of Philadelphia's Wing Bowl competition held the Friday before the Super Bowl. This event features some of the largest guys in the area in a chicken wing eating contest. This event started in 1993 in a hotel lobby. Heavy Kevy won in the early days and retired as a two-time champion. In 2001, the event was held in the First Union Center with 20,000 fans cheering on the winning El Wingadore who blew away the field eating 137 wings in the event while being surrounded by voluptuous wingettes. El Wingadore was crowned for the second time and forced Heavy Kevy out of retirement for the 2002 contest. Only in Philadelphia (home of the Mummers Parade on New Years Day) could such an event happen.