Henry John “Hank” Aguirre (1931 - 1994)

Nicknamed “Mex” because he was of Mexican descent, Aguirre was born on January 31, 1931, in Azusa, California to Jenny Alva and Joseph Aguirre. Joseph was born in Jalisco, Mexico in 1902 and emigrated with his family during the time of the Mexican Revolution. Joseph and Jenny had seven children. Henry (Hank) Aguirre worked in […]

Samuel Lester Agnew (1887 - 1951)

Samuel Lester (Slam) Agnew (April 12, 1887 – July 19, 1951) was a catcher in Major League Baseball. From 1913 through 1919, he played for the St. Louis Browns (1913–15), Boston Red Sox (1916–18) and Washington Senators (1919). Agnew batted and threw right-handed. He was born in Farmington, Missouri.  Agnew debuted with the St. Louis […]

Harry Agganis (1929 - 1955)

Agganis’ family origins were from Longanikos near Sparta, Greece. Born in Lynn, Massachusetts from a large Greek family which includes four brothers and two sisters. He was a star football and baseball player at Lynn Classical High School as well as a strong student, being named as “All-Scholastic” from the state of Massachusetts. Aggainis enrolled […]

Alex Agase (1922 - 2007)

Agase was born in Chicago, Illinois to an Assyrian father and an Armenian mother. He attended Evanston Township High School, but only played on the school’s varsity football team in his senior year. After graduating, he attended the University of Illinois and played college football there as a right guard in 1941 and 1942. In […]

William Fritz “Dick the Bruiser” Afflis (1929 - 1991)

Born in Delphi, Indiana, Afflis grew up in Lafayette, Indiana, graduating from Lafayette Jefferson High School where he played football and wrestled. Afflis played varsity football at Purdue University and played for the Green Bay Packers in the early 1950s, as a lineman, before he became a pro wrestler.  In the late 1950s, Dick the […]

Patrick Swayze (1952 - 2009)

Patrick Swayze was born on August 18, 1952, in Houston, Texas, the second child of Patsy Yvonne Helen (née Karnes; 1927–2013), a choreographer, dance instructor, and dancer, and Jesse Wayne Swayze (1925–1982), an engineering draftsman. He had two younger brothers, actor Don Swayze (born 1958) and Sean Kyle (born 1962), and two sisters, Vickie Lynn […]

Astrid Allwyn (1905 - 1978)

Astrid Allwyn (November 27, 1905 – March 31, 1978) was an American stage and film actress.  She studied dancing and dramatics in New York and later joined a stock company. Allwyn made her Broadway debut in 1929 in Elmer Rice’s Street Scene. On the strength of her performance in Once in a Lifetime, she was […]

Christopher Allport (1947 - 2008)

Allport was born in Boston, Massachusetts. His acting life began at the age of nine in New Canaan, Connecticut at the Children’s Theatre. While at Northwestern University, he worked with Paul Sills and Story Theatre. He performed in New York with the Public Theater at Lincoln Center, and with Ensemble Studio Theatre; and in Los […]

Elvia Allman (1904 - 1992)

Elvia Allman (September 19, 1904 – March 6, 1992) was a character actress and voice over performer in Hollywood films and television programs for over 50 years. She is best remembered for her semi-regular roles on The Beverly Hillbillies and Petticoat Junction and for being the voice of Walt Disney’s Clarabelle Cow. Her mark in […]

Claud Allister (1888 - 1970)

He was born William Claud Michael Palmer, in London, England. After receiving his education at Felsted School in Essex, he began his career as a stockbroker’s clerk in the City of London, but gave up a life in the Square Mile on deciding that he preferred the stage, upon which he made his debut in […]

Nick Adenhart (1986 - 2009)

Nicholas James Adenhart was born in Silver Spring, Maryland, the only son of Janet and Jim Adenhart, a former United States Secret Service officer. His parents divorced and Janet later remarried Duane Gigeous, with whom she had a son named Henry, who is a pitcher at the University of Oregon. Adenhart played Halfway Little League […]

Tom Addison (1936 - 2011)

Addison attended the University of South Carolina and was drafted by the NFL Baltimore Colts and the Canadian Football League Ottawa Rough Riders, but chose to sign in 1960 with the Boston Patriots of the newly formed American Football League, playing his entire pro career with the Patriots. Considered a leader of the newly formed […]

Grant Adcox (1950 - 1989)

Adcox’s Winston Cup career started in 1974, running a handful of races for father Herb Adcox with sponsorship backing from the family’s Chevrolet dealership in Chattanooga, Tennessee. In that year’s Winston 500 – considered one of the crown jewels of the sport – held at the fastest track on the circuit, the Talladega Superspeedway, Adcox […]

Joe Wilbur “Joe Bill” Adcock (1927 - 1999)

Joseph Wilbur “Billy Joe” Adcock (October 30, 1927 – May 3, 1999) was a major league baseball player, best known as a first baseman and right-handed slugger with the powerful Milwaukee Braves teams of the 1950s, whose career included numerous home run feats. A sure-handed defensive player, he also retired with the third highest career […]

Scott Adams (1966 - 2013)

Professional Football Player. For six seasons (1992 to 1997), he played at the guard and tackle positions in the National Football League with the Minnesota Vikings, New Orleans Saints, Chicago Bears, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Atlanta Falcons. He attended Columbia High School in Florida and played collegiate football at the University of Georgia. He distinguished […]

Platt Adams (1885 - 1961)

He was born in Belleville, New Jersey on March 23, 1885. He had a brother, Benjamin Willard Adams, also an Olympic athlete. In 1908 he finished fifth in the triple jump competition as well as in the standing high jump event. In the standing long jump competition he finished sixth. He also participated in the […]

Jack Adams (1894 - 1968)

Born in Fort William, Ontario, Adams began his career with the Fort William Maple Leafs in 1914 of the NMHL, and played for the Calumet Miners a year later. In 1916, he joined the intermediate Peterborough 247th Battalion of the Ontario Hockey Association and the next season moved up to the senior Sarnia Sailors. His […]

Gaines Adams (1983 - 2010)

Adams was born in Greenwood, South Carolina. He attended Fork Union Military Academy in 2001 and recorded 58 tackles, 22 sacks, and two interceptions in 10 games. He was a three-year starter at Cambridge Academy, a small private school which only had an 8-man football team, where he was a dominant wide receiver and defensive […]

Chris Adams (1955 - 2001)

Chris Adams was born in Rugby, Warwickshire, the oldest son of Cyril and Jean Adams. Beginning at the age of nine, he was involved in judo, training in it exclusively for fourteen years. He and his younger brother Neil went on to win national and world championships in judo, with Neil going on to win […]

Bud Adams (1923 - 2013)

Born in Bartlesville, Oklahoma on January 3, 1923, Adams was the son of K. S. “Boots” Adams and Blanch Keeler Adams. He became an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation by virtue of his maternal line. Two of his great-grandmothers were Cherokee women who married European-American men: Nelson Carr and George B. Keeler, who played […]

Babe Adams (1882 - 1968)

Babe Adams Charles Benjamin “Babe” Adams (May 18, 1882 – July 27, 1968) was an American right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball from 1906 to 1926 who spent nearly his entire career with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Noted for his outstanding location control, his career average of 1.29 walks per 9 innings pitched was the second […]

Barry Allan Ackerley (1934 - 2011)

Barry Allan Ackerley Sports Magnate. He was the principal owner of the Seattle SuperSonics of the National Basketball Association, from 1983 to 2001. A graduate of the University of Iowa, he rose to the position of Chairman and Corporate Executive Officer (CEO) of Ackerley Communications, a media conglomerate operating television and radio stations in 20 […]

Ray Abruzzese (1937 - 2011)

Raymond Lewis Abruzzese, Jr. (October 27, 1937 – August 22, 2011) was an American college and professional football player.  Abruzzese was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A defensive back, he played college football at the University of Alabama, and played professionally in the American Football League for the Buffalo Bills from 1962 through 1964, when the […]

Harold Abrahams (1899 - 1978)

Abrahams’s father, Isaac, was a Jewish immigrant from Congress Poland. He worked as a financier, and settled in Bedford with his Welsh Jewish wife, Ester. Harold was born in Bedford, and was the younger brother of another British athlete, the Olympic long jumper Sir Sidney Abrahams. Another brother, Sir Adolphe Abrahams, became the founder of […]

Theodore Wade “Ted” Abernathy (1933 - 2004)

Ted Wade Abernathy (March 6, 1933 – December 16, 2004) was a Major League Baseball relief pitcher. He batted and threw right-handed. Abernathy appeared in 681 games and picked up 148 saves during a 14–season career between 1955 and 1972, playing for the Washington Senators (1955–57, 1960), Cleveland Indians (1963–64), Chicago Cubs (1965–66, 1969–70), Atlanta […]

Albert Julius “Lefty” Aber (1927 - 1993)

Albert Julius Aber (July 31, 1927 – May 20, 1993), nicknamed Lefty, was a left-handed Major League Baseball pitcher who played six years in the Major Leagues with the Cleveland Indians (1950, 1953), Detroit Tigers (1953–1957), and Kansas City Athletics (1957). Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Aber was signed as an amateur free agent by the […]

Sid Abel (1918 - 2000)

Born in Melville, Saskatchewan, “Old Bootnose”, as he was known, was the third member of the Red Wings’ celebrated “Production line” along with Hockey Hall of Fame teammates Gordie Howe and Ted Lindsay. Abel won the Hart Trophy as NHL MVP in 1949. Abel was traded from the Red Wings to the Black Hawks in […]

Clarence John “Taffy” Abel (1900 - 1964)

Clarence John “Taffy” Abel (May 28, 1900 – August 1, 1964) was a professional ice hockey player in the National Hockey League (NHL). He was a member of two Stanley Cup championship teams. He was the first United States-born player to become a NHL regular. He is a member of the United States Hockey Hall […]

Senda Berenson Abbott (1868 - 1954)

Born as Senda Valvrojenski, she immigrated to the United States when she was seven years old. Her parents were Albert and Judith Valvrojenski. When Senda was born, she had an older brother Bernard. She would later have another younger brother and two younger sisters. Albert Valvrojenski grew up following an educational track of classical Jewish […]

Charlie S. Abbey (1866 - 1926)

Abbey began his professional career with the independent league Beatrice, Nebraska baseball team in 1888. In 1889, Abbey played for the independent league Kearney, Nebraska baseball team and the Des Moines Prohibitionists of the Western Association. During the 1890 season, Abbey played for the St. Paul Apostles of the Western Association. In 1891, Abbey played […]