***Geek Club History Draft***

[Voltaire 5,392]

I know 90sbaby is around somewhere in Kentucky, maybe his much anticipated absense is much ado about nothing. I hope you don't mind getting skipped by vudu's 2nd. Also Bear gets a supplemental pick at any time.

 

It's late over here, I'm going to bed.

[BiPolarBear 495]

Steven Spielberg - Artist (visual)

 

Can you visualize any scenes from his movies? Can you see the shark come up while the sheriff is chumming in Jaws? How about something from E.T., Saving Private Ryan, The Color Purple.

 

The guy is a genius. Plain and simple.

[iam90sbaby 2,720]

Dr. Adrian Kantrowitz (doctor) - Dr. Adrian Kantrowitz was an eminent surgeon and a pioneer in the field of pediatric cardiology. He and his team of surgeons performed the world’s first pediatric heart transplant at the Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn on December 6, 1967. This surgery happened in America just three days after the first ever human heart transplant took place in South Africa, performed by Dr. Christiaan Barnard. Thus Kantrowitz is credited with performing the world’s second ever human heart transplant. The fact that he became one of the greatest ever cardiologists of his time would not have come as a surprise to those who knew him. According to his mother, little Adrian knew from the age of three that he wanted to be a doctor. After completing his medical studies he served in the Army for a couple of years before delving deep into the field of cardiology. He had spent years studying the human heart and had performed several heart transplants on dogs before performing the heart surgery that would usher in a new era in human organ transplants. Working along with his brother Arthur, he also invented the intra-aortic balloon pump which served as the precursor to the implantable pacemaker.

 

 

Dr. Andreas Vesalius (doctor) - Andreas Vesalius was a 16th century Flemish physician, widely referred to as the founding father of the modern human anatomy. He was a major figure of the scientific revolution and his greatest achievement was that of reintroducing human anatomy and its importance to the people. He was the first to lead the way to independent investigation in the examination of the structure of the human body. After conducting initial research, he became certain that it was absolutely essential to analyze real corpses to study the human body. He resurrected the use of human dissection, regardless of the strict ban by the Catholic Church. Basing his observations on self-made dissections, he wrote and illustrated the first comprehensive textbook of anatomy. His book ‘De Humani Commis Fabrica’ (On the Structure of the Human Body) is one of the most important works about human anatomy. The seven volumes of the book laid down a solid understanding of human anatomy as the groundwork for all medical practice and curing. The book gave anatomy a new language and proved to be the most extensive and accurate description of the human body of its time. He revolutionized the study of biology and the practice of medicine by his careful description of the anatomy of the human body.

[Voltaire 5,392]

Vudu got a 2nd pick in so back to bear.

[BiPolarBear 495]

"Porgy and Bess"

"They Can't Take That Away From Me"

"I Got Rhythm"

"Someone to Watch Over Me"

 

Tin Pan Alley for $15 a week, all the way to the Congressional Gold Medal.

 

George and Ira Gershwin - Composers

[titans&bucs&bearsohmy! 2,745]

Puublius Ovidius Naso aka Ovid - poet

 

He is best known for the Metamorphoses, a 15-book continuous mythological narrative written in the meter of epic, and for collections of love poetry in elegiac couplets, especially the Amores ("Love Affairs") and Ars Amatoria ("The Art of Love"). His poetry was much imitated during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, and greatly influenced Western art and literature. The Metamorphoses remains one of the most important sources of classical mythology.[2]

 

The art of love was banned by the Catholic Church for centuries, although they kept it around for fapping purposes.

[titans&bucs&bearsohmy! 2,745]

General Prince Yasuhiko Asaka - evil mother focker

 

The commanding officer during the Rape Of Nanking. As many as 300,000 people were killed.

 

Among the lowlights? People were rapidly beheaded in speed killing contests. People were buried to the waist and had dogs set on them. Thousands of women and girls were raped to death. Fortunes were carved from the womb. People were set on fire for fun.

 

Keep in mind... This went on for SEVEN WEEKS with the participation and encouragement of the officers.

 

Unfortunately, the allies gave him immunity from prosecution due to his royal status.

[Voltaire 5,392]

I've been putting these two on the backburner for a long while because I thought I could get away with it... and I did. But I want to clear out some of these top people from less well known cultures now.

 

Imhotep - Advisor

 

Could be a jack of all trades. He was the architect responsible for building Zoser's pyramid, Zoser being the first pharoah entombed in a pyramid. So he started the pyramid trend that became all the rage. But there's a lot more with him he's one of the very few Egyptian commoners to become immortalized: two thousand years after his death, he was worhiped as a diety of medicine and healing. Yeah he was not only a notable archetect, he was also Egypt's most notable doctor. The chief priest of the sun god Ra. Poet. Philosopher. Credited with ending a seven year dought. His prestige increased with the lapse of centuries and his temples in Greek times were the centers of medical teachings.

 

Well here are his official titles : Chancellor of the King of Egypt, Doctor, First in line after the King of Upper Egypt, Administrator of the Great Palace, Hereditary nobleman, High Priest of Heliopolis, Builder, Chief Carpenter, Chief Sculptor, and Maker of Vases in Chief

 

---

Descriptions of Imhotep by James Henry Breasted :

 

'In priestly wisdom, in magic, in the formulation of wise proverbs; in medicine and architecture; this remarkable figure of Zoser's reign left so notable a reputation that his name was never forgotten. He was the patron spirit of the later scribes, to whom they regularly poured out a libation from the water-jug of their writing outfit before beginning their work.'

 

'Imhotep extracted medicine from plants.'

 

'Imhotep was portrayed as a priest with a shaven head, seated and holding a papyrus roll. Occasionally he was shown clothed in the archaic costume of a priest.'

 

'Of the details of his life, very little has survived though numerous statues and statuettes of him have been found. Some show him as an ordinary man who is dressed in plain attire. Others show him as a sage who is seated on a chair with a roll of papyrus on his knees or under his arm. Later, his statuettes show him with a god like beard, standing, and carrying the ankh and a scepter.'

 

'He is represented seated with a papyrus scroll across his knees, wearing a skullcap and a long linen kilt. We can interpret the papyrus as suggesting the sources of knowledge kept by scribes in the "House of Life". The headgear identifies Imhotep with Ptah, and his priestly linen garment symbolizes his religious purity.'

----

Dude even has a video game named after him. Imhotep is about building pyramids.

[Voltaire 5,392]

Next off to India

 

Sushruta - Doctor

 

The 'founding father of surgery' from way back in 600 BC. He wrote the Sushruta Samhita, a great medical treatise of 184 chapters describing 1120 illnesses, 700 medicinal plants, 64 mineral base preparations and 57 animal based preparations. Also describing a massive list of surgical procedures: hernias, c-sections, removal of the prostrate gland, hemorrhoids, fistulas ... on and on.

[Voltaire 5,392]

Fortunes were carved from the womb.

Autocorrect strikes again.

[Voltaire 5,392]

To bear.

[iam90sbaby 2,720]

Next off to India

 

Sushruta - Doctor

 

The 'founding father of surgery' from way back in 600 BC. He wrote the Sushruta Samhita, a great medical treatise of 184 chapters describing 1120 illnesses, 700 medicinal plants, 64 mineral base preparations and 57 animal based preparations. Also describing a massive list of surgical procedures: hernias, c-sections, removal of the prostrate gland, hemorrhoids, fistulas ... on and on.

 

Great pick Jeff, I almost picked him instead of Vesalius

[Voltaire 5,392]

 

Great pick Jeff, I almost picked him instead of Vesalius

Thanks. With each of my picks, I'm aiming to make the biggest splash possible. So I thought the first surgeon, if I could track him down, that'd make for a great Doctor pick. Then to find out he was more than a surgeon, but the great writer of a massive medical book covering treatments and remedies forcevery possible ailment he was aware of. That was a bonus. These two were not names I knew when we started. I researched both of them. I read the description and was - Wow!

 

Then I got to thinking, well if I don't know them maybe the other guys don't know them... pass, pass... pass, pass ... pass, pass...

 

That's how I lost out on Hypatia. In my mind she was top shelf. I convinced myself that the only possible reason she wasn't picked was that you guys didn't know about her. So, like these two, I just let her go. Oh, I was so crushed when Bear took her.

 

Losing it on Hypatia was a trigger to get me to finally getting around to these two.

[Voltaire 5,392]

 

Erich Hartmann

Say this name ten times fast.

 

[BiPolarBear 495]

The co-founder of United Artist studios in 1919 was also an English Knight. Six of his films are held for posterity by the Library of Congress.

 

He pulled his money out of the stock market the year before the Great Crash.

 

 

Charlie Chaplin - Artist (Performing)

[vuduchile 1,945]

Jack of All Trades

 

Doctor, philospher, theologian, missionary, musician, philanthropist and Nobel Peace Prize Winner. This guy lived quite a life.

 

 

Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965) is famous for his interpretive works on the life of Jesus. He founded the Albert Schweitzer Hospital in west central Africa and worked there until the end of his life.

 

Schweitzer received numerous honors and awards in his life, such as Frankfurts Goethe Prize and many honorary doctorates from universities. In 1952, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. He blew the award money by hiring Van Halen to play at his birthday party.

Is anybody reading this stuff? He actually blew the award money by building the famous leprosarium at Lambaréné.

[Voltaire 5,392]

Jack of All Trades

 

Doctor, philospher, theologian, missionary, musician, philanthropist and Nobel Peace Prize Winner. This guy lived quite a life.

 

 

Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965) is famous for his interpretive works on the life of Jesus. He founded the Albert Schweitzer Hospital in west central Africa and worked there until the end of his life.

 

Schweitzer received numerous honors and awards in his life, such as Frankfurts Goethe Prize and many honorary doctorates from universities. In 1952, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. He blew the award money by hiring Van Halen to play at his birthday party.

Is anybody reading this stuff? He actually blew the award money by building the famous leprosarium at Lambaréné.

Schweitzer is awesome a first rate humanitarian if we had started a category like that.

 

I hadn't even realized that the band Van Halen existed before Eddie and Alex (let alone Marc and DLD) were born. I always had Schweitzer pegged as more an Everly Brothers fan. Also, are leprosariums where dead leprechauns get buried?

[iam90sbaby 2,720]

Zhuge Liang (general - strategist) - was a chancellor of the state of Shu Han during the Three Kingdomsperiod. He is recognised as the greatest and most accomplished strategist of his era, and has been compared to another great ancient Chinese strategist, Sun Tzu.^[3]

Often depicted wearing a robe and holding a hand fan made of crane feathers,^[4] Zhuge Liang was not only an important military strategist and statesman; he was also an accomplished scholar and inventor. His reputation as an intelligent and learned scholar grew even while he was living in relative seclusion, earning him the nickname "Wolong" or "Fulong" (both literally mean "Crouching Dragon").

Zhuge is an uncommon two-character Chinese compound family name. His name – even his surname alone – has become synonymous with intelligence and strategy in Chinese culture.

Zhuge Liang rose in prominence under Lliu Bei, head of one of the states warring for control of China during the Three Kingdom period. Zhuge Liang was so smart and good, that Liu Bei travelled to Liang's remote home for strategic advice. After his state won, Zhuge Liang became a governor and a master statesman.

 

 

Pythagoras (Jack-of-all-Trades) - was an IonianGreek philosopher, mathematician, and has been credited as the founder of the movement called Pythagoreanism. Most of the information about Pythagoras was written down centuries after he lived, so very little reliable information is known about him. He was born on the island of Samos, and traveled, visiting Egypt and Greece, and maybe India, and in 520 BC returned to Samos.^[5][6] Around 530 BC, he moved to Croton, in Magna Graecia, and there established some kind of school or guild.

Pythagoras made influential contributions to philosophy and religion in the late 6th century BC. He is often revered as a great mathematician and scientist and is best known for the Pythagorean theorem which bears his name. However, because legend and obfuscation cloud his work even more than that of the other pre-Socratic philosophers, one can give only a tentative account of his teachings, and some have questioned whether he contributed much to mathematics or natural philosophy. Many of the accomplishments credited to Pythagoras may actually have been accomplishments of his colleagues and successors. Some accounts mention that the philosophy associated with Pythagoras was related to mathematics and that numbers were important. It was said that he was the first man to call himself a philosopher, or lover of wisdom,^[7] and Pythagorean ideas exercised a marked influence on Plato, and through him, all of Western philosophy.

[vuduchile 1,945]

Also, are leprosariums where dead leprechauns get buried?

I dunno, but I have a picture in my head of just a regular hospital with random discarded body parts popping up in strange places.

 

"Excuse me nurse, there's a nostril in my soup."

[vuduchile 1,945]

Another incredible humanitarian and Nobel Peace Prize Winner.

 

Some quotes:

 

It is not how much we do,

but how much love we put in the doing.

It is not how much we give,

but how much love we put in the giving."

 

"Love cannot remain by itself it has no meaning. Love has to be put into action, and that action is service .

 

Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.

 

When asked what we could all do to promote world peace she said, "Go home and love your family"

 

Like Dr. Schweitzer, she was driven to serve the poor, sick and destitute people of the world. And like Schweitzer, she did so in the name of God.

 

Many people on this board (including some in this very draft) have voiced quite a hatred toward Christianity and religion in general.

 

But I'm here to tell you the Jimmy Swaggarts, Tammy Faye Bakers, and child molesting priests of this world do not represent Christianity

 

We should more often look to Dr. Schweitzer and this woman as shining examples of Christians who walked the talk.

 

Great Woman. Mother Teresa of Calcutta.

[Voltaire 5,392]

Holy Hell, you guys weren't supposed to know about Zhuge Liang. That's just devastating. Fock! That guy is brilliant. The wiki article doesn't do him justice. It's a letdown actually. You read that, you don't know a fraction of what this guy was up to.

 

A mega-focking hero over here in China. This dude is unreal. He singlehandedly kept Shu as a viable state the three kingdoms war. I love this guy. On offense he got bogged down due to a lack of supplies coming in from the incompetent morons back home. That may stain his record a bit. but playing defense, when he has time to prepare on home turf. It's insane the tricks he came up with. Unreal. Despite being severely outnumbered, as he was throughout, he's totally the last guy you want to dig territory out from under.

 

If you wanna know more just ask, I know where to get some great cut and paste of what this guy is all about. Some of my favorite ZL stories.

 

Pytagoras another helluva great pick. I'd be slobbering all over this one too, but I've used up all my energy on Zhuge Liang. The only problem is we don't really know much about the guy but even then what we do know is really impressive.

[iam90sbaby 2,720]

Yeah I was pretty excited when I was got both Zhuge Liang and Pythagorus in the same round. How many rounds till you took Zhuge Liang yourself?

 

Holy Hell, you guys weren't supposed to know about Zhuge Liang. That's just devastating. Fock! That guy is brilliant. The wiki article doesn't do him justice. It's a letdown actually. You read that, you don't know a fraction of what this guy was up to.

 

A mega-focking hero over here in China. This dude is unreal. He singlehandedly kept Shu as a viable state the three kingdoms war. I love this guy. On offense he got bogged down due to a lack of supplies coming in from the incompetent morons back home. That may stain his record a bit. but playing defense, when he has time to prepare on home turf. It's insane the tricks he came up with. Unreal. Despite being severely outnumbered, as he was throughout, he's totally the last guy you want to dig territory out from under.

 

If you wanna know more just ask, I know where to get some great cut and paste of what this guy is all about. Some of my favorite ZL stories.

 

Pytagoras another helluva great pick. I'd be slobbering all over this one too, but I've used up all my energy on Zhuge Liang. The only problem is we don't really know much about the guy but even then what we do know is really impressive.

[Voltaire 5,392]

Yeah I was pretty excited when I was got both Zhuge Liang and Pythagorus in the same round. How many rounds till you took Zhuge Liang yourself?

 

It would have been a while because I didn't like the wiki writeup. Also he led five offensives and only one was a full success. I have some brilliant guys that never lost battles in mind, but it's a little different in that they had the superior force as well. Shu was the weakest? smallest? of the three kingdoms. He had the superior numbers when he was pacifying the Nanman tribes in the south, but against the other two kingdoms, ZL was fighting significantly larger forces his entire career. When I get a chance, I'll give you a cut and paste of the time he used his empty fort strategy to devastate a Wei army of 100000 with a force of 7000. Another time, again against Wei, he initiated a river crossing during the fog. Flaming arrows rained down on his boats for hours. But it was a fake crossing, his boats were filled with wet straw. In the end, he'd severely depleted the Wei archery units of their arrows while restocking his own.

[Voltaire 5,392]

We can move on... TBBOM can go.

[iam90sbaby 2,720]

It would have been a while because I didn't like the wiki writeup. Also he led five offensives and only one was a full success. I have some brilliant guys that never lost battles in mind, but it's a little different in that they had the superior force as well. Shu was the weakest? smallest? of the three kingdoms. He had the superior numbers when he was pacifying the Nanman tribes in the south, but against the other two kingdoms, ZL was fighting significantly larger forces his entire career. When I get a chance, I'll give you a cut and paste of the time he used his empty fort strategy to devastate a Wei army of 100000 with a force of 7000. Another time, again against Wei, he initiated a river crossing during the fog. Flaming arrows rained down on his boats for hours. But it was a fake crossing, his boats were filled with wet straw. In the end, he'd severely depleted the Wei archery units of their arrows while restocking his own.

 

Oh I found another article about him but it was to long to post so I just pulled out the Wiki definition. You should post some of the stuff you mentioned though, I will probably need it once the draft is completed.

[titans&bucs&bearsohmy! 2,745]

Pheidippides - Athlete

 

A courier with the Athenian army during the Greco Persian wars, he was sent to Sparta to request aid. He ran the 150 miles, over rugged mountainous terrain, in two days.

 

The Spartans arrived in time to help the Athenians defeat the Peraians. Pheidippides then ran to bring th news to the Athenian assembly, a run of about 40 miles.

 

Legend has it that upon telling the assembly the news, he dropped dead.

 

The battle was the battle of marathon, where we get our modern word for long distance running races.

[Voltaire 5,392]

Francis Bacon - Thinker

 

Messalina - Seductress

 

No time right now as it's babysitting time. After TBBOM re-picks, Vudu and 90sbababy can go. Bear of course can get his picks in at any time.

[titans&bucs&bearsohmy! 2,745]

Enrico Fermi - scientist, physics

 

 

(Italian: [enˈriko ˈfermi]; 29 September 1901 – 28 November 1954) was an Italian physicist, who created the world's first nuclear reactor, the Chicago Pile-1. He has been called as "architect of nuclear age", "architect of the nuclear weapon" and "father of the atomic bomb".[1][2] He was widely recognized as one of the few physicists to excel both theoretically and experimentally. Fermi held several patents related to the use of nuclear power, and was awarded the 1938 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on induced radioactivity by neutron bombardment and the discovery of transuranic elements. He made significant contributions to the development of quantum theory, nuclear and particle physics, and statistical mechanics.

[BiPolarBear 495]

Henry David Thoreau - Thinker

 

A ringer in the Jack-of-All-Trades category, for sure...but.

[vuduchile 1,945]

Fockers.

 

Both Bacon and Thoreau were on my radar for this upcoming round.

[Voltaire 5,392]

Bear, you were skipped, you can go again.

[vuduchile 1,945]

This is the second person on my team that I had the opportunity to meet face to face. Michael Jordan is the first.

There will be one more before this draft concludes, unless you bastards draft him first.

I was a teenager playing a flag football game with my dad in downtown DC. My dad was a reporter covering capitol hill at the time, so we were playing with a bunch of people from the local press.

My brother and I noticed an old black man sitting on a bench, dressed in his Sunday finest shaking a few hands and signing some books. We asked my dad who he was so he took us over to meet him.

He said, "Hello. Are you boys having fun?" We shook our heads yes, and he asked our names. He took a couple of Guinness Book of World Records books out of a box, signed them and said, "Here ya go. Keep playing hard."

I looked down at the signature and saw that this man's name was Jesse Owens. I still didn't know who he was then, but I learned all about him on the ride home.

Jesse Owens may not be in the top 10 athletes of all time, so picking him here is a bit of a reach. But, I'd kick myself if I was unable to get him.

His most famous moment came in the 1936 Olympics when he won four gold medals much to the annoyance of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party who hoped the Olympics would be a showcase for Aryan supremacy. In his later life, Jesse Owens became a goodwill ambassador for America and athletics.

"The battles that count arent the ones for gold medals. The struggles within yourself the invisible, inevitable battles inside all of us thats where its at." - Jesse Owens

[Voltaire 5,392]

I think he's a great pick and was on my radar. You failed to mention how he had the greatest hour in sports history. Those four medals you mentioned were all won within 60 minutes of each other. Three of the medals were world records, while the fourth tide a record.

[Voltaire 5,392]

Regarding Zhuge Liang's destruction of Wei at Xinye rad from 84 to 113. A great story well worth your while.

 

http://threekingdoms.com/040.htm

[Voltaire 5,392]

We still owe Bear a supplemental makeup pick. He came in and only made one pick when he was owed two.

 

90sbaby can go as well.

[vuduchile 1,945]

I think he's a great pick and was on my radar. You failed to mention how he had the greatest hour in sports history. Those four medals you mentioned were all won within 60 minutes of each other. Three of the medals were world records, while the fourth tide a record.

Here's a detailed write up on that.

 

He set 5 world records and tied another within 45 minutes at the Big Ten Championships. I think this is what was listed in the Guiness books he signed for us.

 

My mom still has those books somewhere.

 

Jesse Owens is best remembered as the sprinter and long jumper who won four gold medals at the politically charged 1936 Berlin Olympics. And yet his greatest day as an athlete was May 25, 1935, when he set five world records and tied another in a span of just 45 minutes to pace Ohio State University at the Big Ten Championships. Owens set world records in the 220 yards and 200 meters straightaway, 220-yard and 200m low hurdles on a straightaway and the long jump, and tied the world record at 100 yards. His long jump mark of 26' 8 1/2" stood for the next 25 years. At the 1936 Olympics, he won the 100, 200 and long jump and ran on the winning 4x100m relay team. In the 200m and long jump, he set Olympic records and the relay team set a world record. Owens first came to national attention at East Tech High School in Cleveland, Ohio (the same school that produced fellow Hall of Famers Dave Albritton and Harrison Dillard), setting national high school records in the 100 and 220-yard dashes and the long jump. At Ohio State University, where he was coached by Hall of Famer Larry Snyder, Owens won eight national collegiate titles, scoring quadruple victories in both 1935 and 1936 in the 100, 220, low hurdles and long jump. During that same time, he also won six National AAU titles, five of them in the long jump. He later became a businessman and public speaker on motivational topics. Owens was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1976 and elected to the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 1983.

Records Held

World Record: Long Jump - 8.13 m (May 25, 1935 - )

World Record: 100 yd. - 9.40 (May 25, 1935 - )

World Record: 100 m - 10.20 (June 20, 1936 - )

World Record: 200 m - 20.30 (May 25, 1935 - )

[BiPolarBear 495]

Ralph Waldo Emerson -Thinker

[iam90sbaby 2,720]

Jim Brown (athlete) - American former professional football player and actor. He is best known for his exceptional and record-setting nine year career as a fullback for the Cleveland Brownsof the National Football League (NFL) from 1957 to 1965. In 2002, he was named by Sporting News as the greatest professional football player ever.

 

Wayne Gretzky (athlete) - The Great One. is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player and former head coach. He played 20 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for four teams from 1979 to 1999. Nicknamed "The Great One", he has been called "the greatest hockey player ever"^[1] by many sportswriters, players, and the NHL itself. He is the leading scorer in NHL history, with more goals and more assists than any other player. He scored more assists than any other player scored total points, and is the only NHL player to total over 200 points in one season – a feat he accomplished four times. In addition, he tallied over 100 points in 16 professional seasons, 14 of them consecutive. At the time of his retirement in 1999, he held 61 NHL records: 40 regular-season records, 15 playoff records, and six All-Star records.^[1] As of 2014, he still holds 60 NHL records.^[2]

Born and raised in Brantford, Ontario, Gretzky honed his skills at a backyard rink and regularly played minor hockey at a level far above his peers.^[3] Despite his unimpressive stature, strength and speed, Gretzky's intelligence and reading of the game were unrivaled. He was adept at dodging checks from opposing players, and he could consistently anticipate where the puck was going to be and execute the right move at the right time. Gretzky also became known for setting up behind his opponent's net, an area that was nicknamed "Gretzky's office".^[4]

In 1978, he signed with the Indianapolis Racers of the World Hockey Association (WHA), where he briefly played before being traded to the Edmonton Oilers. When the WHA folded, the Oilers joined the NHL, where he established many scoring records and led his team to four Stanley Cup championships. His trade to the Los Angeles Kings on August 9, 1988, had an immediate impact on the team's performance, eventually leading them to the 1993 Stanley Cup Finals, and he is credited with popularizing hockey in California.^[5] Gretzky played briefly for the St. Louis Blues before finishing his career with the New York Rangers. Gretzky captured nine Hart Trophies as the most valuable player, ten Art Ross Trophies for most points in a season, two Conn Smythe Trophies as playoff MVP, and five Lester B. Pearson Awards (now called the Ted Lindsay Award) for most outstanding player as judged by other players. He won the Lady Byng Trophy for sportsmanship and performance five times,^[6] and often spoke out against fighting in hockey.^[7]

After his retirement in 1999, he was immediately inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, making him the most recent player to have the waiting period waived. The NHL retired his jersey number 99 league-wide, making him the only player to receive this honour. He was one of six players voted to the International Ice Hockey Federation's (IIHF) Centennial All-Star Team. Gretzky became executive director for the Canadian national men's hockey team during the 2002 Winter Olympics, in which the team won a gold medal. In 2000, he became part owner of the Phoenix Coyotes, and following the 2004–05 NHL lockout he became the team's head coach. In 2004, he was inducted into the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame.^[8] In September 2009, following the franchise's bankruptcy, Gretzky resigned as coach and relinquished his ownership share.

[jerryskids 6,974]

Enjoying this as always. My favorite pick in the recent wave is Mother Teresa. I also like Jesse Owens for athlete; his accomplishments transcend athletics.

 

Best "never heard of him" is Zhuge Liang. I'm looking forward to reading Volty's link.

[Voltaire 5,392]

Another great ZL story is how he successfully got Liu Bei married. Sun Quan had offered an alliance to Liu Bei by offering his sister to marry him. Liu smelled a trap. We need this alliance but If I go he'll probably rather assassinate me, if I refuse it's a personal insult that'll likely lead to war, what to do?

 

"You go there and get married. I know a safe place in Wu where you can stay that Sun Quan will never harm you." So ZL shows up in Wu a couple of weeks in advance organizing this big parade and festivities, hiring all the musicians, buying up flowers, making a huge bit to do about the upcoming wedding and Liu's imminent arrival.

 

When Liu finally does arrive, ZL takes him straight to Sun Quan's father-in-law's house.