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The late Dick Schaap lived an amazing life. He knew Bo as well as anyone. In all his travels, Bo was one of those athletes that he could never get out of his head. Just months before Mr. Schaap passed away in 2001, he had written glowingly about Bo, closing with the line, “He was a beautiful athlete.”

And most people would assume that reference was about the multi-talented Bo Jackson, the subject of Schaap’s 1990 bestseller, Bo Knows Bo.

But instead, he was remembering a college aquaintance from his days at Cornell University. The Bo that nobody knew. The multi-dimensional Bo Roberson, the only person ever to earn an Ivy League degree, an Olympic medal and a doctorate while having an NFL career as well.

“My dad always contended that Bo Jackson was the greatest athlete he ever saw,” said ESPN’s Jeremy Schaap. “But he was convinced that Bo Roberson was the best natural athlete ever in the Ivy League. He could do anything.”

For those who knew the young Roberson, there must have been both reverence and intimidation. Imagine knowing a guy who was a world-class athlete and who was smarter than most. He also made impressions in other ways.

“He was a very eloquent speaker,” said former teammate and Pro Football Hall of Famer Jim Otto, “and one of the very first dapper dressers in our sport.”

How big a star would he have been in today’s image-driven society? He was the original Bo, yet his legend is limited to those who saw him first hand and lives only in fading memories.

His years in the spotlight took place a long time ago. He may even be forgotten in places like Philadelphia and John Bartram High School; in Ithaca, N.Y., and Cornell University; and in the old AFL cities like San Diego, Oakland, Buffalo and Miami.

That is why we share his story.

This fall will mark the 50th anniversary of Roberson venturing to Cornell and the Ivy League and in all the years since, there have been fewer than a handful of Ivy Leaguers -- if any at all -- who could be considered his athletic equal.

As the country was beginning to rise from the knockout punch delivered by the Great Depression, the professional sports teams in Philadelphia were landing another haymaker on the city’s morale.

The Phillies were in the midst of a horrific quarter century. From 1921 to 1945, that team produced one winning season and 12 100-loss campaigns (in a 154-game schedule no less).

The A’s, the pride of the city just years before, had sold off their best players and begun a nine-year stretch in which the team lost an average of 98 games annually.

The Eagles became an NFL franchise in 1933 and produced 23 victories in 109 games in their first 10 years.

And the summer of 1935 was no different. In August, both the A’s and the Phillies showed a little promise, hanging within 10 games of .500. But the summer swoon hit and the two teams combined to lose 70 of their last 100 games.

It was that sweltering summer, on July 23, when Irvin Roberson was born in Philadelphia, the last of six children. He would ultimately become one of the greatest, most versatile athletes the city ever produced.

And somewhere at a young age, he became known as Bo and no one called him Irvin. Bo was a gifted child, both academically and athletically, and he took both very seriously.

By his sophomore year of 1950-51, at John Bartram High in West Philadelphia, he was attracting city-wide attention for his athletic exploits. He was a threat to win Public League titles in both the 100-yard dash and the long jump and was clearly a star of the future in both basketball and football.

As a junior, his legend began to grow. That year he was the best long jumper in the city, earning the Public League title with a leap of 22-0 1/2. He also had a second-place finish in the League’s 100-yard dash, his first loss of the season in either event. He was also named to the All-Scholastic Team for his successes on the track as well as the hardwood.

Roberson’s senior year, 1952-53, remains one of the most amazing in the history of Philadelphia scholastic sport. He kicked off the fall by being voted as the most outstanding football player in the area. He had turned a moribund Bartram program into a winner and had become an unstoppable force.

As fall gave way to winter, the 6-foot-1 Roberson became a first-team All-City basketball player, joining future Hall of Famers Guy Rodgers and Wilt Chamberlain. As the season drew to conclusion, Roberson took over. It started in a quarterfinal victory of the Public League Championship when he scored 26 points in a come-from-behind victory over West Philadelphia.

With that victory, Bartram found itself in the semifinal at The Palestra, facing Northeast High and its star Guy Rodgers. The winner would square off with Overbrook High and super sophomore Wilt Chamberlain for the league title. As it turned out, Rodgers was too much to handle, but Roberson scored 22 points himself in the loss.

As the Spring of 1953 rolled around, Roberson switched back to the track and stepped up his level of performance. Again, he was the league’s long jump champ, this time clearing a meet record 22-9 3/4 before churning up the sand. He also won the 100-yard dash with a 9.7-second clocking. One of the athletes whom he beat in both events was Overbrook’s Ira Davis, who would compete in three Olympics.

The long jump-100 double is a rare one in the Philly Public League. In fact, it took 47 years for someone to match that feat.

In an amazing time for Philadelphia area high school athletics, Roberson was selected as the all-sport outstanding athlete following the 1952-53 academic year.

Sonny Hill is a well-known figure in Philadelphia and beyond. He formed the famed Sonny Hill League, a summer basketball program at Temple University, and has been a part of the Philadelphia sporting scene for more than 50 years.

A few years younger than Roberson, Hill was not close to him, but certainly gives him a lofty place in the Philadelphia sporting history.

“Bo Roberson belongs in the conversation with any athlete from the City of Philadelphia because he was so successful in three arenas,” said Hill. “Obviously Wilt Chamberlain was a great athlete, but his resume was that of two sports. Add in that Bo Roberson was a standout student and he becomes a story that needs to be told.”

Roberson was inducted into the Bartram High Hall of Fame in 1974 and, ultimately, the State of Pennsylvania Hall of Fame in 1989.

The erudite Roberson had a choice to make for his future. He likely had a number of opportunities for college, given his athletic stature. But he opted for another year to decide by enrolling in the Wyoming Seminary Preparatory School in the Poconos town of Kingston, Pa.

Again, he stood out athletically and academically. He was so good athletically at Wyoming Prep, he was named to the school’s Hall of Fame in 1974 as well. And his academic training also prepared him for the rigors of the Ivy League education he would receive at Cornell University.

Being in the Poconos for prep school also gave the Philadelphian a sense of what life might be like in Ithaca, away from the big city.

Future Cornell Hall of Famer Dick Jackson was likely more responsible for Roberson’s choice of Cornell than anyone. On Bo’s recruiting trip to Ithaca, the coaches had him stay with Jackson for the weekend and the two hit it off.

Upon his arrival on campus, three coaches were salivating at the possibilities of Roberson on their teams. In 1954, freshmen could not compete on varsity athletic teams, so Roberson played the scaled-back schedule of the freshman teams and found his challenges in the classroom. But that didn’t mean that there was not a buzz about him among the sporting alumni.

He must have blown away all expectations as a sophomore, as he made an enormous impact in three sports. By the end of the season, Roberson seemed destined to be the League’s top athlete in football, basketball and track and field. It was not all about athleticism, but about drive and determination as well.

Jackson, Bo’s only African-American football teammate, recalled Roberson’s workout regimen, which included a series of punishing drills before practice. He even warned Jackson not to try them. Then Roberson opened the year by leading the Big Red football team in rushing and being named honorable mention all-Ivy by the Associated Press.

“Bo was a sophomore when I was a senior captain,” said Jackson. “I shepherded him around and we became close friends. He was one of the greatest all-purpose athletes who ever played anywhere. He was special.”

After starring with Jackson on the gridiron, Roberson switched to the hardcourt for his only basketball season at Cornell. But what a season it was. Despite his size (6-foot-1), he was the team’s center. He averaged 14.9 points and a remarkable 17.6 rebounds a game while shooting 52.2 percent from the field.

At that time, the national rebounding rankings were determined by rebound percentage, the number of caroms divided by the number of opportunities (missed shots). Roberson was ranked 15th nationally by hauling in 17.1 percent of all the missed shots when he played. His field-goal percentage was sixth in the nation.

Roberson scored 20 or more points in a game six times, including a late-season 31-point performance against Penn at The Palestra, when he poured in 27 in the first half alone.

He would star again in his hometown before the end of the academic year, this time anchoring Cornell's 880-yard relay to the Championship of America at the Penn Relays, matching the Relays’ record of 1:25.4.

Weeks later Roberson would have his first opportunity to shine at the Heptagonal Games at Army, winning the 220-yard low hurdles for the Big Red in 23.6. The New York Times reported that it appeared that Roberson took second in the 100-yard dash, but the final results had him fourth.

One thing that wasn’t in doubt, there was a new sensation in Ithaca, N.Y. He reportedly inspired a sandwich still consumed throughout Central New York, the diet-destroying Boburger, a burger fried with onions and eggs.

“I never saw him eat anything like that,” said Jackson, who was no longer on campus by the height of Roberson’s fame.

There were some adjustments Roberson needed to make his junior year. First he would be without Jackson and at that time the campus had fewer than 20 American-born black students.

“We spent most of our time together my senior year,” Jackson recalled. “Even after that, I moved to Binghamton and he’d come down to play basketball. He was a great guy, but always seemed to be a little aloof. I know that me being there made it easier for him, but when I left, I wasn’t so sure about him.”

If there was reason to be concerned with Bo, it certainly didn’t show in his athletic performance. While the Big Red football team struggled, Roberson again led the team in rushing and earned postseason notice from the Ivy coaches. In the season opener, he broke free for a 100-yard kickoff return against Colgate and that remains the longest play in school history.

In the winter, Roberson -- despite his success the previous season -- opted to give up basketball in favor of indoor track and field. And the basketball team suffered for it, dropping to 2-12 in Ivy play after going 8-6 with Roberson.

But the Cornell track team certainly enjoyed the indoor addition, as Roberson won the Heps’ long jump title at Cornell’s own Barton Hall that winter, posting a Hall record of 23-7 1/4. The Big Red finished second as a team at the Championship, which was contested before a sellout crowd of 4,500, and Roberson was named as the Meet’s Outstanding Athlete as he added a second-place finish in the 60-yard dash.

At Outdoor Heps in New Haven that year, for the only time in his collegiate career, Roberson did not bring home a title as the Big Red slipped to third in the final points race. He had pulled a muscle that had bothered him during the football season and ‘it cost the Big Red plenty of points’ said the New York Times. Despite that, a hobbling Roberson took third in the 100-yard dash.

This injury was particularly difficult to shake and it carried over the following football season as he missed three of the nine football games. Despite the injury, he posted a 100-yard game at Colgate, thus becoming the first Big Red player to manage that five times in his career.

But Bo’s injuries had healed by the time Indoor Heps rolled around.

It is hard to describe the atmosphere at the Indoor Heptagonals in Ithaca in those days. That had become a party weekend on campus with the track championship serving as a festive rallying venue.

All of Barton Hall’s 4,500 seats would be sold out as the finals were contested on a Saturday night. The crowd was young and loud and Roberson put on the best show of his life his senior year.

He won the 60-yard dash in 6.3 seconds before setting a meet record in the long jump by soaring 24-5 1/4. That record would stand for more than 20 years, as he led the Big Red to a close victory over the Army Cadets.

Claiming the 60-LJ double is a rare one at Heps. Roberson was the first athlete to win both events at the same championship and only two have since matched that feat. Despite his remarkable effort, Roberson did not repeat as the Meet’s Most Outstanding Athlete.

The Outdoor Heps moved south to Annapolis, Md., and Cornell won the event handily as Roberson again claimed the long jump title, this time going 24-7 3/4, as well as winning the 100-yard dash in 9.6.

As the League closes in on 70 years of competition, Roberson is one of two men to ever sweep the Heps indoor and outdoor sprint and long jump titles in the same year. The other was Penn’s James Brown in 1979.

Even though his senior season had been slowed by his injury, Roberson was chosen as the Senior Athlete of the Year by the Cornell Daily Sun. He earned his bachelor’s degree from the School of Industrial and Labor Relations in the Spring of 1958.

A member of the Army reserve program while at Cornell, Roberson served as a lieutenant in the Army following graduation while working as a coach for the track and field program at the U.S. Military Academy.

It was there that he long jumped his way onto the world stage, culminating in a world record and an Olympic medal.

Roberson’s first big win came at the Pan-American Games in Chicago in August of 1959. Not only did Roberson claim the gold medal, but his winning leap of 7.97 meters (26-2) was more than a foot better than that of silver medalist Greg Bell, the reigning Olympic champ. Roberson finished the year ranked third in the world in the long jump.

If the Pan-Am victory gave him confidence heading into the Olympic year of 1960, what he did in February solidified his status. At the National AAU Indoor Championships, he won with a leap of 25-9 1/2. The performance broke the indoor world record that had been held by Jesse Owens for 25 years.

At this point, he and Bell were seen as the favorites for the gold medal at the Rome Olympics.

That summer, Roberson’s goal was to become the first man to jump 27 feet. Even Owens thought his outdoor record would fall to either Bell or Roberson by the end of the summer.

Little did either know that there was a new threat on the horizon. Ralph Boston was a junior at Tennessee A&I, now Tennessee State, and he was known as a great, but unpolished talent. He had a habit of fouling, but he won the 1960 NCAAs with a solid leap of 25-5 3/4.

But in June Boston finished sixth at the AAU while another upstart, Oklahoma’s Anthony Watson, had an impressive showing at that meet. Roberson was dealing with a recurring leg injury that kept him from getting a full complement of quality attempts. So he and Bell were not having a great summer, but they remained the Olympic favorites heading into July’s Olympic Trials.

Perceptions were about to change as a result of the Trials at Stanford. Boston won the event with a wind-aided leap of 26-6 1/2 while Watson also qualified for Rome at 25-9 1/4. Roberson held on for the third spot at 25-5 1/4 while Bell failed to make the Olympic team.

With Bell gone, it would seem that Roberson’s gold medal chances would improve, but his nagging injury combined with Boston’s surge left doubt. When Boston broke Owens’ record in a pre-Olympic meet just weeks before the Games, the favorite was no longer in question. Boston was seen as the one to beat.

In the Track & Field News’ Olympic Preview, six experts made event-by-event predictions and, suddenly, Roberson was picked fourth behind Boston, the Soviet Union’s Igor Ter-Ovanesian and Germany’s Manfred Steinbach. Five of the six experts didn’t think Roberson would earn a medal.

Before leaving for Rome, the American team gathered in New York and one night Dick Schaap found himself heading to Harlem with Roberson and U.S. basketball player Bob Boozer. The two told Schaap about a brash 18-year-old boxer named Cassius Clay, whom Roberson had first met at the Pan Am Games.

Schaap tracked down Clay before the team left for Italy and the two began a friendship that lasted into the 21st century. Schaap remembered hearing about the soon-to-be Muhammad Ali as his best tip ever.

The 1960 Olympics were, in some substantial ways, the first Games to resemble today’s. The Italians set a new standard in site preparation, the Olympic Village was really a separate town, and the Games were fully covered by television.

Romans constructed superhighways and tunnels to ease the traffic burden, and an entire new water supply system was built while the Olympic Stadium was completely restored.

The Villagio Olympico -- home to a record 5,348 athletes from 84 nations -- was complete with parks, play areas, and shops and, after the Games, it was turned into low-cost housing for government workers.

While Eurovision brought live telecasts of many events to Europe, CBS paid nearly $400,000 for U. S. rights. Without satellites to beam images across the Atlantic, the network flew tapes to New York daily.

The action at the long jump pit was recently recounted by none other than Ralph Boston.

“I remember Rome 1960 as clear as day. Bo was going into the Olympics injured and he gave it his all in the second round and took the lead (8.03m). I had my winning jump in the third round (8.12m) and it seemed like Bo had all but given up. It was like he was gonna settle for silver because of his injury.

“But Manfred Steinbach and Igor Ter-Ovanesian both had big jumps in the last round and now Bo found himself barely in third. His adrenaline kicked in and he was fired up. He came flying down the runaway and hit a perfect takeoff. When he landed, the measuring judge turned to me and said '21.' I turned to Bo and said, 'You just tied the world record.' But what it really was was 8.11, a centimeter behind me.”

Roberson lost the gold medal by a centimeter. No one in either the long jump or triple jump has done that since. Given that frustration, along with thinking he had won gold, how did Roberson react?

“He punched me in the stomach,” said Boston, who would win medals at two more Olympics and break the American long jump record seven times. “It was a good punch, too. It wasn't malicious or anything. We had become good friends.”

Boston and Roberson finished 1960 as No. 1 and No. 2 in the world and Roberson held onto the world’s No. 3 ranking in 1961, but he was ready for a new challenge by the fall of 1961.

As it turned out, Al LoCasale was a personnel man with the AFL Chargers, who were moving from Los Angeles to San Diego that year. In need of speed, LoCasale told a young assistant coach about Roberson. That young assistant was Al Davis.

“Bo went to Bartram High and I went to Olney in the same league,” remembered LoCasale, who went to Penn while Roberson was at Cornell. “What I remembered about him was his tremendous speed and his tremendous ability, and that he was put together like a football player, not a skinny track kid. When I remember back, I remember his speed, his accleration, his takeoff.”

LoCasale, who recently retired after more than 30 years with the Raiders’ front office and nearly 50 years in the NFL, remembered that there were players in the NFL with his size and speed at the time... but not many.

About five years ago, Pasadena Star-News writer Jim McConnell interviewed the late Tex Schramm, who with Tom Landry built the Dallas Cowboy dynasty. McConnell was researching a story about NFL scouting and drafting.

When the subject of 40-yard dash times came up, Schramm told McConnell to put no stake in the times that are often reported. Schramm contended that the fastest 40-yarders in the history of the NFL were posted by ‘Bullet’ Bob Hayes and Roberson.

Playing for Coach Sid Gillman at Balboa Stadium, the speedy Roberson went to the Chargers as a running back, but one who had not played a full season in five years. But that didn’t stop Roberson from being the team’s second-leading rusher, averaging a team-best 4.7 yards per carry as the Chargers won their first 11 games en route to a 12-2 record. While that record was the best in pro football that season, San Diego lost the AFL Championship to Houston, 10-3.

In the off-season, the Chargers made a deal with the Oakland Raiders, who coveted Roberson’s speed. He was traded to the Raiders in exchange for a draft pick, who turned out to be Pro Football Hall of Famer Lance Alworth.

Roberson moved up the California coastline to Oakland at a time when the Raiders were anything but scary.

Quarterback Cotton Davidson’s statistics tell some of the story of 1962. On a team that passed much more than it ran the ball, Davidson completed 37 percent of his passes, throwing 23 interceptions to just seven touchdowns.

And the Raiders lost... and lost. Entering the season finale, it looked like Oakland would be the first pro team to lose every game in a 14-game season. The 0-13 Raiders were hosting the 9-3-1 Boston Patriots. Oakland somehow shut out the Pats, 20-0, to avoid that ignominy.

Roberson was selected as the team’s Most Valuable Player in the forgettable season, leading the team in receiving yards (583) while being second in rushing (270). During the season he was moved from his familiar running back position to a flanker/receiver spot, giving the Raiders a uniquely versatile player in the lineup.

“Bo was the Raiders’ first world-class athlete,” Jim Otto once told Dick Schaap. “He helped create the feeling that we were on our way to greatness. He pioneered the Raider tradition of great speed.”

In 1963, the Raiders hired a San Diego assistant coach, Al Davis, as their new head coach and the reversal in fortunes was both rapid and dramatic. From the ashes of the 1962 season, Oakland improved to 10-4 as Davis became the AFL Coach of the Year.

Roberson remained a serious threat as a receiver and returnman for the Raiders into the 1965 season. In his four-year span with the Raiders, he averaged more than 100 combined yards a game in a 48-game span. He still holds the Raiders’ record for career kickoff return yards and once led the AFL in that category. He averaged just under 25 yards per kick return for his career and was among the League’s top 10 receivers twice.

From 1962 to 1965, only five guys in the AFL and NFL combined racked up more all-purpose yards than Roberson’s 5,467 -- Philadelphia’s Timmy Brown, Cleveland’s Jim Brown, Oakland’s Clem Daniels, Abner Haynes, who played for three teams in the AFL, and Washington’s Bobby Mitchell.

Interestingly, Roberson averaged more yards a game in his career with the Raiders than did Bo Jackson in his 38 games three decades later.

But Roberson and the Raiders parted company midway through the 1965 season. Roberson had been playing less as the Raiders made room for rookie flanker Fred Biletnikoff, another future Hall of Famer.

Buffalo Bills Coach Lou Saban had lost two good receivers (Elbert Dubenion and Glenn Bass) with season-ending injuries in the first four games and knew his team needed help to compete for the AFL title.

Saban and Al Davis agreed to a straight deal -- Roberson for tackle Tom Keating, who would be a Pro Bowler in his first two full seasons in Oakland.

That deal helped the Bills claim the title as Roberson led the team in receiving despite playing just eight of the 14 games for Buffalo. He had reconnected with the quarterback from his first pro team -- Jack Kemp -- and caught 31 passes for 438 yards and three scores.

By the time the AFC Championship came around, Kemp and Roberson were in sync, but their old coach at San Diego, Sid Gillman, was not impressed.

In fact, he was so certain that his high-powered Chargers would beat the Bills in the title game, he told a reporter from the Buffalo News, “You know, there is no way we can lose this game on Sunday ... We’re going to win this game because Kemp has the maturity of a 10-year-old girl.”

Kemp made Gillman pay for that comment as the Bills crushed the Chargers, 23-0, in a shocking upset. Kemp was the MVP of the game and his favorite target was Roberson, who hauled in three passes for 88 yards, more than anyone else on the field that day, including Lance Alworth.

Roberson was finally an AFL All-Pro that season, but his career in Buffalo was short-lived. The Bills lost Roberson to the Miami Dolphins in the 1966 expansion draft.

At the announcement of the team name, Joe Robbie unveiled the bottlenose dolphin logo and said, “The dolphin is one of the fastest and smartest creatures of the sea.”

Then maybe it was appropriate the Roberson would end his career as a Dolphin, for, as it would turn out, 1966 would be his last year as a competitive athlete.

In the season’s third game, Roberson became the first Dolphin to post a 100-yard receiving game, hauling in five catches for 128 yards and a touchdown against his former teammates in Buffalo.

Later in the year, he would break his own team record, gaining 161 yards on six catches at Denver. That record would last for 13 years, but Roberson’s career would last exactly two more games.

It was time for him to close that chapter of his life. Unfortunately, the subsequent chapters are mostly blank.

When Bo Roberson closed the chapter, he decided not to revisit it. Even his close friends from his athletic years don’t really know what Bo was doing for most of his post-athletic life.

He seemed to turn to formal education as his next primary objective. After his playing career ended in 1967, Bo attended Stanford Law School and then earned a master’s degree from Whitworth College in Spokane. At the age of 58, he earned his doctorate.

In researching this story, the trail ended in 1973, when he left his job as the head coach of the Cal-Irvine track team to pursue ‘educational objectives.’

The next 15 years are blank and that trail remained cold until Jan. 23, 1988, when Roberson became a member of Psi Chi, the National Honor Society in Psychology, while enrolled at United States International University in San Diego, Calif.

The school, now Alliant International University, confirmed that Roberson was awarded his Ed.D. in 1993 and that he became a school psychologist, but did not have a record of where he worked.

It was also in the early 1990s that Dick Schaap somehow found Roberson. Schaap contacted Roberson’s best friend from college, Dick Jackson, and gave him Roberson’s phone number. Jackson, who had not talked with Roberson in years, called the number and had a long talk with him.

Roberson was always in Jackson’s thoughts. “Bo was very articulate and dressed to the nines. There was just something about him,” recalls Jackson. “My grandson is nicknamed Bo because Bo was my son’s Godfather.”

In that long phone conversation, Roberson told Jackson how much he meant to him and followed it with a letter, again detailing how much he enjoyed his friendship. He also suggested that he would like to return to campus someday if Jackson accompanied him.

That trip never happened.

Tracking down Roberson was never an easy task. Once, when writing about Cornell’s greatest athletes, the hugely resourceful Schaap couldn’t find him. When Cornell inducted him into the school’s Hall of Fame in 1978, Roberson’s mother didn’t have a means by which to contact him.

In April of 2001, word made it to the East that Roberson had passed away in Pasadena, Calif.

“He was a super all-around person, athlete or otherwise,” said Olympic hero Ralph Boston. “He was one of the heaviest -- brainiest -- guys I ever met and he used to wear those dress whites. Bo Roberson from Cornell. I’ll never forget him.”

Acknowledgements

This story was written for the 2004 Ivy League Black History Month Celebration that is available at www.ivyblackhistory.com. This story may be reproduced with credit and permission, but the images are the property of the respective identified organizations.

There are a number of people to thank for their assistance on this story. I would like to thank Dick Jackson, Sonny Hill, Ralph Boston, Al LoCasale, Dave Johnson, Jeremy Schaap and Jim McConnell for their memories and their time.

There are also a number of people who helped with research, for both content and photos. Among those who helped were:

Bob Acquarole at John Bartram High; Scott Berchtold of the Buffalo Bills; Charles Blockson of Temple University; Harvey Greene and Seth Levit of the Miami Dolphins; Nick Lammers at the Oakland Tribune; Elli Harkness, Laura Stange and Jeremy Hartigan at Cornell University; Jon Hendershott at Track and Field News; Rich Schepis of the University of Pennsylvania; The Topps Trading Card Company; Ted Silary and Don McKee of the Philadelphia Daily News; Ava Chan-Crowder of Alliant International University; Jamaal LaFrance of the San Diego Chargers; Scott Gast of Psi Chi; Art Spander of the Oakland Tribune; and the Archives Office at the U.S. Military Academy.

And the people who edited the story and offered important feedback --- Jeff Orleans, Dave Johnson, LaKesha Whitaker, Eddy Lentz and Chuck Yrigoyen.

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