Champion Athletes

Roger Bannister was still a medical student in 1954, when he made headlines around the world with one of the landmark events of 20th century sports history. At the time, it was thought to be impossible for a human being to run a mile in under four minutes. The world record of 4:01.3 had stood for nine years, and experts regarded this time as an insurmountable human limitation. Bannister thought otherwise. He had already won the British championship in the event, and he applied his scientific training and medical knowledge to smashing the four-minute barrier. On May 6, 1954, he set a new world record, running the mile in 3:59.4 while fighting a 15 mile-per-hour crosswind. His record was later broken by Australian John Landy, but in a subsequent rematch, with both athletes running the mile in under four minutes, Bannister was again triumphant. Roger Bannister retired from racing shortly after his famous run and has since pursued a career in neurological medicine. For many years he served as Director of the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases in London. He was knighted by the Queen in 1975, but Sir Roger had long since won the world's acclaim. Sports Illustrated rated Bannister's breakthrough alongside the scaling of Everest as the most significant athletic feat of the 20th century. In this podcast, recorded at the 2000 International Achievement Summit in London, Sir Roger recalls how he set about running the first four-minute mile. He asserts the possibility of transcending other physical barriers, and encourages the Academy's student delegates to adopt good health practices themselves. He discusses his later career as a neurologist and answers questions relating to drug testing for athletes and the nature of personal competition.

For 25 years, Lute Olson was head coach of the University of Arizona Wildcats, the most successful coach in Arizona's basketball history. Robert Luther ("Lute") Olson was born on a farm in North Dakota. His father died when he was only five, and he lost a brother only six months later. His mother struggled to support the three surviving children, and Lute learned the value of hard work at an early age, but still found time to lead his high school basketball team to a state championship. He played football, baseball and basketball at Augsburg College in Minnesota, and coached high school hoops in Minnesota and California before taking his first college coaching job, at Long Beach City College, where his ream won three consecutive league titles and a state junior college championship. In 1983, when Olson rook the reigns of Arizona's Wildcats, the team was considered one of the worst in the nation. Only three years later, Olson led the team to its first Pac 10 title. For the last 20 years of his career at Arizona, The Arizona team made the NCAA tournament for the last 20 years of Olson's career, wining the championship in 1997. Lute Olson retired from coaching in 2008 after suffering a debilitating stroke. In this podcast, recorded at the Academy of Achievement's 2000 gathering in Scottsdale, Arizona, Lute Olson recounts his life and early struggles, and his lifelong enthusiasm for coaching.

Growing up in a working class neighborhood in Chicago, Mike Krzyzewski learned to rely on himself to organize the games he wanted to play. When he failed to make his high school football team, he turned to basketball and became a local star. At that time, he hoped for nothing more than to teach high school and coach basketball. A recruiter from the U.S. Military Academy changed all that. At West Point and in the United States Army, Krzyzewski began playing and coaching at a higher level than he had thought possible. Today, he is the winningest coach in the NCAA. As head coach of Duke University's Blue Devils, he has placed his team in five consecutive Final Fours and won four national championships. While his teams have boasted such star players as Grant Hill, Christian Laettner and Shane Battier, the sustained success of the Duke program must be credited to Coach Krzyzewski's long-term strategy. While other schools may be willing to sacrifice their academic criteria for the sake of a winning team, "Coach K." holds his players to the highest standards on and off the court. In so doing, he has won the accolades of his peers and the affection of the entire Duke community. In this podcast, recorded at the Academy of Achievement's 1997 Summit in Baltimore, Maryland, Coach Krzyzewski discusses the nature of teaching and coaching with broadcaster Larry King.

Calvin Edwin "Cal" Ripken, Jr. was a 19-time All-Star shortstop and third baseman of the Baltimore Orioles, nicknamed the "Iron Man" of baseball, and one of the most admired athletes of our time. He is perhaps best known for breaking New York Yankees first baseman Lou Gehrig's record for consecutive games played, a record many deemed unbreakable. Ripken surpassed the 56-year-old record when he played in his 2,131 consecutive game on September 6, 1995, between the Orioles and the California Angels in front of a sold-out crowd at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. To make the feat even more memorable, Ripken hit a home run in the previous night's game that tied Gehrig's record and another home run in his 2,131st game, which fans later voted as the "most memorable moment" in the history of Major League Baseball. That evening, before a national television audience, he received a 22-minute standing ovation from the over-flow crowd at Camden Yards, and then his teammates pushed him onto the field for a victory lap. He circled the field, hugging and shaking the hands of hundreds of fans. Ripken played in an additional 501 straight games over the next three years, and his streak ended at 2,632 games when he voluntarily removed his name from the lineup for the final Orioles home game of the 1998 season. A 19-time All-Star and member of the 3,000 hit club, Ripken is considered one of the best shortstops and third basemen to ever play the game. When inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2007, he was a first ballot inductee with the third highest voting percentage (98.53%) in Hall of Fame history. Cal Ripken participated in the 1997 Achievement Summit in Baltimore, and spoke to the student delegates about his career as a baseball player and the personal attributes that led to his great success on the field.

Picabo Street is an American alpine ski racer who won gold medals in the super G at the 1988 Winter Olympics and in the downhill at the 1996 World Championships, along with three other Olympic and World Championship medals. When she participated in the 1996 Achievement Summit she was hailed as the greatest woman downhill racer in the world. In 1995, Picabo Street was selected as the U.S. Olympic Committee’s “Sportswoman of the Year.” She was born in a tiny Idaho mining town and her parents called her Baby Girl until she was five years old, and then chose Picabo, the name of a Native American tribe. As a teenager, she burst onto the U.S. Ski Team with natural talent, fearless and freckled. At age 16, Picabo Street won the national junior downhill and super G titles. Two years later, her bright promise dimmed, but eventually she whipped herself into shape, rejoined the team, and started winning again. In 1994, she raced into the public spotlight as the Winter Olympic silver medalist in the downhill. The next year, Street triumphed in six of nine downhill races to become the first American to ever win the World Cup title, and then, in Spain, struck gold again when she became the first American woman to win the downhill at the World Championships. She repeated as downhill champion the following season. A month after her gold medal win in the super G at the 1988 Winter Olympics, Picabo Street careened off course while racing at the final downhill of the season in Switzerland. She crashed and snapped her left femur and tore a ligament in her right knee. She was in rehabilitation for two years after the accident, and retired from racing after the 2002 Winter Olympics in Utah. Street was inducted into the National Ski Hall of Fame in 2004. Picabo Street participated in the 1996 Achievement Summit in Sun Valley, Idaho, near her hometown and where she started her career as a member of the local Hailey, Idaho ski team.

Bonnie Blair is one of the top skaters of her time and one of the most decorated athletes in Olympic history. She competed for the United States in four Olympics and won five gold medals. Blair was heralded in the media as “the 5’-4’’ Colossus on Skates.” As a cheerful, bright-eyed child, she followed her five older brothers and sisters onto the ice skating rink. Bonnie Blair immediately found a passion for the sport, and began competing in skating at the age of four. She later competed in popular “pack racing” on short tracks but, being small, she had a hard time elbowing her way to the front of the pack. At age 16, she made her first trip to a larger Olympic track, and skated against the clock, dazzled the crowd, and made the national team. Blair trained daily, gained astonishing power, and nourished a fierce desire to win. Five years later, she became the top women’s sprinter on the Olympic team. Blair became the U.S. Olympic Committee’s Woman “Speed Skater of the Year” for seven consecutive years. In 1988, at the Calgary Olympics, she skated 500-meters faster than any woman had before, capturing the gold medal in world-record time. In the 1992 Albertville Olympics, she became the first woman in Olympic history to win consecutive gold medals in the 500-meter event, and then made history again in the 1,000-meters by winning her second gold medal of the Games. Blair’s “success under pressure, her modesty in accepting the medal, holding back the tears, and her tender words to those she defeated” are the characteristics that endeared her to millions of viewers around the world, and are the measure of a true champion. Bonnie Blair participated in the 1992 Achievement Summit, several months after her Olympic skating victories, and shared with the student delegates her personal ingredients for success. Later that year, she was named Sports Illustrated magazine’s “Sportsman of the Year.” In 2004, Bonnie Blair was elected to the United States Olympic Hall of Fame.

Herschel Walker was born in Augusta, Georgia and grew up outside of Wrightsville, Georgia. For the first eleven years of his life, Herschel Walker showed little interest in sports; he preferred reading books and writing poetry. At age 12, however, he began a crash exercise program. Over the next year, he did 100,000 push-ups, 100,000 sit-ups and sprinted thousands of miles.

In high school, Walker played football and basketball and competed in track and field. He scored a record-breaking 86 touchdowns as a running back and led his teams to state championships in both football and track, while maintaining an A average.

Herschel Walker participated in the 1980 Academy of Achievement program as the valedictorian of his class and the most sought-after high school football player in the nation.

At the University of Georgia, Walker set an NCAA freshman rushing record and helped capture the national collegiate football title. He earned consensus All-American honors three consecutive years, set 10 NCAA records, 15 Southeast Conference records, 30 Georgia all-time records, and capped a sensational college career by earning the 1982 Heisman Trophy in his junior year.

In 1983, Walker gave up his final year of collegiate eligibility and turned professional, joining the New Jersey Generals of the short-lived United States Football League. Walker dominated the league, earning Most Valuable Player honors and setting the single-season pro football rushing record (2411 yards). After his first pro season, he finished his Bachelor of Science degree in Criminal Justice at the University of Georgia.

Walker joined the Dallas Cowboys in 1986, where he led the entire NFL in rushing and earned All-Pro honors. Walker moved to the Minnesota Vikings as starting running back in 1989. In 1992, he joined the Philadelphia Eagles football team, but returned to the Dallas Cowboys in 1996. He retired from the NFL in 1997. Walker was one of the top running backs in the pros, gaining more yards than anyone in professional football history, counting his seasons in both the NFL and USFL. He finished his professional career with with a total of 8,225 yards and 61 rushing touchdowns. He also caught 512 passes for 4,859 yards and 21 scores.

Herschel Walker has worked with numerous charitable and educational organizations. In 1981, he became the first Academy of Achievement honor student to return to the annual program as a recipient of the Golden Plate Award. In 2002 he was voted into the Collegiate Football Hall of Fame, and was selected as the second greatest player in college football history, just behind the legendary Red Grange.

In a 2008 memoir, Breaking Free, Herschel Walker revealed that he had suffered for many years from dissociative identity disorder, a mental illness previously known as multiple personality disorder. Some of Walker's alternative personalities, which came to the fore after he retired from professional football, expressed a turbulent, angry side of his nature he had previously suppressed. On occasion, he threatened his wife and others with physical violence, but later had no recollection of these events. As related in his memoir, he eventually recognized the nature of his problem, which may have been rooted in his childhood experience of bullying and ostracism, and sought professional treatment. With psychotherapy, the disorder can be treated, and Walker decided to make his affliction public, to advance understanding of the disorder and encourage others so afflicted to find the help they need.

After a legendary career in professional football, Steve Largent entered public service, and was elected to four terms in the United States Congress. A star athlete in high school, he graduated from the University of Tulsa, where he led the nation in touchdown catches. Often called the greatest receiver in the history of professional football, he shattered every major NFL receiving record, including most catches (819), yards (13,089), touchdowns (100), consecutive games with a reception (177), 50-catch seasons, and 1,000-yard seasons. Over the years, he has dedicated himself to innumerable charitable causes, especially the fight against spina bifida, a crippling birth defect with which his own youngest son was afflicted. The NFL honored him with its Man of the Year Award as the league's outstanding citizen-athlete. In 1995, he was inducted into the pro Football Hall of Fame. This audio podcast was recorded at the Academy of Achievement's 1990 Summit in Chicago, Illinois, shortly after Largent's retirement from professional football. He reflects on his career, particularly the 1983 season when the Seahawks won an upset victory over the favored Miami Dolphins. He tells the Academy's student delegates that private victories always precede public ones, and relates his own commitment to ethical conduct to his Christian faith. In 1994, Steve Largent was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, representing the State of Oklahoma. In 2002, he won the Republican Party's nomination for Governor of the State; lost the three-way general election contest by fewer than 7,000 votes. He is now President and CEO of CTIA, the international association of wireless communications services.

Louis Leo "Lou" Holtz is a retired football coach, and active sportscaster, author, and motivational speaker in the United States. He served as the head football coach at The College of William & Mary (1969–1971), North Carolina State University (1972–1975), the University of Arkansas (1977–1983), the University of Minnesota (1984–1985), the University of Notre Dame (1986–1996), and the University of South Carolina (1999–2004), compiling a career record of 249–132–7. Holtz's 1988 Notre Dame team went 12–0 with a victory in the Fiesta Bowl and was the consensus national champion. Holtz is the only college football coach to lead six different programs to bowl games and the only coach to guide four different programs to the final top 20 rankings. Holtz also coached the New York Jets of the NFL during the 1976 season.

Over the years, the slender, bespectacled Holtz has become known for his quick wit and ability to inspire players. He is often found as a guest on the popular Richmond, Virginia based Kain Road Radio. In 2005, Holtz joined ESPN as a college football analyst. On May 1, 2008, Holtz was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame.

He spoke to students at the 1990 Academy of Achievement Summit in Chicago.

Bob Feller was born and raised in Van Meter, Iowa. His father ran the family farm, and his mother was a registered nurse and a teacher. Feller credited his arm strength and ball speed to milking cows, picking corn, and baling hay. He recalled his childhood fondly: "What kid wouldn't enjoy the life I led in Iowa? Baseball and farming, and I had the best of both worlds." The family's farm is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Feller's father built a baseball diamond on the farm that he named "Oak View Park", then recruited his son and others to play for a team he named The Oakviews.

Feller joined the Cleveland Indians without having played in the minors. He spent his entire career of 18 years with the Indians, being one of "The Big Four" Indians pitching rotation in the 1950s, along with Bob Lemon, Early Wynn and Mike Garcia. He ended his career with 266 victories and 2,581 strikeouts and led the American League in strikeouts seven times and bases on balls four times. His fastball was nicknamed "the Van Meter Heater." He pitched three no-hit games and shares the major league record with 12 one-hitters. Feller was the first pitcher to win 20 or more games before the age of 21. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962, his first year of eligibility. When he was 17 years of age, he struck out 17 batters; he and Kerry Wood are the only two players ever to strike out their age.

When Feller retired in 1956, he held the major league record for most walks in a career (1,764), and for most hit batsmen. He still holds the 20th century record for most walks in a season (208 in 1938).

He spoke to students at the 1990 Academy of Achievement Summit in Chicago.