You Got Game - Football or Basketball in College Quiz

Answer: Guard, Saint Mary's Gaels basketball

Mahershala Ali was born Mahershalalhashbaz Gilmore in February 1974 in Oakland. Raised by his mother, an ordained Baptist minister, in the town of Hayward, in 1992 he entered St Mary's College of California on a basketball scholarship, majoring in Mass Communication. During his time at St Mary's, he went by the name Hershal, a diminutive of his given name. Over his four years, he played a total of 96 games, averaging 3.6 points per game, with his most productive year being his senior season, when he scored 189 points from 27 games.

Having graduated in 1996 with a degree in Mass Communication, he by then had become disenchanted by the prospect of a career in basketball, instead developing an interest in acting. After college, he gained an apprenticeship at the California Shakespeare Theater, before enrolling in the graduate acting program at the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU. He graduated with a master's degree in 2000, the same year he converted to Islam, taking the name Mahershalalhashbaz Ali.

Answer: Guard, Wake Forest Demon Deacons basketball

Marc Blucas was born in January 1972 in Butler, Pennsylvania, to parents who both qualified as teachers. Growing up in the town of Giraud, Blucas became a skilled sportsman, eventually leading his high school basketball team to the Pennsylvania AA Boys Championship, and earning All-State honors in the process. He earned a scholarship to Wake Forest University in North Carolina, where he became one of the basketball team's star players. During his four years, he played a total of 89 games, averaging 4.3 points per game, and helped get the team into the 1992-93 NCAA regional tournament.

Blucas graduated in 1994 with a degree in business. Having failed to be selected for the NBA, he moved to England where he played professionally for a year for the Manchester Giants. Having initially thought about the law as a career, he instead elected to try acting, and won his first professional role in a 1995 TV movie, "Inflammable". His breakthrough came when he was cast in the recurring role of Riley Finn in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" in 1999.

Answer: Free Safety, Princeton Tigers football

Dean Cain was born in July 1966 in Mount Clemens, Michigan. However, soon after his birth, his mother moved with both of her children to Los Angeles. He attended Santa Monica High School, where he excelled as a sportsman, playing both football and baseball. After high school, he was actively sought by a number of football programmes on the West Coast, but instead elected to attend Princeton. Although barred from playing as a freshman, once he became eligible he became a fixture for the Tigers' football team, setting a new Princeton record for interceptions in the 1987 season, with 12 from just 10 games, and finishing his college career with 22 interceptions.

Having graduated with a history degree, Cain, who was not selected in the NFL draft, signed for the Buffalo Bills as a free agent. However, during the team's summer training camp, he suffered a knee injury that was severe enough to end the prospect of a professional football career. He instead turned to first writing and then acting in commercials, gaining roles in a number of TV shows before his breakthrough, when he was cast as Superman in the series "Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman" in 1993.

Answer: Quarterback, UCLA Bruins football

Mark Harmon was born in Burbank, California in September 1951, the son of Heisman Trophy winning football player Tom Harmon and his wife, the actress Elyse Knox. A skilled quarterback in high school, following his graduation he spent two years at a community college in Los Angeles, where he completed a two-year associate degree, before he elected to enter UCLA to major in Communication. During his two years at UCLA, he became the starting quarterback for the Bruins football team, eventually leaving with a 17-5 winning record. In his first game, he led the Bruins to a major upset by defeating the Nebraska Cornhuskers, then reigning national champions.

After graduating, Harmon initially thought about law or advertising as a career, starting out as a merchandising director, before electing to switch to acting. He worked as a character actor throughout the 1970s, with many parts in different TV shows before his first break in the prime-time soap "Flamingo Road". Following the cancellation of "Flamingo Road", his breakthrough came in 1983, when he was cast as Dr Robert Caldwell in "St Elsewhere".

Answer: Defensive Tackle, Miami Hurricanes football

Dwayne Johnson was born in May 1972 in Hayward, California. Growing up, he attended a number of schools, including briefly in New Zealand, where he lived with his mother's family, eventually ending up at Freedom High School in Bethlehem Township, Pennsylvania. Having briefly been drawn into petty crime, he was recruited by the school's football coach at the age of 17. Despite only playing for the team for two years, the fact that the school was in an elite division led Johnson to be actively recruited by several top-level college football programmes. He eventually went to the University of Miami on a full football scholarship, playing as a defensive tackle. However, despite being considered one of the top defensive prospects in the country, he found several players ahead of him on the Hurricanes' roster - of his 39 games, he started just once, although he was part of the squad that won the 1991 National Championship.

Johnson graduated in 1995 with a General Studies degree, a double major in criminology and physiology. Having not been picked up by any NFL sides, he was signed by the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League to their practice squad, but was cut two months into the 1995 CFL season. Having been cut, he instead went into professional wrestling, following in the footsteps of his father. Initially turning out on the United States Wrestling Association circuit as Flex Kavana, in 1996 he signed a contract with the World Wrestling Federation, adopting the name Rocky Maivia.

Answer: Offensive Guard, Harvard Crimson football

Tommy Lee Jones was born in San Saba, Texas in September 1946. However, from an early age he lived in the town of Midland, where he attended Robert E. Lee High School, before then moving to Dallas, completing his high school education at St Mark's School of Texas, where he played as an Offensive Guard on the school's football team. His academic prowess allowed him entry into Harvard University, majoring in English. In addition he played Offensive Guard in the college's football team, remaining an integral part from 1965 to 1968. In his senior year, he was part of the Harvard Crimson's unbeaten season, including as part of the famous comeback in the game against Yale, that saw Harvard score 16 points in the final 42 seconds to gain a 29-29 tie.

After graduation, Jones went to New York to become an actor, making his Broadway debut in 1969 in the John Osborne play "A Patriot for Me". The following year, he made his first film appearance in "Love Story", playing a Harvard student called Hank Simpson. In later years, Erich Segal, who wrote the original novel and the screenplay of "Love Story", said that he based the male lead character on aspects of two of his roommates from his sabbatical at Harvard, Jones and Al Gore.

Answer: Halfback, Florida State Seminoles football

Burt Reynolds was born in Lansing, Michigan in February 1936. As his father was in the US Army for a period, Reynolds and his family regularly moved, living in Missouri and Michigan before eventually settling in Florida, where he attended Palm Beach High School. Playing as a fullback in the football team, he was named both All-State and All-Southern, and received a number of scholarship offers. He eventually chose Florida State, where he played as a halfback. Following an exceptional freshman year, he suffered a pair of knee injuries in his sophomore season, which saw him have to drop out of Florida State for two years. He kept up with his academic studies at Palm Beach Junior College in 1956, before returning to football with the Seminoles for the 1957 season. However, he gave the game up following a defeat that he was blamed for in October of that year.

During his time at junior college, Reynolds took an English class, the tutor of which cast him as the lead in a production of the play "Outward Bound". This led to his winning the Florida State Drama Award in 1956, which included a scholarship to the Hyde Park Playhouse, a summer stock theater in Hyde Park, New York. Having dropped out of college, he bean acting professionally, obtaining an agent and making his Broadway debut in "Look, We've Come Through", which subsequently went on tour. Two years after his professional debut, he enrolled in acting classes, which led to further stage roles, before his film debut in "Sayonara" in 1957.

Answer: Forward, USC Trojans basketball

Tom Selleck was born in January 1945 in Detroit. However, at the age of three, he moved with his family to Sherman Oaks, California. Having attended Ulysses S. Grant High School, where he played basketball, he enrolled at the neighbouring Los Angeles Valley College after graduation. In his junior year, he transferred to the University of Southern California, where he was recruited to play for the Trojans basketball team. In addition to playing basketball, he also got on to the Trojans' baseball team, where he played as a pitcher. His basketball career was brief, as he only played ten games for USC across the 65-66 and 66-67 seasons. During his senior year, having tried acting, he dropped out of his Business Administration degree and left the university without graduating.

In 1967, Selleck received a draft notice for call up to the armed forces for service in Vietnam. He elected to join the California National Guard, serving in the 160th Infantry Regiment. This meant he was able to continue forging a career in acting, which began with appearances in a number of commercials and bit parts in small movies, before achieving his breakthrough playing private investigator Lance White in two episodes of the TV series "The Rockford Files". It was after the end of "The Rockford Files" that Selleck was cast in the lead role of the hit TV show "Magnum, PI".

Answer: Forward, Denver Pioneers basketball

David Adkins was born in Benton Harbor, Michigan, in November 1956, the son of a Baptist minister. He attended Benton Harbor High School, where he was a star of the basketball team. Completing his high school education, he enrolled at the University of Denver, joining the Pioneers basketball team, of which he was a major member for three seasons, across which he played a total of 50 games, which included playing against future Hall of Famers Earvin 'Magic' Johnson and Larry Bird. However, he dropped out of college before graduation, instead electing to join the United States Air Force.

Adkins served in the Air Force as a boom operator on KC-135 Stratotanker aircraft. Initially, he sought to be recruited into the Air Force basketball team, but was unsuccessful. This led to his making a number of efforts to be thrown out of the service, including a number of times going Absent Without Leave. However, he also began to explore comedy as a career, and during his time with the 348th Air Refueling Wing, stationed near Wichita, Kansas, he would often spend evenings performing stand-up at comedy clubs in the city. This led to his winning the Air Force's talent contest in 1981. He was eventually given an honorable discharge from the Air Force in 1983 and, adopting the stage name Sinbad, got to the finals of "Star Search", from where he got a break being cast in the short-lived sitcom "The Redd Foxx Show" in 1986.

Answer: Defensive End, San Diego State Aztecs football

Carl Weathers was born in New Orleans in January 1948. Although the son of a day labourer, he showed promise on the football field as a boy and gained a scholarship to attend St Augustine, a private high school in the city, where he excelled as an all-around athlete, participating in football, wrestling, boxing and soccer among other sports. Having graduated from high school in 1966, he entered Long Beach City College, although he suffered a freak ankle injury before he was able to play as a freshman. As a result, it was 1967 before he was able to turn out for the football team. In his junior year, he transferred to San Diego State where, during his two years there, the football team went undefeated, winning the UPI Small College National Title in 1968, and the inaugural PCAA title, plus the Pasadena Bowl, in 1969.

Weathers left San Diego State just short of attaining his degree in Dramatic Arts to try for a career in professional football. Although he was not selected in the 1970 NFL Draft, he signed for the Oakland Raiders as a free agent, playing a total of eight games between 1970 and 1971. Having been released, he joined the CFL's BC Lions for two seasons, for whom he played 13 games. But, during the CFL off-seasons, he also attended Sn Francisco State University, where he gained a Drama degree in 1974. He had worked as an extra during his time in pro football, and, following his retirement, threw himself into the profession, with his first major roles coming in the films "Bucktown" and "Friday Foster", both in 1975. His breakthrough came when he was cast as heavyweight champion Apollo Creed in the 1976 film "Rocky".