"Ballot" Box Scores Trivia Quiz

Answer: Bill Bradley

Bill "Dollar Bill" Bradley (the nickname came about because he supposedly held onto the first dollar he ever earned, plus the giant size of his NBA contract) was a phenomenal standout at Princeton University, leading the Tigers to Ivy League titles in each of his three varsity seasons.

After captaining the 1964 US Olympic basketball team, he studied abroad as a Rhodes Scholar before joining the Knicks. His Knicks teams won the NBA title in 1970 and 1973. Bradley was selected for the Basketball Hall of Fame after his 1977 retirement. Elected to the Senate from New Jersey in 1978, he served three terms before retiring.

He was an expert on tax matters and one of the architects of the 1986 tax simplification law. He ran for President in 2000, losing in the primaries.

Answer: Steve Largent

Steve Largent was drafted from University of Tulsa in 1976 by the Houston Oilers, made little impression, and was traded in the preseason to the new Seattle Seahawks franchise. After 14 NFL seasons, all with Seattle, he held all the most coveted career receiving records, including most receptions, most yards, most TDs, and the longest streak of consecutive games catching a pass.

He was elected to Congress in 1994, resigning during his fourth term to run for governor of Oklahoma in 2002. Several unusual circumstances led to his losing the race in an upset.

Answer: Judo

Campbell, a Cheyenne Indian, served in the US House of Representatives from 1987 to 1993, then two terms as a Senator, switching from the Democratic to the Republican party in 1995. He perfected his judo skills while a college student in San Jose and was a US champion. Campbell won a gold medal in judo at the 1963 Pan American Games.

A knee injury eliminated him from medal rounds at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, but his teammates selected him for the honor of carrying the US flag at the closing ceremonies of the Games.

Answer: Pumping Iron

"Pumping Iron" was a film adaptation of a book about body building, and featured Schwarzenegger. Many people think of that as his first film, although he had appeared in small roles in several earlier movies. "Iron" first brought him wide exposure outside the world of body building.

His 1982 role in "Conan the Barbarian" elevated him to an even bigger star as an actor than he'd been as a body builder. Schwarzenegger parlayed that success into dabbling in politics, first appearing in an antidrug film for the Ronald Reagan administration, then campaigning for George H.W. Bush in 1988. Bush named him to the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. Schwarzenegger rode a wave of dissatisfaction with California governor Gray Davis into a 2003 election that recalled Davis and completed the body builder turned actor's transistion into an actor turned political leader.

Answer: He won two Olympic gold medals

The only jewel missing from Ryun's large running crown was his failure to win an Olympic gold medal. Ryun competed in three Olympics. In 1964, he was a teenager still in high school, too young to dominate the best runners in the world. He was at the peak of his career and abilities four years later in Mexico City, but the rarified air in the elevated city put him at a disadvantage to Kenyan runners used to such conditions, and he came in a distant second to Kip Keino in the 1500 meters, his best event.

In 1972, a freak entanglement with another runner in an early heat caused him to trip and fall, eliminating him from advancement. During the 1960s, he set world records for indoor and outdoor distances ranging from 800 meters to one mile, and his 3:51.1 record in the mile remained unbroken from 1967 to 1976. Ryun's 3:55.3 mile in 1965 was the US high school record until broken by Alan Webb in 2001.

He served five terms in Congress representing Kansas, before being defeated for reelection in 2006.

Answer: Byron "Whizzer" White

White led the NFL in rushing during the 1938 and 1940 seasons, taking 1939 off to study as a Rhodes scholar, and then leaving football to join the Navy in World War II. He was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame. During the Kennedy administration, he was Robert Kennedy's chief aide in the Attorney General's office, before being nominated to the Supreme Court in 1962. White's opinions became increasingly more conservative during his 22 years on the Court.

He was one of two dissenters in the landmark Roe v. Wade case legalizing abortion, and wrote the controversial 1986 Bowers v. Hardwick decision.

Answer: He won two World Series games

Jim Bunning's Tigers, Phillies, and Dodgers teams never made it to the World Series, but his 224-184 record and 3.27 ERA were just two of many highlights from his career. Bunning's two no-hitters, one for the Detroit Tigers and one for the Philadelphia Phillies, made him the first pitcher since Cy Young to throw a no-hitter in both the National and American Leagues.

The Phillie no-hitter was a perfect game, making him only the fifth pitcher to accomplish that feat in the 20th century, and the first National League pitcher in 84 years to throw a perfect game.

In a 1959 game, he managed to strike out a side in only nine pitches, only the tenth pitcher in baseball history to have done so. Bunning was elected to Congress in 1986, and to the US Senate in 1998.

Answer: Alan Page

Part of Minnesota's famed Purple People Eaters defense, in 1971, Alan Page became the first defensive player to be picked as league MVP. He earned his law degree while still playing in the NFL, retired after the 1981 season, and was elected to the Hall of Fame.

After a brief career in private legal practice, he took positions of increasing responsibility in the Minnesota Attorney General's office before winning election to the state Supreme Court in 1992. His 2004 reelection to the court saw him piling up the most votes ever earned to that point by a candidate for Minnesota office.

Answer: First man to with the Olympic decathlon twice

In 1948, the same year he had first taken up the decathlon, Bob Mathias, made the United States Olympic team and won the gold medal in London. Just 17 at the time, when asked how he'd celebrate the win, he replied "Start shaving, I guess." He won the event again in Helsinki in 1952, making him the first athlete to win two Olympic decathlons (Britain's Daley Thompson later matched this feat in the 1980 and 1984 Olympics). Mathias served in Congress from 1967 to 1975, and passed away in 2006.

Answer: Jack Kemp

Jack Kemp earned a degree from Occidental College in Calfornia, not exactly a football powerhouse, and drifted among several NFL and Canadian teams after his 1957 graduation. He signed on as a free agent with the Los Angleles Chargers in the new AFL in 1960.

He led the Chargers (they moved to San Diego in his time there) to two divisional championships, was traded to the Buffalo Bills and won two AFL titles and a divisional title while there. Kemp was the only quarterback to be a starter for all ten years of the AFL's existence, and was picked to the league All Star team seven times.

He also co-founded the league's players' union and was elected its president five times. The year after his retirement from football, he was elected to Congress, representing the Buffalo area. Kemp served nine terms and was a key architect of the massive tax cuts signed into law in 1981 by President Reagan.

After a failed 1988 bid for the Presidency, he served as George H.W. Bush's Secretary of Housing and Urban Development from 1989 to 1993. Robert Dole selected Kemp as his Vice Presidential running mate in 1996, but the two lost to the incumbent team of Bill Clinton and Al Gore.