Steve Kerr (born September 27, 1965) is an American retired professional basketball player and the current head coach of the Golden State Warriors. Kerr is a six-time NBA champion, winning three with the Chicago Bulls and two with the San Antonio Spurs as a player, and one with the Warriors as a head coach. Kerr has the highest career three-point percentage (45.4%) for any player with at least 2,000 shot attempts in NBA history. On May 14, 2014, the Golden State Warriors named Kerr the team’s head coach. The Warriors went on to win the 2015 NBA Finals, making Kerr the first rookie coach to win a championship since 1982. On April 13, 2016, the Warriors broke the record for the most wins in an NBA season.
Ken Griffey Jr. (born November 21, 1969) nicknamed “Junior” and “The Kid,” is an American former professional baseball outfielder who played 22 years in Major League Baseball (MLB). He spent most of his career with the Seattle Mariners and Cincinnati Reds, along with a short stint with the Chicago White Sox. A 13-time All-Star, Griffey is one of the most prolific home-run hitters in baseball history; his 630 home runs rank as the sixth-most in MLB history. Griffey was also an exceptional defender and won 10 Gold Glove Awards in center field. In 2016, Griffey was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, receiving a record 99.32% of the vote, breaking pitcher Tom Seaver‘s record of 98.84%. He is the son of former MLB player Ken Griffey Sr.
Bobby Fischer (March 9, 1943 – January 17, 2008) was an American chess grandmaster, the 11th World Chess Champion. Many consider him the greatest chess player of all time. At age 20, Fischer won the 1963-64 U.S. Championship with 11/11, the only perfect score in the history of the tournament. Fischer’s book My 60 Memorable Games (1969) remains one of the most acclaimed works in chess literature. In 1972, he captured the World Chess Championship from Boris Spassky of the USSR in a match held in Reykjavík, Iceland; it was publicized as a Cold War confrontation and attracted more worldwide interest than any chess championship before or since. After losing his title as World Chess Champion in 1975, Fischer became reclusive and sometimes erratic, disappearing from both competitive chess and the public eye. After 1992, he lived his life as an émigré.
Jane Addams was a pioneering American social worker, public philosopher, sociologist, author, and leader in women’s suffrage and world peace. In an era when presidents such as Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson identified themselves as reformers and social activists, Addams was one of the most prominent reformers of the Progressive Era. She campaigned for better social conditions and led investigations into child welfare, local public health and education. She introduced the idea of the settlement house to the United States, co-founding Hull House in 1889. In 1920, she co-founded the ACLU. In 1931, she became the first American woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and is recognized as the founder of the social work profession in the U.S. Addams was born on September 6, 1860 and died on May 21, 1935.
Ida Bell Wells-Barnett, more commonly known as Ida B. Wells, was an African-American journalist, newspaper editor, suffragist, sociologist, Georgist and an early leader in the Civil Rights Movement. She documented lynching in the United States, showing that it was often used as a way to control or punish blacks who competed with whites, rather than being based on criminal acts by blacks, as was usually claimed by white mobs. She was active in women’s rights and the women’s suffrage movement, establishing several notable women’s organizations. Wells was a skilled and persuasive rhetorician and traveled internationally on lecture tours. She was born on July 16, 1862 and died on March 25, 1931.
Since Ida B. Wells is a hero of Canadian cartoonist Kate Beaton, there’s an excellent series of Hark! A Vagrant comics about Wells. Also, the Ida B. Wells Commemorative Art Committee is working to develop a monument in Chicago to honor the life and times of Ida B. Wells. Lastly, in unrelated news, with this week’s flyby of Pluto by NASA’s New Horizons space probe, all I can think of is “Bring Back Pluto.”
Anthony Davis, Jr., nicknamed “The Brow” for his trademark unibrow, is an American professional basketball power forward/center for the NBA’s New Orleans Pelicans. In his one season of college basketball at the University of Kentucky, Davis was the consensus national player of the year. He was selected first overall in the 2012 NBA Draft by New Orleans, and is a two-time NBA All-Star. Davis won a gold medal on the U.S. national team at the 2012 Summer Olympics. He was born in Chicago on March 11, 1993.
Gale Sayers is a retired National Football League (NFL) player who played as a running back for seven seasons (1965-1971) with the Chicago Bears. Known as “The Kansas Comet,” Sayers is a member of both the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the College Football Hall of Fame. His friendship with fellow Chicago Bear Brian Piccolo (who was diagnosed with testicular cancer) was the basis for the 1971 movie Brian’s Song. He is a successful entrepreneur in the information technology field and an active philanthropist. Sayers was born on this day in 1943.
Derrick Rose is an American professional basketball point guard for the NBA’s Chicago Bulls. Born in Chicago and drafted first overall by his hometown Bulls, Rose was voted NBA Rookie of the Year in 2009. In 2011, he received the NBA Most Valuable Player Award, becoming the youngest player to win this award (age 22). He joined Michael Jordan as the only Chicago Bulls players to win the honor. Rose is a three-time NBA All-Star (2010-2012) and has led the Bulls to the NBA Playoffs each year. In May 2012, Rose tore the ACL in his left knee, causing him to miss the entire 2012-13 season. He was born on this day in 1988.
Goose Gossage is a retired Major League Baseball (MLB) right-handed relief pitcher. During a 22-year baseball career (1972-1994), he pitched for nine different teams, spending his best years with the New York Yankees and San Diego Padres. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, he was one of the earliest manifestations of the dominating modern closer, with wild facial hair and a gruff demeanor to go along with his blistering fastball. From 1977 through 1983 he never recorded an earned run average over 2.62, including a mark of 0.77 in 1981. Respected for his impact in crucial games, he recorded the final out to clinch a division, league or World Series title seven times. He won the 1978 World Series with the Yankees.
Note: This 8-bit version of Gossage shows him wearing a 1976 Chicago White Sox uniform, which briefly featured shorts instead of pants, until they realized what a stupid idea that was. Also, pardon the anachronism, but I had to give Gossage his signature handlebar mustache even though the 1976 season predates it. This is character #8 in my ugly uniform series.
Benny the Bull is the mascot of the Chicago Bulls, a role he has filled since 1969. He has become just as popular as some of the franchise’s most notable figures, such as players Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman and head coach Phil Jackson. Benny is one of the longest-tenured mascots in the NBA and in all of professional sports.
Dennis Rodman is a former NBA player, most famously with the Detroit Pistons and Chicago Bulls. Nicknamed “The Worm,” he was known for his fierce defensive and rebounding abilities. He led the NBA in rebounds per game for a record seven consecutive years (1991-98) and won five NBA championships (1989-1990, 1996-1998). In 1993, Rodman reinvented himself as a “bad boy” and became notorious for his brightly colored hair, piercings, tattoos and controversial, disruptive antics. He famously wore a wedding dress to promote his 1996 autobiography Bad As I Wanna Be and pursued a high-profile affair with singer Madonna. He was born on this day in 1961.
Note: On February 26, 2013, Rodman made a trip to North Korea to host basketball exhibitions featuring the Harlem Globetrotters. He met North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong-un and later called Kim “his friend” and suggested that President Barack Obama “should pick up the phone and call” Kim since the two leaders are basketball fans. On May 7, self-appointed North Korean ambassador Rodman called on Kim Jong-un to release Kenneth Bae, a U.S. citizen imprisoned in North Korea. Almost equally strangely, in March 2013, Rodman arrived at Vatican City during voting in the papal conclave, which elected Pope Francis I.
Thomas Edison was an American inventor and businessman. He helped develop many influential devices, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera and the electric light bulb. However, to quote the hilarious Nikola Tesla comic by The Oatmeal, “Edison did not invent the light bulb. Edison simply figured out how to sell the light bulb. Edison was not a geek; he was a CEO.” And he was a terrible human being. For example, as a developer of direct current (DC) electricity, Edison put live “dogs and cats on display and publicly electrocuted them using Tesla’s alternating current (AC). His goal was to publicly smear Tesla’s AC and convince the public that it was too dangerous for home use. The only thing Edison truly pioneered was douchebaggery.” Edison was born on this day in 1847.
I will also reiterate what I wrote for my 8-bit Nikola Tesla character last year. I love this Funny or Die episode about Tesla and the evil Thomas Edison: “This is awful. I am inventing electricity and you look like an asshole.”
Scottie Pippen is a retired American professional basketball player who played 17 seasons in the NBA. He is most remembered for his 12 seasons with the Chicago Bulls, with whom he was instrumental in six NBA titles and their record 1995-96 season of 72 wins. Pippen, along with Michael Jordan, played an important role in transforming the Bulls team into a vehicle for popularizing the NBA around the world during the 1990s. Pippen is also the only person to have won an NBA title and Olympic gold medal in the same year twice (1992, 1996).
Neko Case is an American singer-songwriter and musician, best known for her solo career and her contributions as a member of the Canadian indie rock group The New Pornographers. Case recorded and toured for several years as Neko Case & Her Boyfriends before performing solely under her name. I particularly enjoy her Fox Confessor Brings the Flood album. Also, she is hilarious on Twitter.
Note: This 8-bit black dress is what she wore for the epic cover of her 2009 album Middle Cyclone, in which she stood barefoot, with a sword, on the hood of her burgundy 1967 Mercury Cougar. In 2011, Case auctioned the car to support 826 National, a nonprofit organization helping children become better writers.
Bobby Orr is a Canadian former National Hockey League (NHL) player. He played his 12-season career (1966-1978) for the Boston Bruins and the Chicago Black Hawks. A defenseman, Orr used his skating speed and scoring abilities to revolutionize the position. Orr remains the only defenseman to have won the league scoring title. He was named the NHL’s best defenseman eight consecutive times and MVP three consecutive times. With Orr, the Bruins won the Stanley Cup twice, in 1970 and 1972. He is one of the greatest hockey players of all time.
Shel Silverstein was an American cartoonist, musician and, most famously, author of children’s books. He styled himself as Uncle Shelby in his children’s books. Most popular are The Giving Tree (1964) and Where the Sidewalk Ends (1974)—both childhood favorites of mine. Translated into more than 30 languages, Silverstein’s books have sold over 20 million copies. He was born on this day in 1930.
Walter Payton was a National Football League (NFL) player known as “Sweetness.” He played running back for the Chicago Bears for 13 seasons. Payton won two MVP awards as well as Super Bowl XX (1985). He once held the league’s record for most career rushing yards, touchdowns, carries, yards from scrimmage, all-purpose yards and many other categories. He died in 1999 at age 45 from a rare liver disease.
Ray Bradbury was one of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers. He is best known for his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 (1953) and his science fiction short story collections The Martian Chronicles (1950) and The Illustrated Man (1951). Many of Bradbury’s works have been adapted into television shows or films. He was born on this day in 1920 and died on June 5, 2012.
Philip K. Dick was one of the most influential science fiction writers of the 20th century. His 44 published novels and 121 short stories often featured monopolistic corporations, authoritarian governments, altered states, paranoia and transcendental experiences. Although Dick spent most of his career in near-poverty, 10 popular films based on his works have been produced, including Blade Runner, Total Recall, A Scanner Darkly and Minority Report.
P.S. In February and March 1974, Dick experienced a series of life-changing visions, including an information-rich “pink light” beam that transmitted directly into his consciousness. For the final eight years of his life, this fictionalizing philosopher explored the meaning of his “2-3-74” experience with works like VALIS (1981).
Ernest Hemingway was an American author and journalist. His minimalist style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the mid-1950s. In 1954, he won the Nobel Prize in Literature following the publication of The Old Man and the Sea. He was born on July 21, 1899 and committed suicide in 1961.
Ida B. Wells – No. 890
Ida Bell Wells-Barnett, more commonly known as Ida B. Wells, was an African-American journalist, newspaper editor, suffragist, sociologist, Georgist and an early leader in the Civil Rights Movement. She documented lynching in the United States, showing that it was often used as a way to control or punish blacks who competed with whites, rather than being based on criminal acts by blacks, as was usually claimed by white mobs. She was active in women’s rights and the women’s suffrage movement, establishing several notable women’s organizations. Wells was a skilled and persuasive rhetorician and traveled internationally on lecture tours. She was born on July 16, 1862 and died on March 25, 1931.
Since Ida B. Wells is a hero of Canadian cartoonist Kate Beaton, there’s an excellent series of Hark! A Vagrant comics about Wells. Also, the Ida B. Wells Commemorative Art Committee is working to develop a monument in Chicago to honor the life and times of Ida B. Wells. Lastly, in unrelated news, with this week’s flyby of Pluto by NASA’s New Horizons space probe, all I can think of is “Bring Back Pluto.”