Important Figures in US Sport History

1. Widely regarded as "the greatest athlete of the 20th century", he was an Olympic runner, professional baseball, basketball, and football player, the first president of the NFL, and a champion ballroom dancer
5. The nickname given to Jim Jeffries the white boxer audiences hoped would reclaim the heavyweight title and restore the racial order
6. Team USA Hockey's victory at the 1980 Olympics that served as a symbolic Cold War victory over the USSR
8. Physical educator at the International YMCA Training School who invented basketball in 1891 to keep kids active indoors during winter
9. The organization behind the Black Power salute protest at the 1968 Olympics
11. The "father of American football" credited with innovating the line of scrimmage and downs system
12. A prominent Black nationalist and the first (openly) Black man to play major league professional baseball

1. The first Black world heavyweight boxing champion whose victory threatened the global perception of white supremacy
2. The Rockford Peaches are the most famous team from this organization that maintained the professional baseball industry during World War II
3. To distance baseball from its British origins and give it a uniquely American identity, The Mills Commission falsely claimed this Civil War veteran invented the game in Cooperstown, NY
4. Russian-American immigrant who adapted the rules of basketball to create a version 'appropriate' for women
7. In 1926 she became the first woman to successfully swim across the English channel. Her crossing time broke the existing men's record and stood until 1950 when it was broken by another woman.
10. Roughly translating to "bright path", this is the indigenous name of "the greatest athletes of the 20th century"