Lindley Franklin Elliott Jr. is a former kicker for the Kansas City Chiefs and the Dallas Cowboys in the National Football League. He played college football for Texas Tech, where he only missed one extra point and made 40 out 62 field goal attempts, on his way to becoming the school’s all-time leading scorer at the time. He earned a Super Bowl ring playing for the Cowboys in Super Bowl XXVII, beating Jim Kelly and the Buffalo Bills.

Morgan P. Ensberg was a 1998 All American and Team MVP for the 1998 National Champions baseball team at USC. Ensberg was drafted in the 9th round of the 1998 Major League Baseball Draft. He was named Team MVP for the World Series Astros team in 2005 and was named to the National League All-Star Team.

On July 31, 2007, the Astros traded Ensberg to the San Diego Padres. He became a free agent on December 12, 2007. On March 22, 2008 he was added to the New York Yankees roster. He was shorty designated and released and in June he signed a minor league contract with the Cleveland Indians, becoming a free agent at the end of the season. Ensberg was invited to spring training in 2009 with Tampa Bay but was released at the end of training.

Ensberg is the only MLB player in history to have won championship rings in College (USC ’98), Rookie league (Auburn ’98), Single A (Kissimmee ’99), AA (Round Rock ’00), AAA (New Orleans ’01) to have played in a World Series (2005, Houston Astros).

Beginning in the 2013 season, Ensberg rejoined the Houston Astros as a developmental specialist at Class A Lancaster. In 2014, he was named the Astros’ Minor League special assignment coach.

Cameron Erving is an American football center for the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Florida State. As a junior in 2013, Erving was a first-team All-Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) selection. He was also named a second-team All-American by the Associated Press.

William Earl Essick, nicknamed “Vinegar Bill,” was a professional baseball pitcher in the Major Leagues. A native of Illinois, he attended Knox College and Lombard College.

According to author Jim Sandoval’s 2011 book Can He Play? A Look at Baseball’s Scouts and Their Profession, Essick was credited with discovering or signing a number of Yankee future stars, including Joe DiMaggio, Lefty Gomez, Joe Gordon and Ralph Houk.

As a pitcher, Essick had a remarkable 1905 season in the Pacific Coast League for the Portland Beavers, throwing an astronomical 466.1 innings and ending up with a record of 23-30. He was 19-6 the following season before being called up to the major leagues by Cincinnati and making his Major League Baseball debut on September 12, 1906. Essick pitched for the Cincinnati Reds during the seasons of 1906 and 1907. He then became a longtime minor-league manager and team executive before joining the New York Yankees in 1935 as a scout.

Charles E. “Chick” Evans, Jr. was an American amateur golfer of the 1910s and 1920s. Evans, who won the 1910 Western Open, became the first amateur to win both the U.S. Open and U.S. Amateur in one year, a feat he achieved in 1916. Evans won the U.S. Amateur again in 1920, and he was runner-up three times. Selected to the Walker Cup team in 1922, 1924, and 1928, he competed in a record 50 consecutive U.S. Amateurs in his long career.

In addition to his golf career, Evans is known for founding the Evans Scholars Foundation, which provides a college scholarship for qualified caddies.

In 1960, Evans was voted the Bob Jones Award, the highest honor given by the United States Golf Association in recognition of distinguished sportsmanship in golf. He is a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame. Evans achieved all of this while carrying only seven hickory-shafted clubs.

Evans was an American football halfback. He was an All-American in football and a two time All-American in basketball at the University of Kansas and is considered possibly the greatest overall athlete to ever attend KU. In addition to his multi-sport prowess in college, Evans would go on to play professional football and basketball. He was even offered a contract to play baseball for the New York Yankees.

Weeb Ewbank started his National Football League head coaching career with the 1954 Baltimore Colts. He stayed in command for the next 20 years, the first nine in Baltimore and the final 11 with the New York Jets. In so doing, he made an impact on pro football that has done much to insure its emergence as America’s most popular spectator sport.

He is the only coach to lead teams from both the National and American Football Leagues to world championships. His Colts won NFL crowns in both 1958 and 1959 and the 1968 Jets followed up their AFL championship with victory in Super Bowl III. Of even more importance than the mere fact of victory itself is the effect that these Ewbank championships had on the growth of pro football.

Millions of fans watched on national television for the first time as the Colts defeated the New York Giants, 23-17, in overtime in 1958. Many still call this game “the greatest ever played” and there is no doubt the highly competitive nature of the contest did much to increase fan enthusiasm and anticipation in the years ahead.

A decade later, Weeb’s old team, the Colts, was heavily favored to make it three straight Super Bowl victories for the supposedly superior NFL over the overmatched AFL. But spurred along by Weeb’s careful prodding the Jets pulled one of the most stunning upsets in history. The competitive validity of the Super Bowl was never again in doubt.

Tom Farrey is a pioneering journalist and founder of the Aspen Institute’s Sports & Society Program, which he created in 2011 with the mission to convene leaders, facilitate dialogue, and inspire solutions that help sport serve the public interest.

As a journalist, his work has been recognized for its excellence and innovation. In 1996, he joined the internet startup Starwave as deputy editor, helping develop the website that later became ESPN.com. In 1998, he became the first ESPN reporter to produce cross-platform enterprise reports. His ESPN stories over twenty-one years helped build the reputation of the television show Outside the Lines, winning many national honors, including two Emmys, a 2013 Edward R. Murrow Award, and a 2014 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award — ESPN’s first. His reports also appeared on SportsCenter, E:60, ABC’s World News Tonight, Good Morning America, and This Week with George Stephanopolous. Since leaving ESPN in 2017, he has contributed to the New York Times and hosted an Olympics podcast for Vox/NBC Sports.

As a writer and convener of leaders, Tom has advanced dialogue on the role of sports in our society, exploring the intersections with education, globalization, technology, race, and economics. He is best known for his work on college and youth sports, with The Nation writing in 2017 that Tom “has done more than any reporter in the country to educate all of us about the professionalization of youth sports.” His 2008 book Game On: The All-American Race to Make Champions of Our Children, an investigation into how well children are being served through sports, has been used as a text on many university campuses. Game On was hailed by former New York Times columnist Robert Lipsyte as the “Silent Spring of sports: the book that launches a movement to protect a natural resource. In this case, our children.”

In 2013, after three years of planning, Tom created Project Play, a multi-stage initiative of the Sports & Society Program that helps stakeholders build healthy communities through sports. Since then, hundreds of organizations from across the eight sectors that touch the lives of children have used Project Play’s framework to introduce programs, strategies, partnerships, tools, and grant-making, while advancing the national conversation around youth sports. Inspired by Project Play, other countries, including Mexico and Romania, have launched related initiatives.

Daniel Forsman is an American professional golfer who played on the PGA Tour. Daniel has five wins from the PGA Tour before transitioning over to the Champions Tour, where he currently has three wins.

Fortune played for Stanford from 1985 to 1989. He was named to the All-America first team in 1987 and 1989 and helped Stanford advance to the NCAA Final Four in 1989.

Fortune joined the U.S. national team in 1986. He was a member of the gold medal winning team at the 1988 Summer Olympics. In 1991, he was named the USOC Male Volleyball Athlete of the Year. He won the best passer and best digger awards at that year’s World League. At the 1992 Summer Olympics, Fortune was named best digger and helped the U.S. win the bronze medal. He also played in the 1996 Summer Olympics.