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George Herman Ruth, Jr. (February 6, 1895 – August 16, 1948), also popularly known as
"Babe", "The Great Bambino", and "The Sultan of Swat", and "The King Of Crash", was an American Major League baseball player from 1914–1935. Ruth is one of the greatest sports heroes of American culture. He has been named the greatest baseball player in history in various surveys and rankings, and his home run hitting prowess and charismatic personality made him a larger than life figure in the "Roaring Twenties". He was the first player to hit 60 home runs in one season (1927). Unlike
many power hitters, Ruth also hit for average: his .342 lifetime batting is tenth highest in baseball history, and in one
season (1923) he hit .393, a Yankee record. His .690 career slugging percentage and 1.164 career on-base plus slugging (OPS) remain the major league records.
Ruth dominated in the era in which he played. He led the league in home runs during a season 12 times,
slugging percentage 13 times, OPS 13 times, runs scored eight times, and runs batted in (RBIs) six times. Each of those totals represents a modern record (and also an all-time record, except
for RBIs). At the time of his retirement, his 714 home runs were not only the record, but that total was 336 more than the
next player, Lou Gehrig. He also finished with the most career walks (2,062), most career extra base hits (1,356) and he is still
the only player to have a season with at least 200 hits and 150 walks. In 1936, Ruth became one of the first five players elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. In 1969, he was named baseball's Greatest Player Ever in a ballot commemorating the100th anniversary of professional
baseball. In 1998, The porting News ranked Ruth Number 1 on the list of "Baseball's 100 Greatest Players." In 1999, baseball fans named Ruth to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team.
James Joseph "Gene" Tunney was the world heavyweight boxing champion from 1926-1928. Tunney's successful title defense against Jack Dempsey
is one of the most famous bouts in boxing history and is known as The Long Count Fight. Tunney retired as an undefeated heavyweight after his victory over Tom Heeney in 1928. The title remained open until 1930.
Maximillian Adolph Otto Siegfried Schmeling was a German boxer who was heavyweight champion of the world between 1930 and 1932. His two fights with Joe Louis in the late 1930s transcended boxing and became worldwide social events because of their national associations.
the Nazi regime in Germany, he cooperated with the government's efforts to play down the increasingly negative international world
view of its domestic policies during the 1930s. However, it became known long after the Second World War that Schmeling had risked his own life to save the lives of two Jewish children in 1938.
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