We all have our heroes in the sporting world, whether they’re football players from our favorite local teams or Olympic champions. We look up to them, and our children learn from them. We may even want to learn everything we can about our favorite sports idols, from their origins to their training methods to their favorite cereal.

Successful athletes are still only human, though, and can make the same terrible choices as any of us. A number of sports stars over the years have ruined their careers through their horrible decisions. Here are ten such fallen idols.

10 Ryan Lochte

Ryan Lochte, from Daytona Beach, Florida, grew up loving the water and eventually became known for his title as a 12-time Olympic medalist. His winnings include six gold medals, three silver medals, and three bronze medals, certainly qualifying him as an Olympic champion. On top of this, he holds the world record in the 200-meter individual medley as well as having been named both World and American swimmer of the year for the years 2010 and 2011. He holds a whopping total of 70 international competition medals, 45 of which are first place, and he has a huge social media following. So, what is it that made him make the horrible decision that almost ruined his career?

In 2016, Lochte was scheduled for the Rio Olympics, in which he would maintain his award-winning title and maybe even add a few more medals to the collection. This, however, ended when he was charged with making a false statement to police regarding him and a mate being held at gunpoint and robbed. Once caught out in his lie, he was summoned to court, where he revealed that he and his friends were not robbed and fabricated the story to cover the fact that they had been caught by security vandalizing a gas station bathroom. Lochte’s story had left Brazil embarrassed, and upon the revelation of the truth, famous sponsors Speedo and Ralph Lauren dropped him as a client. Lochte ended up avoiding all charges after his lawyer argued that he did not break any laws by exaggerating the details of the events of that night.^[1]

9 Lance Armstrong

Lance Armstrong was one of the world’s most favored cyclists, having overcome cancer and made a full comeback to the sport despite the doubt thrown at him from doctors and the public. He had his first victory on the Tour de France in 1999 and trained ever harder to gain more and more titles across the Olympics and the Tour. He focused most of his time on the Tour de France up until he retired for two years and returned for two more races in 2009 and 2010. In 2009, he managed to place third, and in 2010, he fell back into the pack before announcing a second retirement. In addition to struggling with illness throughout his career, he was constantly accused of using illicit drugs to enhance his performance. Were the rumors true?

Despite never testing positive, Lance Armstrong admitted on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2012 to doping throughout his cycling career. The world was shocked as the details of his scandal were finally revealed. As a result of this, he was stripped of all seven of his Tour de France wins and banned from cycling to set an example of what will happen to athletes using banned substances. While Armstrong believes that he should be forgiven, he also assured ABC in a 2015 interview that if he was put back in 1995, when “[doping] was pervasive,” he would do it again. He says that the lying and dishonesty is his biggest regret. Apparently, doping to drive his career was worth losing all his dignity over.^[2]

8 Tonya Harding

Born in Portland, Oregon, in 1970, Tonya Harding began ice-skating at the age of three. During her sophomore year, she dropped out of school in order to focus all her time on the sport to try and make a career out of it. In 1991, despite the critics along the way, she won her first national title and also became the first American woman to successfully land a triple axel in competition. From there, she continued winning medals, including silver at the World Championships, fourth in the French Winter Olympics in 1992, and eventually another gold at the 1994 US Championships. Her main rival was Nancy Kerrigan. Just how far would Harding go to get ahead of her competition?

During the buildup to the 1994 Winter Olympics, the competition got fierce between Harding and Kerrigan. It reached the point where the pressure got so heavy for Harding that she resorted to criminal acts in order to get ahead. In addition to the competition, Harding was constantly facing media attacks for being on from the “wrong side of the rink.” Articles stated that she didn’t have as much a chance as Kerrigan because she wasn’t as beautiful or graceful, further incensing her. Finally, Harding’s then-husband and her bodyguard devised a plan to break Kerrigan’s leg right before the qualifiers in order to destroy her Olympic chances. The attack was poorly planned, and the hired hit man ended up missing Kerrigan’s knee, dealing her only a bad bruise before making a dramatic exit.

Kerrigan went on to make the Olympic selection, and both she and Harding were thrown into a media circus speaking of conspiracies and hatred between the two. Harding’s husband spent time behind bars for the attack while Harding initially walked free but later pleaded guilty to hindering prosecution, landing her three years’ probation, 500 hours of community service, and a $100,000 fine. She was also banned from the sport for life.^[3]

7 Lamar Odom

Lamar Odom was born in Queens in 1979 and lost his mother at the age of 12, leaving him in his grandmother’s care. To cope with his grief, he threw himself into basketball and was named Player of the Year in his high school years by Parade magazine. He managed to start off his professional career with the Los Angeles Clippers, who were renowned for their losing record, before being offered a better contract with the Miami Heat. Here, he trained with the likes of superstar Dwayne Wade and hugely improved his game. After that season, he was invited to represent the United States in the Olympics, where he worked with the team to win bronze, which he personally stated was the greatest honor of his entire career. Following this, he ended up contracted to the LA Lakers, where he would play the next seven NBA seasons. This would be the height of his career.

Although his life was seemingly perfect, Odom was struggling with drug abuse, which eventually led to the demise of his career. In the 2000–2001 season, he was suspended for violating the extremely strict NBA drug policy after receiving a charge for driving under the influence. He was ordered to attend three months of rehab for alcohol abuse. However, he began taking up drugs again after being traded off to a Dallas team in a deal he wasn’t happy with. In 2015, he was identified at a brothel after overdosing and passing out.^[4] Staff made a panicked emergency call, reporting that he had blood and a white substance coming from his mouth and nose after taking large amounts of what they thought was herbal Viagra. Following this near-fatal incident, he was forced back into rehab and no longer plays for any teams on the NBA.

6 Ray Rice

Ray Rice is an NFL legend who played as running back for the Baltimore Ravens for five seasons and one Super Bowl win. Unlike your average backfield player, Rice has a much shorter build, but he trained harder than any other to eventually become the best. His training to reach the NFL began in his freshman year of college, when he helped the Rutgers Scarlet Knights make their comeback after a 14-season losing streak. During his sophomore year, he broke a school record with 1,794 yards, which included a 225-yard push against Pitt. From there, he realized his dream by skipping his senior year and entering the NFL draft, where he was picked by the Ravens in the second round. So what could possibly have lead to Ray Rice’s demise after proving to be such a valuable player for the Ravens? What changed the words “plays for” into “once played for” at such a young age?

Despite needing his incredible skills as their running back, the Baltimore Ravens were left with no choice but to terminate Rice’s contract after footage was released showing Rice punching his fiancee in an elevator before dragging her body out into a hotel foyer. He was also suspended by the NFL commissioner for an indefinite time. While footage had previously been released showing Rice dragging his fiancee out of the elevator, no action had been taken, as there was not enough evidence to show that he had done anything wrong. Six months later, however, TMZ released the graphic video, which showed Rice knocking the woman unconscious. He was charged with felony aggravated assault but was able to avoid jail time and has since stated that the elevator incident was the biggest mistake of his life.^[5] It’s unknown if he will ever be able to return to the sport he loves so much.

5 Plaxico Burress

Plaxico Burress is another NFL legend who played as a wide receiver for the Pittsburgh Steelers, the New York Giants, and the New York Jets. His career began at Michigan State University, where he set a record for the most passes caught in a single season with a whopping 65 catches. He also came close to the records of most touchdown catches, receptions, and receiving yards and was ranked as the MVP of his team. In 2000, he was drafted into the Pittsburgh Steelers, but due to an injury, he only played 12 games in his first NFL season. Although he was a great player on the field, he gained a reputation of being a problem off the field, which meant that when he became a free agent in 2004, his options were limited, and the Steelers would not sign him again. He eventually ended up with a contract with the New York Giants, where he fought to repair his reputation by playing an amazing season. It was with the Giants that he helped secure a win at the 2008 Super Bowl against the New England Patriots. So where did he go wrong?

His second season with the Giants got off to a horrible start. He was suspended from a game for violating team rules. It wasn’t long after this that he made the mistake which would lead to his demise. At the end of 2008, Burress was admitted to a hospital after shooting himself in the leg at New York night club. He claimed that he was being lead upstairs with his friends by a security guard to get away from the crowd when he lost his footing, resulting in his gun being unhooked from his belt. In an attempt to catch it before it hit the floor, he accidentally pulled the trigger on his own leg. Surprisingly, it wasn’t the shot to the leg that ruined his career but rather the fact that he didn’t have a license to be carrying the gun. He ended up serving 20 months in jail for criminal possession of a firearm and paid a heavy fine.^[6]

After being released in 2011, he did attempt to make a comeback by signing with the New York Jets and then again with the Steelers, but it was too late. His career was already over.

4 Michael Vick

NFL quarterback Michael Vick drew attention from the NFL while he was playing for Virginia Tech in his sophomore year. He also drew the attention of the MLB, who attempted to draft him. However, he decided instead to skip his final years of college to play in the NFL. Upon this decision, he was quickly drafted as quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons. He signed onto a six-year contract, during which he would star as the team’s starting quarterback and lead them to victories, eventually landing him a ten-year contract extension. Everything seemed to be falling in place for Vick, as he was basically set for life with a career on an incredible team. So why did he throw it away?

Not long into his contract, it seemed that stardom had gotten to Vick’s head, and officials began to question whether he had the maturity levels to handle the amount of pressure that had been put on him at such a young age. The Falcons began to perform poorer and poorer, and although Vick was still putting up good numbers, he wasn’t supporting the team in the way he had when he was first signed. He bought a house in Georgia, which, in the long run, proved to be more of a playground for him and his friends than a place of living for a serious athlete.

In 2004, a truck owned by Vick was seized, and the two drivers were arrested after they were discovered to be transporting a large amount of marijuana. Vick, however, was never charged. A year later, he was sued for allegedly giving a woman a sexually transmitted disease, and then two years after that, things spiraled even more out of control. Authorities investigating a drug-related tip-off raided Vick’s property, which lead to the discovery of a dog fighting scene run by him and his friends.^[7] After authorities uncovered damning evidence linking Vick to the ring, he pleaded guilty and served 21 months in prison. He eventually returned to the NFL but is now retired.

3 Tiger Woods

Professional golfer Tiger Woods officially turned pro in 1996 and proved himself to be competitive and unrelenting while building his career. His achievements include 105 worldwide wins and 14 majors as well as a huge number of successful projects off the course. He is founder and CEO of TGR, an enterprise made of his companies and philanthropic projects. These include TGR Design, the TGR Foundation, TGR Live, and The Woods Jupiter. Among all his successes, he holds 79 PGA Tour wins, which is the second-highest for any one player in the world. In 2001, he became the first golfer ever to hold all major professional titles in one year, including the Masters Tournament, PGA Championship, US Open Championship, and the British Open Championship. Overall, he is ranked as one of the most outstanding players in his field of all time. So what happened?

“Scandal,” they called it. It all started in 2010 with Tiger’s wife chasing him out of the house wielding a golf club at him after learning that he had been unfaithful. She knew there was at least one other woman, perhaps maybe two, but this night would come to unveil the true ugly behind Tiger Woods. His then-wife, Elin Nordegren, went through his phone while it was unattended and called the girl he was having an affair with, leaving a voice mail. Upon realizing what had happened, Woods attempted to cover his tracks, but he was already too late. Nordegren continued to spy and found yet another affair her husband was having through his phone. She ambushed him while he was half-asleep with the golf club, resulting in him attempting a get away in his Escalade, only to crash.

After this incident made the news, there was an outpouring of truth from porn stars, strippers, escorts, and party girls, who all stepped forward to confess their affairs with Tiger Woods. After the confessions, there were 15 known mistresses, one of whom was underage. This was enough to ruin the reputation Woods had worked so hard to build up and temporarily pushed him into hiding. While it didn’t ruin his game, it did mar his sponsorship deals and his image in the public eye. Never again would his career be at the same level.^[8]

2 O.J. Simpson

O.J. Simpson, born in 1947, became a football superstar during his college years at the University of Southern California. Although he initially had trouble getting onto the team due to his poor grades, he eventually gained his fame playing for the USC Trojans, where he set NCAA records and won the Heisman Trophy in 1968. From here, he joined the Buffalo Bills, where he had a rocky start before excelling and becoming the first NFL player to successfully rush more than 2,000 yards in a single season. In 1979, he retired from professional football to pursue a career as a sportscaster and actor. Ironically, back in 1974, he played a man framed for murder by police in The Klansman. He also had a starring role in The Naked Gun series.

During his career, Simpson struggled with a poor marriage and divorce after losing his daughter when she drowned in the family swimming pool right before her second birthday. His second wife Nicole Brown, with whom he had two kids, also complained to friends about how he physically abused her. In 1989, the couple attended a New Year’s Eve party where Simpson was witnessed threatening to kill Brown. He, however, managed to brush off the incident in TV interview,s stating that it was just a fight and that both parties were in the wrong and spoke of how they had since moved on with their life together.

In 1994, however, the bodies of Brown and Ron Goldman, a close friend of hers, were discovered stabbed to death outside their Los Angeles home. It wasn’t long until police were on the hunt for Simpson as a major suspect in the crime and ordered him to surrender himself. Although he pleaded not guilty and was acquitted of all charges, he was later found liable for the wrongful deaths of Brown and Goldman. Unfortunately, the signs were there from an early age for Simpson, as he was once part of a gang called the Persian Warriors, which landed him in the San Francisco Youth Guidance Center in 1962.

Following the incident, Simpson was to publish a ghostwritten book called If I Did It, but the book’s rights ended up in the hands of the Goldman family, who edited the book to add commentary and published it under the edited title of If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer. Finally, in 2008, Simpson and a friend were convicted on 12 counts of armed robbery and kidnapping, which landed them with up to 33 years in prison.^[9] Simpson was granted parole and released in 2017, but he’d long since ruined any good reputation he’d built for himself during his NFL years.

1 Oscar Pistorius

Born in South Africa in 1986, Oscar Pistorius (aka the Blade Runner) overcame all odds when he became hugely active in the international sporting community despite having had both his legs amputated when he was an infant. He began running at the age of 16, and a mere few months later, he stood on the podium and received a gold medal at the Athens Paralympics. After this, Pistorius was able to compete in competition with able-bodied athletes, as his level of success among the Paralympians became too high. In 2012, he was the first amputee to ever compete in track events at the Olympics. After this success, however, everything turned south for Pistorius as he was thrown into trials over the murder of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp.

In 2013, Pistorius was arrested after shooting and killing his girlfriend through the bathroom door, allegedly believing she was an intruder. He was ultimately found guilty of culpable homicide and reckless endangerment and sentenced to five years in prison. After being freed just one year into his sentence, an appeals court overturned the original judge’s decision and upgraded his conviction to murder. He was sentenced to serve six years in prison.^[10] His sentence was later increased to 13 years, and he will be eligible for parole in 2023.

There is still to this day a lot of debate on social media as to whether Pistorious’s story is believable or not. If he thought the person in the bathroom was an intruder, where did he think his girlfriend was?

My name is Tarni Kirkpatrick and I am the author and editor of Life in Wonderland, an online travel blog. I started this when I began my journey around the world, and it has been growing ever since. Check it out at lifeinwonderland.net or add me on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook.

The word “hero” is probably a bit overused when it comes to professional athletes. There’s no doubt that sports stars of the modern age do incredible things on the field. Their finely-tuned bodies perform in ways we mere mortals can’t even begin to mimic. But most of us would probably stop short of deeming their competitive achievements as “heroic.” After all, it’s merely a game, right? Heroism is reserved for people like firefighters, first responders, and soldiers who serve for a greater purpose.

That demarcation hasn’t always been the case, though. In fact, sports stars of the past did actually serve their country in truly heroic fashion. From World War I all the way through Vietnam, and even occasionally in our more recent Middle East invasions, some of America’s pro athletes have stepped up in stunning ways. They fought for their freedoms and put their lives on the line for ours. Today, you’ll learn about ten sports superstars who walked away from the game they loved—and the often-lucrative contracts that came with it—to serve their nation and fight for freedom.

10 Pat Tillman

Pat Tillman had it all in the late 1990s. He was a star football player at Arizona State University. Then, when he was drafted into the NFL in 1998, superstardom was at his doorstep. The tough-nosed tackler was the captain of the Arizona Cardinals. For several seasons, the safety led a vaunted group of defenders in Phoenix. And then, the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, happened. Tillman was deeply moved by the horrific attacks on New York and Washington.

Even though he was a millionaire starring in the hallowed world of pro football, he walked away from it all. After the attacks, Tillman joined the Army. His brother enlisted, too. In the end, Tillman turned away from a $3.6 million contract extension to serve his country. He also turned down all media interviews about the decision. He was worried about the media blitz that might come from his shocking career reversal. With that, Tillman’s actions proved he was far more concerned with service than fame.

By 2003, he was serving in Iraq. He was even deployed as part of the rescue of Jessica Lynch. However, he grew weary of the public relations and propaganda pushed out amid that rescue. He began to worry about being used as “a big public relations stunt” for Army recruitment. Still, he persisted in the fighting. In 2004, he was serving on active duty in Afghanistan. During a mission in a desert mountain area there, he was killed in a firefight. But as it soon came out, his death was not at the hands of enemy combatants. Instead, it was friendly fire.

Military investigations called the events leading to Tillman’s death “gross negligence.” Some officials have even wondered whether there was more nefarious criminal intent at play. The mystery around Tillman’s death remains a notable black mark on the Army and its recent Middle East exploits to this day. But there’s no question about the football star’s heroic actions. He chose to walk away from riches to fight for freedom—and paid the ultimate price.^[1]

9 Bobby Jones

World War II was an all-encompassing event. Millions of American men went into the armed services. Millions of women back home worked in factories to help the effort. On the domestic front, daily sacrifices were made to ration goods for the troops. Professional athletes weren’t immune to these moves. For the first part of the war, athletes took on fundraising roles to help the military. Throughout 1942, pro golfers held charity games and exhibitions to raise money. But after the Masters that year, one duffer wanted to do more.

Bobby Jones was one of the country’s best golfers that year, but he thought he could make more of an impact. So he walked away from golf and applied for a commission in the Army officer corps. Jones was 40 years old at the time, but he didn’t want his appointment to be ceremonial. “I don’t want to be a hoopty-da officer of some camp,” he told Army officials. They granted his wish.

When Jones joined up, he was made a captain of the First Fighter Command. A year later, he was promoted to Major and assigned to the Ninth Air Force. By the end of 1943, he was serving on active duty in England. And the next year, his unit was part of history. When the Americans invaded the beaches of Normandy on June 6, 1944, the superstar golfer was there. Jones and his unit stormed the French beach on D-Day with more than 150,000 other Allied troops. Fighting valiantly during Operation Overlord, they waded through the waves and trudged across the sand. Jones and his men took heavy fire for hours.

Like many D-Day veterans, they witnessed horrors unimaginable to the rest of us. And they were the lucky ones. Jones lived to make it back to America, returning to his old life after the war in which so many other men had given theirs. Bobby quickly returned to golf stardom, too, upon being honorably discharged months after the invasion. But he carried his poignant and difficult military experience with him for the rest of his life.^[2]

8 Larry Doby

Jackie Robinson is known across America for breaking the color barrier in baseball. But the second Black pioneer was just as honorable. Larry Doby became the first Black player in the American League when he joined the Cleveland Indians three months after Robinson broke through with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Before that, Doby had honed his skills on the diamond with the Negro League’s Newark Eagles. And right in the middle of his career, during his physical prime, he stepped away from the game to serve in war.

Doby was born in South Carolina to a black father who served in World War I. His dad was a semi-pro baseball player after that, too. So Larry had baseball in his blood from a young age. But when he was just eight years old, his dad died in a tragic accident. Unmoored, his mother moved Larry north to Newark. As he got older, he sought solace in baseball. He became a local star in Newark before signing with the Eagles. For years, Doby led the way for the impressive Negro League bunch. Then, war came calling.

In 1943, Larry followed his father’s footsteps in another way. He joined the Navy that year to fight against the Axis powers. He was assigned to train in Illinois first. Then, he was shipped off to California. Finally, the Navy sent him halfway around the world. Doby recalled experiencing harmful discrimination while serving, but he stuck with it. At the height of the war, Larry was assigned to a unit in a faraway atoll called Ulithi in the Pacific Ocean’s Caroline Islands. He fought in battle and prepped for America’s push into the Philippines.

That move was destined to be followed by an invasion of Japan. Of course, the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 changed that. But Doby saw real action in a difficult part of the Pacific Theater. By the time he returned to the U.S. and resumed his baseball career, he’d earned his reputation as a hero who stepped away from the game to serve his country. His pioneering bravery to break the color barrier in the American League only further cemented that impressive legacy.^[3]

7 Grover Cleveland Alexander

Grover Cleveland Alexander was one of the most impressive stars to ever play baseball. He began pitching for the Philadelphia Phillies in 1911 and dominated the league for years. But right in the middle of his career, he stepped away to serve in World War I. Alexander, who was known by his nickname “Old Pete,” rose to the rank of sergeant after being drafted by the Army.

By 1918, he was serving on the front lines in France. While buried deep in the trenches, his unit engaged in months of grisly, scary combat. During that time, he suffered several awful gas attacks. Other times, his stronghold was rocked by grenade and bomb explosions. Alexander lived to make it back home after the war, but he was not the same man he’d been before fighting.

By 1919, Alexander had rejoined Major League Baseball. This time, he signed with the Chicago Cubs. He got back on the mound and continued pitching remarkably well. Physically, though, he was far different than he’d been before. His pitching arm had been mangled in an explosion during the war. He was deaf in one ear after sustaining shrapnel attacks in the trenches. His epileptic seizures had worsened greatly from the effects of battle. And he was suffering the devastating effects of what we now know as PTSD. Still, he pitched on.

Amazingly, “Old Pete” hurled fastballs across the league until 1930. He lived for another two decades after that. And by 1938, he achieved the highest honor in baseball when he was inducted into the Hall of Fame. Still, the horrors of war in Europe made the rest of his life remarkably more difficult—and altered his baseball career in ways untold.^[4]

6 Tom Landry

Today, Tom Landry is best known as the legendary head coach of the Dallas Cowboys. But during his earlier days, he was a star player in his own right. On the gridiron, Landry spent time with both the New York Giants and the New York Yankees. And his playing career was actually upended by war. During World War II, Landry served in the U.S. Army Air Force. He ended up flying more than 30 combat missions in the European Theater. He was trained to fly B-17 bombers and rushed to England to help troops there battle the Germans.

Landry was just 19 years old, but he had to grow up quickly. Soon, he found he excelled during combat. Most notably, he bombed an oil refinery in the German city of Merseburg while under constant fire from more than 600 anti-aircraft guns. “I never saw anything like that,” Landry recalled years later. “When we got there, it was just a cloud of black smoke from flak as you headed into the target. It was like flying inside a thundercloud.”

In later flights, Landry led other battle runs across Western Europe. In one instance, his B-17 crashed in France. Landry and the crew made it out of the crash alive simply because the plane had no fuel left on board when they went down. They landed roughly, but there was nothing to explode without fuel to set the mangled metal alight. By the end of the war, Landry had even flown missions in the notorious Battle of the Bulge.

But even though he made it out of battle unscathed, his family was not so lucky. Landry’s beloved older brother Robert also flew combat missions in the war. Sadly, in 1942, he was shot down on a battle run and died in the North Atlantic Ocean. Forever after, his little brother honored Robert’s memory with his own war heroics and later football exploits.^[5]

5 Bob Feller

Bob Feller signed with the Cleveland Indians straight out of high school in Van Meter, Iowa, in 1936. Three months later, he was in the big leagues. Over the next five years, he quickly rose to become baseball’s best pitcher. He led the Majors in wins for three seasons from 1939 through 1941—and then war put a pause on his career.

When the Japanese invaded Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Feller was back home in Iowa. He was preparing to sign his contract with Cleveland for the 1942 season that morning. Suddenly, news of the attack in Honolulu first broke. “It was about noon,” Feller recalled years later. “I had the radio on in the car and had just crossed the river into Quad Cities when I got the news. That was it. I had planned on joining the Navy as soon as the war broke out. Everybody knew that we were going to get in it sooner or later, and that was the day.”

Feller quickly made good his promise. Horrified by the tragedy of Pearl Harbor, he went down to a Naval enlistment office and joined up. Quickly, he became a chief petty officer in the Navy. He was assigned to the USS Alabama as a gun captain. The ship was then sent off to war. Feller and the Alabama’s convoy served in both the North Atlantic and South Pacific Oceans in both theaters of battle. He spent three years of the prime of his career away from baseball while on active duty.

Most notably, Feller and his crew fought the Japanese in the Marshall Islands and the Philippines. The group went on amphibious assaults and even survived a dangerous typhoon. After years at war, Feller returned to baseball and resumed his All-Star career. Eventually, it led him to the Hall of Fame as one of the greatest pitchers to ever play the game.^[6]

4 Jack Dempsey

Boxer Jack Dempsey had the chance to enlist and serve in World War I, but he didn’t take it. The pugilist claimed at the time that he was the sole provider and supporter of his wife, mother, and disabled sister. That was true. Dempsey really did work hard to support them. But he felt guilty for keeping away from active service during the Great War.

As his boxing career exploded over the next few years, the guilt grew. While other men went off to war and gave their lives for the country, Dempsey stayed home and became a star. In 1918, he was even photographed “working” in a Philadelphia shipyard as part of a publicity stunt. Eagle-eyed observers realized Jack’s clean clothes and shiny shoes made the “work” a charade. The negative publicity from that stint stayed with him for decades, even during a stellar career in the ring.

When Pearl Harbor happened in December 1941, Dempsey was already 47 years old. But he wanted to make things right after World War I. So he rushed to join the New York National Guard. That appointment eventually pushed him toward the Coast Guard. For a while, he was on a publicity tour with them because of his fame. But he got tired of that and pushed for active duty. The Navy gave it to him: Dempsey was assigned to the USS Arthur Middleton out in the middle of the Pacific.

Early in 1945, the ship was spiriting toward Okinawa for an assault on the Japanese. On April 1 of that year, the Middleton landed on Okinawa. Dempsey and the rest of his unit struggled to move up the beach while under fire. Thousands of men died around him as the Japanese mercilessly strafed the Americans. But Dempsey survived, and his heroic service stayed with him for the rest of his life. Even so, he played down his role in the fight. “They branded me a draft dodger in World War I and a hero in World War II,” Dempsey said later. “They got it wrong both times.”^[7]

3 Ty Cobb

Just like several other players on this list, Ty Cobb enjoyed a long career in Major League Baseball. And just like several others on this list, Cobb missed time in the prime of his career to serve his country. The Georgia-born star enlisted in the Army during World War I. Needing help on the front lines, they shipped him off to France. There, he was part of the Chemical Corps’ Gas and Flame Division. That unit was full of MLB stars.

During the Great War, more than 200 big leaguers served in the esteemed Chemical Warfare Service within that unit. Several Hall of Famers were among the group, including Cobb, Christy Mathewson, Branch Rickey, and George Sisler. For Cobb, serving was the only logical decision. “I feel mean every time I look at a casualty list,” he said of his hard-nosed on-field reputation. “I feel I must give up baseball at the close of the season and do my duty by my country in the best way possible.”

Cobb served in France near the tail end of the war. The slugger didn’t see active duty, but training within Europe was brutal enough. His unit was supposed to push through the no man’s land in between battle zones with chemical supplies. Their job was to douse enemy trenches with gas bombs and dangerous liquids. While training for that role ahead of the armistice, things went horribly wrong.

In one event, soldiers were sent into an airtight room for a planned gas release. They were supposed to get gas masks out to save themselves, but eight failed to do so and died. Cobb survived that and other training mishaps, but they affected his health forever. But he was lucky: Fellow future Hall of Famer Christy Mathewson was ravaged by a training mishap in the same Chemical Warfare Service. The star pitcher soon contracted tuberculosis and died in agony several years later. Cobb, on the other hand, returned to baseball and played another decade.^[8]

2 Rocky Bleier

Rocky Bleier was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers out of Notre Dame in 1968. He played his rookie year in Pittsburgh and seemed destined for stardom almost immediately. The Steelers’ famous Steel Curtain teams were dominating the competition. Bleier’s strong introduction to the league left fans ready for more. Then, he was called to serve in Vietnam. Early in 1969, Bleier was sent with a unit of Americans to serve in the South Asian nation.

In August of that year, the football star was with Charlie Company when they were deployed to rescue another group of soldiers. Bleier was shot in the leg and seriously injured. The star athlete thought he had made it back to safety moments later. But almost immediately, he discovered an enemy combatant had thrown a hand grenade at him. “It… rolled between my legs,” he recalled years later. “By the time I jumped to get up, it blew up. I was standing on top of it, and it blew up on my right foot, knee, and thigh.”

Bleier didn’t die when the grenade blew up, but he suffered severe injuries from it. He needed several immediate surgeries to save his legs and feet. In total, doctors pulled more than 100 pieces of shrapnel out of his body. The former Notre Dame star was certain his football career was over. However, rehab and recuperation worked wonders in his case. His strong, fit figure helped aid his recovery.

The next year, he returned to the Steelers. He stayed on injured reserve for a few seasons, but by 1972, he was back on the active roster. Through the rest of the 1970s, he starred in Pittsburgh. Around him, the team won four Super Bowls. And to think it all could have been over before it started had that grenade struck him just a bit differently back in Vietnam…^[9]

1 Jerry Coleman

Jerry Coleman was a decorated second baseman for the New York Yankees through the 1950s. Along with a famed group that included Joe DiMaggio, Coleman went to six World Series with the Bronx Bombers. Later in his life, he managed the San Diego Padres and then broadcast for that team for decades. But by far, his most proud accomplishment came prior to all that, during World War II.

Coleman was given his pilot wings on April 1, 1944. He then went on to serve on 57 missions in the Pacific Theater for the U.S. Marines. After an exceptional World War II run, Coleman went back to baseball. Then, several years later, the Korean War came calling. In 1952, he flew another 63 missions in a single-person fighter jet during that conflict. Every time he went up in the air, he put his life on the line. But even late into his life, Coleman explained how he’d do it all again. “The most important thing in my life was not what I did in baseball,” he once told USA Today, “but what I did in my service as a Marine in two wars.”

Along the way, Coleman had a number of close calls in the air. At one point, he had a near-collision with another jet upon takeoff. Another time, a malfunction flipped his jet on the runway during takeoff. He survived it all, though, and was never shot out of the sky by enemy fire. By the end of his two turns in the service, Coleman had a host of awards, medals, and citations to his name.

However, he also experienced some horrible lows. The worst of those was watching his best friend and roommate, Max Harper, die after being shot out of the sky just ahead of Coleman. “I had to follow him down to see if he got out in a parachute, but there was no chance,” the baseball star recalled years later. “I can still see his face today. I had an awful lot of heroes, and very good friends. Now, they’re all dead.”^[10]