Help with my new PC

[99goals]

Hi there,

Having been collecting cards for over 20 + years, I have pretty much exhausted or completed all my PC's as of now. Either cards are very hard to find or I have already gotten what I have needed thus far.

Over the last few months I have been debating on what to do next. I needed something to chew on to keep life interesting in my collections.

I decided to collect cards of people / athletes that I deem inspirational. Having overcome the odds to make it in the bigs or in life in general. They are still trying to make the best of a bad day.

An example of one such player is Patrick Willis of the 49ers. He has come from such humble beginnings and remains humble to this day.

What I need your help on is who else would fall under this category. Here is the list I have so far.

1. Patrick Willis
2. Michael Oher
3. Theoren Fleury
4. Jim Kyte
5. Jim Abbott
6. Martin St.Louis
7. Jordin Tootoo
8. Willie O'Ree
9. Josh Hamilton
10. Walter Payton
11. Richard Park
12. John Kruk
13. Herb Carnegie
14. Satchel Paige
15. Jackie Robinson


Does anyone have any others they can add to the list? If you do, please give me some background on their struggles and how they came to be.

Life is too damn short to ***** about things. I always tend to look at the glass half full, not half empty.

Thank you for your time.

ameet

 

[quincy]

Much as I'm not a fan of either of these players: Lemieux and Koivu. Hodgkin's and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, respectively.

 

[chadsexington]

John Kruk's got a lot of odd moments to his name, but how is he an inspirational player? I might be missing something...

Other fairly interesting stories (I don't want to call them "inspirational" perse since your take might be different than mine)

-Matt Hamill - Deaf UFC athlete who made it into the top tier of his division before calling it quits.
-Lou Ferrigno - Legally deaf bodybuilder who parlayed the misfortune into 2 Mr. Universe titles and a career in film
-Georges St. Pierre - Bullied all throughout his childhood...turned his life around into a UFC Championship

 

[ssa6]

Desmond Mason is one of my favorites. He was in a fire as a kid and his legs got pretty messed up but he turned out to be a great leaper and had an excellent college hoops career at OK state. He then won the dunk comp in the NBA and was a solid roster player for 10 or so years.

Carl Landry is another great story. He has battled his whole career. He went to an obscure high school and was cut as a fresh barley making the JV team as a soph. He mostly rode pine as a junior and senior on the varsity team.

His University career started at Vincennes University but broke his hand in the first year. In his second year he blossomed and "led the Trailblazers, averaging 19.6 points, 8.9 rebounds,and 2.3 blocks a game. He was named a First-Team Junior College All-American and the All-Region MVP"

He tansferred to Purdue a top program and had a nice year but ofcouse blew out his ACL for the last three games of the season, still making all conference 2nd team.
After recovering from his ACL Landry laced them up for his senior year only to re-injure his knee three games later. Instead of hanging them up for good he declared medical red shirt status to save a year.
In his Senior year Landry lead Purdue in points and rebounds and made conference first team.

Landry scored himself a big payday getting drafted with the first pick in the second round. For the first half of the season he rode pine alot, but injuries and hard work earned him minutes and he became an impact player right away. The Rockets went on the second longest win streak ever (22 games) and made the playoffs. Landry lost a tooth in a hard fought 2 point playoff win vs. the jazz. Landry made the first rc team.

This is my favorite

Shooting Incident
"On March 17, 2009 at 4:00 AM Carl Landry was involved in an incident in Houston, Texas when his car was struck by a vehicle that swerved to hit him. They both collided a second time as they made U-turns. As Landry exited his vehicle to assess the damage, he was shot in the leg and the suspects fled the scene. His injury was superficial.[5] On March 30, Landry returned to practice involvement and played in his first game on April 7, less than three weeks after the shooting.[6]"

Landry never complained about getting shot or how much of an idiot the other dude was. He just got better and played as soon as possible and the incident was never heard of again. Just imagine if it was Lebron or Kobe who got shoot we would never hear the end of how tough the were and how the shooter must be hunted down and brought to justice.