From the olden days – how many names do you remember?

Have you ever heard a name from the past? That name conjures up memories of not only that guy, but several others. One of the advantages of growing old (I guess) is that the pool of names from your past is enormous.At any rate it happened to me recently. An athlete's name surfaced and I was off remembering others from his heyday. So I decided to test your memories. I have put three names in a group. They all have something in common and your job is to guess what that is. All are sports figures. You need to name the sport and why they are lumped together.In some cases the names are from different sports, but they all have something in common. Let's test your sports knowledge.Group A. Frank Malzone, Clete Boyer and Joe Foy.Group B. Rod Laver, Ken Rosewall and Roy Emerson.Group C. Bob Charles, Mike Weir and Steve Flesch.Group D. Zelmo Beaty, Robert Parish and Nate Thurmond.Group E. Elbert Dubenion, Raymond Berry and Bob Hayes.Group F. Billy Mills, Emil Zatopek and Jim Ryun.Group G. Logan Stieber, Cael Sanderson and Pat Smith.Group H. Ken Kaiser, Mendy Rudolph and Ben Dreith.Group I. Bill Bradley, Jim Bunning and Steve Largent.Have you guessed the sport and the connection? If not, I will supply the answers in my own indomitable fashion.All members of group A played professional baseball. They were also third basemen. Malzone played for the Boston Red Sox and Boyer handled the hot corner for the New York Yankees. Foy was a member of four teams in four seasons and perhaps not as famous as the other two. But I remember him from my youth as having a great name for one reason. If he had to sign autographs, it would not take him long.The three gentlemen from group B played tennis. They also hailed from Australia. Tennis buffs are likely to recall all three of these guys with Laver being the most famous.Our third group played golf professionally. Charles is from New Zealand, Weir from Canada and Flesch is American. There is no country connection like our tennis pros. So what is the connection for these three? If you know that they are all left handed, you score more points. Speaking of scoring, I wonder what score I would shoot if I played "backwards" like that? More significantly, I wonder if I could actually complete a round playing left handed in a single day!These three (or at least two of them) are easily recognized as NBA stalwarts. They each patrolled the center position for their respective teams. If you are not familiar with Zelmo Beaty, I can tell you that I used to pretend to be him when I was a kid shooting hoops on the playground. He starred for the St. Louis Hawks, but I just loved the name. How can you not like Zelmo.Parrish played college ball at Centenary before becoming a fixture for the Boston Celtics. Nate Thurmond played at Bowling Green State University before landing with the Golden State Warriors. He may well have been the best center of his era had he not played at the same time as Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain.All members of Group E were NFL standouts. They also played wide receiver. Elbert "Golden Wheels" Dubenion played his college ball at Bluffton before going on to an outstanding career with the Buffalo Bills. Raymond Berry caught passes from the legendary Johnny Unitas in Baltimore. At the time of his retirement he was the NFL career leader in receptions and yardage. "Bullet" Bob Hayes won an Olympic gold medal in sprinting before joining the Dallas Cowboys. He is still the only person to win Olympic gold and a Super Bowl ring.If track and field is your sport, you know that the three men in group F are famed track performers. Their connection is the fact that they are all distance runners. Billy Mills was a Native American and won Olympic gold in the 10,000 meters in Tokyo in 1964. He became the first non European to do so and is still the only American to win the top honor in the event.Zatopek goes back even further. The Czech won gold in the 5,000 meters and the 10,000 meters in Helsinki in 1952. At the last minute he decided to enter the marathon, a race he had never competed in before. How did he do? Well, he took home THREE gold medals!Jim Ryun is best known as the first high schooler to run a sub 4-minute mile. He went on to college at Kansas and later was an Olympian.Wrestling is the sport for our next group of athletes. They all have the distinction of being four-time NCAA individual champions. Steiber is from nearby Monroeville and wrestled at Ohio State. He has the honor of being the lightest four-time champion in NCAA history.Pat Smith was the first 4X champ and wrestled at Oklahoma State. Sanderson went undefeated in his four seasons finishing with a record of 159-0!The three guys in Group H were all officials in their respective sports. Kaiser was a baseball umpire and a giant of a man. He had been a professional wrestler before his umpiring career and I remember a fan running on to the field and being swallowed up by Kaiser. No stadium workers were needed as his foray was stopped immediately.Rudolph was an NBA referee and was the first to work 2,000 games. Dreith worked as an NFL referee and is most famous for his explanation of a personal foul call. After the Jets Marty Lyons sacked Bills quarterback Jim Kelly, he punched him in the face at the bottom of the pile. Dreith explained the foul as "he was giving him the business down there" and the NFL was not thrilled with his choice of words. Fans, on the other hand, loved it.Finally the last group of athletes were from the sports of basketball, baseball and football. The common thread is that all of them became members of Congress after their playing days. Bradley represented the state of New Jersey and Bunning the state of Kentucky in the U.S. Senate. Largent became a member of the U.S. House from Oklahoma.There is one guy mentioned earlier in this column who also was elected to Congress after his athletic career. Do you know who it was?If you said Jim Ryun you are a true sports fan.