# Most intellectual athletes? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [September 22, 2015, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-intellectual-athletes/732172 "2015-09-22T01:49:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2015, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-intellectual-athletes/732172/1 "2015-09-22T01:49:05Z")
The frequency with which Tim Duncan is parodied as an intellectual wonk reminded me of former NFL player Myron Rolle, who flat out stated that he was told in college to concentrate more on football and less on his potential studies at Oxford, and John Urlacher, Baltimore Ravens player and published mathematician. What are other prominent examples? ---
**Author:** ![journeyman\_southpaw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5e9695/32.png) [@journeyman\_southpaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/journeyman_southpaw)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2015, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-intellectual-athletes/732172/2 "2015-09-22T02:26:31Z")
Gene Tunney. ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2015, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-intellectual-athletes/732172/3 "2015-09-22T02:28:18Z")
Byron “Whizzer” White, AKA Supreme Court Justice Byron “Whizzer” White. We may want to confine this to the last 25 years or something. Then it gets a lot harder. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2015, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-intellectual-athletes/732172/4 "2015-09-22T02:39:58Z")
Bill Bradley. And I’ll just shoehorn this in here, although it’s a stretch — I just learned yesterday that William Smith, a very muscular actor in motorcycle movies, co-star of _Laredo_, and Falconetti in _Rich Man, Poor Man_, spoke five languages fluently, and taught Russian at UCLA. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2015, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-intellectual-athletes/732172/5 "2015-09-22T02:42:55Z")
Cy Young Award winner Mike Marshall got a Ph. D. in education after retiring. He’s known for his radical theory on pitching – a different type of motion that he says eliminates arm injuries (Marshall developed it himself, pitching in over 106 games in 1974 without arm troubles). He also suggested to Tommy John to try a new type of surgery to repair his arm. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2015, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-intellectual-athletes/732172/6 "2015-09-22T02:48:49Z")
Richard Sherman, Seattle Seahawks. ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2015, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-intellectual-athletes/732172/7 "2015-09-22T03:05:56Z")
> [@OneCentStamp](#): > > Byron “Whizzer” White, AKA Supreme Court Justice Byron “Whizzer” White. > > We may want to confine this to the last 25 years or something. Then it gets a lot harder. 😃 Another Colorado athlete - Joe Romig. He was an All-American football player, in the College Football Hall of Fame. He bypassed pro ball to take a Rhodes Scholarship and complete his PhD. in Astrophysics. He worked for NASA and Martin-Marietta in the space program. He’s my neighbor. ---
**Author:** ![keeper0](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@keeper0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/keeper0)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2015, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-intellectual-athletes/732172/8 "2015-09-22T03:37:07Z")
I am surprised to be the first to mention Celebrity Jeopardy star Kareem Abdul Jabbar. ([Recent article](http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/09/20/magazine/what-the-world-got-wrong-about-kareem-abdul-jabbar.html?referrer=)) A reporter once said, “Kareem isn’t a ‘smart athelete’, he is a phenomenally smart person. That is half the problem he had with the press” ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2015, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-intellectual-athletes/732172/9 "2015-09-22T03:39:25Z")
[Moe Berg.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moe_Berg) Played 15 seasons as a catcher in the American League, 1923-1939, and later served as a spy for the Office of Strategic Services during World War II. > [@](#): > > [He] was better known for being “the brainiest guy in baseball”[1] than for anything he accomplished in the game. Casey Stengel once described Berg as “the strangest man ever to play baseball”.[2] > > A graduate of Princeton University and Columbia Law School, Berg spoke several languages and regularly read 10 newspapers a day. His reputation was fueled by his successful appearances as a contestant on the radio quiz show Information, Please in which he answered questions about the derivation of words and names from Greek and Latin, historical events in Europe and the Far East, and ongoing international conferences. ---
**Author:** ![Enginerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bcef8e/32.png) [@Enginerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enginerd)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2015, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-intellectual-athletes/732172/10 "2015-09-22T04:09:50Z")
> [@Leaper](#): > > The frequency with which Tim Duncan is parodied as an intellectual wonk reminded me of former NFL player Myron Rolle, who flat out stated that he was told in college to concentrate more on football and less on his potential studies at Oxford, and **John Urlacher** , Baltimore Ravens player and published mathematician. What are other prominent examples? John Urschel, not Urlacher. > [@OneCentStamp](#): > > Byron “Whizzer” White, AKA Supreme Court Justice Byron “Whizzer” White. Fromer Viking (and Hall of Famer) Alan Page is an Associate Justice on the Minnesota Supreme Court. A number of other former NFL players have law degrees - Cris Collinsworth, Steve Young, Ron Mix, Pat Haden… ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2015, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-intellectual-athletes/732172/11 "2015-09-22T04:37:59Z")
Pat Haden was also a Rhodes Scholar. Aaron Rodgers may also qualify for this list. From[last week’s cover story in SI](http://www.si.com/nfl/2015/09/18/aaron-rodgers-green-bay-packers-cover-story): > [@](#): > > Before Mark Kelly appeared on Celebrity Jeopardy! in May, his twin brother, Scott, compiled a scouting report for him. From space. As in, low-earth orbit. As in, aboard NASA’s International Space Station. It didn’t take Scott long to conclude that his brother faced a formidable opponent. So he called Mark from about 250 miles above the earth and said, “Aaron Rodgers did better on his SATs than you did.” > > … > > Anyway, Rodgers, Kelly and Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary arrived on set for a Jeopardy! practice run, which is basically the same as the televised show, minus host Alex Trebek. The results don’t count, but Rodgers wanted to win. … Actually, he didn’t just want to win—he needed to win. He knew everything about the show’s format, and so he clarified the rules when his opponents were unclear. The dry run confirmed Kelly’s biggest threat: Who is Aaron Rodgers? > > On the show, Rodgers dominated. He cruised through the “Number 12” category and conquered “Bible MVPs.” He threw only one game-show interception, on a Daily Double, citing Steve Wozniak as the cofounder of IBM rather than Apple. He won $50,000 for his charity, Midwest Athletes Against Childhood Cancer, and then retired, with Kelly and Munn, to dinner. That’s where Kelly maintained, as he does now, that Rodgers’s victory “came down to intelligence and reflexes,” an ability to process information and click the buzzer fastest—his explanation not unlike the film-room defense of a hapless cornerback who found himself on the wrong side of a Rodgers quick slant. ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2015, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-intellectual-athletes/732172/12 "2015-09-22T04:39:42Z")
Frank Ryan quarterbacked for the Rams, Browns, and Redskins. He won the championship with the Browns in 1964 and got his Ph.D. in mathematics at Rice University in 1965. He carried a full teaching load at Case Institute in Cleveland while he was still active as a quarterback. He was later athletic director and lecturer in math at Yale. ---
**Author:** ![Lantern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d26b3c/32.png) [@Lantern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lantern)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2015, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-intellectual-athletes/732172/13 "2015-09-22T05:07:57Z")
Socrates, the Brazilian football player, was both a medical doctor and a Phd in Philosophy. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2015, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-intellectual-athletes/732172/14 "2015-09-22T05:11:22Z")
> [@Enginerd](#): > > John Urschel, not Urlacher. Yes, brain fart, thanks for the correction. And actually, yes, limiting to the past 25 years would be kinda interesting. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2015, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-intellectual-athletes/732172/15 "2015-09-22T13:05:57Z")
More than 25 years (40 actually) but NFL quarterback Pat Haden was a Rhodes Scholar and later on a lawyer. ``` I remember reading that when David Robinson was at Annapolis, in a joint press conference during the NCAA basketball tournament, the players from the other team (Cleveland State?) were amazed at his eloquence. Of course he could just be a good speaking service academy graduate but at the very least he is reasonably intelligent. ``` There were a couple of baseball players who later became medical doctors: Bobby Brown, Ron Taylor and George Medich. Taylor had actually graduated from University of Toronto as an engineer, pitched for 11 years and then convinced a reluctant dean at University of Toronto to take him as a medical student. ---
**Author:** ![Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barkis_is_Willin)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2015, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-intellectual-athletes/732172/16 "2015-09-22T13:19:46Z")
Red Sox pitcher Craig Breslow majored in molecular biophysics and biochemistry at Yale. > [@Leaper](#): > > The frequency with which Tim Duncan is parodied as an intellectual wonk reminded me of former NFL player Myron Rolle, who flat out stated that he was told in college to concentrate more on football and less on his potential studies at Oxford, and John Urlacher, Baltimore Ravens player and published mathematician. What are other prominent examples? I remember when Myron Rolle was being recruited out of high school and he kept emphasizing that academics was his #1 priority. Then he picked Florida State. Lot of people scratching their heads at the time. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Nylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/77aa72/32.png) [@Mr.Nylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Nylock)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2015, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-intellectual-athletes/732172/17 "2015-09-22T14:20:11Z")
> [@Jim\_s\_Son](#): > > ``` > I remember reading that when David Robinson was at Annapolis, in a joint press conference during the NCAA basketball tournament, the players from the other team (Cleveland State?) were amazed at his eloquence. Of course he could just be a good speaking service academy graduate but at the very least he is reasonably intelligent. > > ``` Correct me if I’m wrong, but wouldn’t getting into the naval academy itself be quite a feat? IIRC admissions is as selective, if not more selective, than most ivy league schools. I actually never knew this until moving to the DC area. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2015, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-intellectual-athletes/732172/18 "2015-09-22T15:41:20Z")
Todd Christiansen (Raiders TE, and later a broadcaster) claimed membership in Mensa. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2015, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-intellectual-athletes/732172/19 "2015-09-22T16:14:56Z")
Bill Bradley. Olympic Gold medalist. Basketball Hall of Fame. Rhodes scholar. Degrees from Princeton and Oxford. He won 0 states when he ran against Al Gore for the Democratic nomination in 2000. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2015, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-intellectual-athletes/732172/20 "2015-09-22T16:57:40Z")
Former Bengals punter Pat McInally was a Harvard graduate and the only NFL player ever to get a perfect score on the Wunderlic Test. Tenley Albright, a gold medalist in Olympic figure skating, went to medical school and became a surgeon. Hall of Fame Vikings tackle Alan Page got a law degree, and became a judge on the Minnesota State Supreme Court. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-intellectual-athletes/732172.md?page=2)