I’m sure it’s not the answer but the question does bring to mind a fond recollection.
Back in the mid 70’s ABC was looking to fill some broadcast hours and came up with “Battle of the Network Stars.” TV stars from each of the 3 networks back then would compete against each other in sports like swimming, running, tug of war, etc…
One year it ended in a tie between ABC and NBC. The ABC Captain was Goofy looking stand up comedian Gabe Kaplan then starring on “Welcome Back, Kotter.” The NBC Captain was Robert Conrad then on “Baa Baa Black Sheep.”
Well to break the tie they decided to have a run off. I think it was something like a 200 yard dash. The ABC Stars keep trying to argue against it not wanting to put Kaplan against Conrad, but he convinces them to let him do it.
The former stunt man Conrad gets into a sprinters stance at the beginning, and Kaplan with his mustache and white afro just stands next to him.
The gun fires to start the race and to everyone’s surprise Kaplan absolutely smokes Conrad beating him by about 25 yards. Turns out Kaplan was quite the athlete for a comedian.
Oops, I see this was already posted. Didn’t come up in my search because “Kaplan” was embedded in the link.
I read somewhere that Gleason and Newman did all their own shots in The Hustler except for one, done by Willie Mosconi. I think it’s in the clip, at about 1:35:
Bert Convy, best known as a jovial host of numerous game shows, played 2 years of minor league baseball with the Phillies. He then had a short-lived singing career, where his group The Cheers had a top 10 hit in 1955 with the song “Black Denim Trousers and Motorcycle Boots”. From the mid-50s to the early 70s he was primarily an actor, before becoming a well-respected game show host, on such shows as “Tattletales”, “Super Password” and “Win, Lose or Draw”. He won a Daytime Emmy award for his work on “Tattletales”.
Charley Pride was a pitcher in Negro League baseball and for Minor League Baseball teams in the Yankees and Reds organizations before turning his attention to singing and eventually being inducted into both the Grand Ole Opry and Country Music Hall of Fame.
Rigby was, in fact, pretty well-known as a gymnast in the U.S. in the late '60s and early '70s. I was a kid during the 1972 Summer Games, and there was a lot of excitement over her participation there; unfortunately, she was dealing with an injury, didn’t medal, and was overshadowed in the gymnastics competition by the USSR’s Olga Korbut (and then, those games as a whole were overshadowed by the terrorist attack).
That said, her career as playing Peter Pan on stage lasted decades longer than her gymnastics career, and I’m not too surprised if that’s what she became known for among many people, in the same way that Caitlyn Jenner became much better-known for being a reality-TV parent.
Possibly but he certainly put in the time. It took over 20 years for him to get his black belt and he’s been training with the Gracie’s for over 30 years.
I think Mike Reid is a perfect example of a great performer who is also a great athlete.
Born and raised in Altoona, Pennsylvania, Reid attended college at and graduated from the Pennsylvania State University, where he played defensive lineman for the Penn State Nittany Lions football team. He then spent five seasons with the Cincinnati Bengals in the National Football League, earning trips to the Pro Bowl after the 1972 and 1973 seasons, before retiring after the 1974 season. He subsequently focused on his musical career, co-writing several hit singles for country music artists, including Ronnie Milsap’s “Stranger in My House”, which won a Grammy Award for Best Country Song in 1984. Reid later began a solo recording career, releasing two studio albums for Columbia Records. He charted seven singles on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks (now Hot Country Songs) chart as a singer, including the Number One hit “Walk on Faith”.
I did, as well, until I was put off by Jack Klugman having to forfiet his snooker game to Suzanne Somers for sinking the black too early.
With the crushing disillusion over such lameness, I’ve never been the same, since.
I had forgotten about Reid; he’s a good example, though he was also pretty famous as a football player, and the OP originally was asking about people who were primarily famous for non-athletic stuff. As a college player, Reid won the Maxwell Award and Outland Trophy, and finished fifth in Heisman Trophy voting (a rarity for a defensive lineman), and then, as you note, he was a two-time Pro Bowler and two-time All-Pro with the Bengals.
As I remember it, he sunk the 8-ball correctly, but had forgotten to call the pocket.
Perhaps it will ease your troubled mind to watch a great episode of the original Twilight Zone; Jack Klugman and Jonathan Winters in “A Game of Pool”. After surviving that, losing a forfeit to Suzanne Somers doesn’t really seem so bad.
I will defer to your most likely superior memory.
So, he loses for an even lamer reason.
Never seen the TZ episode; if Jonathan Winters appears in one of these shows, I can totally picture him being a sort of smiley Mephistophelian type - sort of like how Sebastien Cabot was, as “Pip”, in another TZ episode.
He was a player for Bonnyrigg and was offered a contract with East Fife.
He was also a bodybuilder, having won the Mister Scotland competition and third in Mister Universe.
