Jim Thorpe, born May 28, 1888, in the Indian Territory of Oklahoma, has been acclaimed as one of the most accomplished “all-around” athletes in history.  In fact, in 1950 he was selected by American sportswriters and broadcasters as the greatest American athlete of the early 20th century. 

He was predominantly of American Indian descent and attended Indian schools growing up.  Financially poor and underprivileged by any standards, he was every bit rich in athletic prowess.  He played it all – baseball, football, basketball, boxing, lacrosse, swimming, hockey, and most famously, track and field. 

Strong as a bull and fast as lightning, Thorpe competed in the Stockholm Olympics of 1912 in both the Pentathlon and the Decathlon.  But just before he was set to take the field he discovered someone had stolen his shoes. Undeterred, he searched for another pair. 

What he found was not a "pair," but rather two different sized, different styled shoes discarded in a trash can. To make the larger of the two shoes fit, he had to wear extra socks. 

Dressed in his pauperish, mismatched replacements, he humbly took to the field and won Gold Medals in both competitions.

One of the biggest boxing matches of the twentieth century took place on November 25, 1980, at the Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana. It was a rematch between Sugar Ray Leonard and Roberto Duran. Duran had won the previous fight and was the favorite the second time around. He had a record of 72 wins and just one loss and he had won his last forty-one fights. That is some winning streak.

The rematch was a close fight. Only a point or two separated the two fighters on the judges’ scorecards. But then something unthinkable happened in the eighth round that no one expected. Roberto Duran turned to the referee and spoke two words: "No Mas." "No more." He quit.  He wasn’t injured. He wasn’t cut. He was frustrated and he’d had enough. Here is a fighter who was one of the best to ever step into the ring. He won a total of 103 fights, but when anyone mentions his name today, the first thing that comes to mind is “no mas.” People remember the day he quit.

Bathyspheres are special deep water chambers which are designed to cope with the extreme pressure at the ocean's depths.  Encased in extra thick cast steel, they hold at bay the pressure that bears against them.  The fish that swim just outside the portals of these vessels are not steel plated, yet they swim about carefree, completely at ease in their pressure filled environment.  How do they do it?  Their anatomy is fashioned to apply equal and opposite pressure from within!  Their exteriors are soft and pliable, but their inward parts are tough as steel.