Red Smith is a Duke legend from the 1950s, having played football for Bill Murray and baseball for Jack Coombs and Ace Parker.
He was great at both but what’s more interesting is his life story. He was born in Alleghany County which isn’t hugely prosperous now but which had real poverty back in the 1930s. You can imagine Appalachian life then which was tough anyway but during the Great Depression? It must have been catastrophic.
Then his mother died when he was just six.
You can read it for yourself, but a combination of good fortune and talent saved him from a much more difficult life.