OT: Your family claim to fame
So I wanna hear what your family can make as their claim to fame? I have 3 things. My great-grandpa was offered a contract by the New York Yankees. He sported a 96 mph fastball (it didn't get passed down) but he never made MLB. Also, i am related to Conway Twitty (he is my grandmas cousin. her last name was Jenkins. go look up his real last name). She was also related to Richard Burton. So technically, I was related to Elizabeth Taylor by marriage. How about your families, Mgobloggers? Let's here it.
My grandma always used to tell me I'm distantly related to Abraham Lincoln. Who knows if that's true.
Although I haven't verified it, the family story on my mom's side is that one of my ancestors was in Lincoln's security detail. Soooooo, yeaaahhh, um, sorry about that.
Edwin Stanton and John Wilkes Booth are distant relatives in my wife's family, so on their behalf, I apologize as well.
Clay Aiken is my 3rd cousin... nope can't take this post back now.
Your third cousin has a beautiful voice and should have won his season.
I stand by this post.
Does he raise you up? /s
Yep, but not before he showed me the Measure of a Man.
My great uncle pitched a 1 run game against the Tigers when he was with the Army team (during the Korean war)...and lost 1-0
My uncle played high school baseball with Tom Seaver and my soon-to-be-uncle was an All-Big 8 cornerback for Nebraska in the mid-60s. Also, one of my ancestors (actually a great-grat-great-great uncle, plus or minus a few greats) was General Joseph Wheeler, who was a Confederate cavalry commander and later a general in the Spanish-American War. Among the men in his command were General Leonard Wood, Lt. Colonel Theodore Roosevelt and Lieutenant John Pershing. If you've seen the movie "Rough Riders" he is portrayed by Gary Busey, which should give you some idea of what kind of person he was.
Edit: I left out one that I found out recently. My grandfather owned a manufacturing company that specialized in ladies' undergarments, and as a result he was the original manufacturer for Victoria's Secret. The guys who started the company came to him with their designs, and he told them he didn't really understand how to make what they wanted because he was used to making things for old ladies but he realized their potential, so he teamed them up with some of his young staffers who were fresh out of college and soon his factories were cranking out the original Victoria's Secret line.
And they played the Gambler by Kenny Rogers (written by Don Schlitz). Same song?
But a quick question. How does the son of a country musician from North Carolina become a Michigan fan?
FYI, Wikipedia left out that important bit of info.
Till I read this one. My mother taught the guys who started the Brown Jug how to cook pizza (back when the it was really the Brown Jug, and not just another company property). Which reminds me that my Grandmother was friends with Mike Illitich's mother in law, who was very worried her daughter was just marrying "some pizza guy". My Grandfather was in the Ford Mansion the night Henry Ford died. My brother teaches me a lot about Michigan Football.
On the topic of songs, my father wrote a parody to "Little Old Lady from Pasadena" called "The Wolverine's Headed to Pasadena," which sometimes plays on 104.3WOMC in years that we have gone to the Rose Bowl.
My grandfather was the first player ever to letter in two sports (football and baseball) at Michigan State. He was also fraternity brothers with Frank Kush. He was drafted to play baseball for the Red Sox but decided to get a real job because the pay back then to be a ball player was so low.
Frank Kush is my great uncle.
My grandfather on the other side played for the Tigers. Quit to join the Navy. Ended up coaching/recruiting for Navy. He recruited Roger Staubach.
I am also related to William McKinnely. Somehow.
My grandpa was a first-alternate on the US 1936 Olympic swim team. He was obviously in Germany for the olympics that year. Never was able to meet the guy unfortunitely.
Nope, I was never able to meet my Grandpa. He died 5 years before I was born due to complications from a perforated liver that was the result of a car crash 40 years earlier.
My cousin tackled Mike Hart in high school.
Impossible didn't Lloyd say he thought he was never tackled in high school?
I think that was Fred Jackson..
I played against Mike in HS (he was a sophomore...) and I missed him entirely 4 different times.
Also, my dad was the first non-medicine major to attend medical school at Oklahoma (did his residency in AA)
I tackled (read was run over by and he tripped over me) Javon Ringer and intercepted a pass thrown by Todd Boekman in highschool. Michigan so should have offered me a schollie.
I had a similar experience with LaVar Arrington in HS. He ran me over, and I managed to hold on to an ankle. I also used to see him around the track invitational circuit in Western PA. I've never seen someone that big move that fast.
I've traced my family roots back to about the mid 1700s in every direction hoping to find some cool facts...I got nothing. I come from a long line of shoe makers, farmers, and middle class workers. My mom's family just came to the US in the early 1950s though, so we havent' been here long enough to really do anything noteworthy in this country. My grandpa was part of the underground movement against the Nazi's though. You won't see his name in the history books, but as a teenager, he did a lot to disrupt their activities in his home country.
My wife's family however, I have traced to the Royal families in England, even to Leif Ericson. Other famous people in her tree are U.S. Grant, Jimmy Carter, FDR, JFK, the guy who played Moff Tarkan in Star Wars, and Gene Roddenbury the creator of Star Trek. Needless to say, I am extremely jealous of her pedigree with so many cool things.
Where did your grandfather live in Europe? My mother's family also came to the US (from Polans) after WW2; and both her parents were in the resistance.
Charles Manson is a distant cousin. Not sure how distant but my great grandma knew the connection. Can't really ask her. Same with Ricky Skaggs.
fought on the wrong side of World War II
My grandad's uncle through marriage won a Nobel prize in physics.
Are you serious? posted at the same exact time!
Twins?
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<br>Which one of you is mini-me?
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<br>(And yeah, I almost thought of putting this up too...)
Ok, I'll prove my stupidity. What is this from..?
Do I make you horny Waggles? Yeah!
with the hangover references, I will give you Austin Powers (can't exactly remember which one though, but I think it was the first).
Ha, much appreciated. Those are movies I've always meant to see but just never gotten around to it..
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
and my grandpa was in the secret service.
descended from HW Longfellow.
My grandfather and Jim Tressel's mother are first cousins. I'm not sure what that makes him to me but oh well. She is buried in my home town of Ada Ohio. Dont judge me.
the former coach of your hated rival, a man who resigned in disgrace.