Top 10 February 10 Birthdays

10. February 10, 1868: William Allen White. He turned a little newspaper in Kansas, The Emporia Gazette, into a national forum for progressive views at the turn of the 20th Century. He was a big supporter of Theodore Roosevelt, deeply criticized the isolationism of later Republican Presidents, and was considered the main reason for the failure of the Ku Klux Klan to gain a stronghold in his home State.

9. February 10, 1895: Walter A. Brown. From 1937 until his death in 1964, he owned and operated the Boston Garden. From 1940 to 1964, he owned and operated the Ice Capades. From 1946 to 1964, he owned and operated the Boston Celtics. From 1951 to 1964, he owned and operated the Boston Bruins. He is the only man in both the Basketball and Hockey Halls of Fame. Although he was not an athlete, the Celtics retired their uniform Number 1 in his memory.

Somewhat Honorable Mention: February 10, 1893: Bill Tilden. Voted the greatest male tennis player of the 1st half of the 20th Century, he won the U.S. Open 7 times and Wimbledon 3 times. But he was convicted of taking advantage of teenage boys and sent to prison -- twice.

Honorable Mention: February 10, 1926: Danny Blanchflower. The right wing was the captain of the only Northern Ireland national soccer team to reach the World Cup, in 1958; and of the first team in the 20th Century to win England's Football League and its FA Cup in the same season, Tottenham Hotspur of North London in 1961.

Somewhat Honorable Mention: February 10, 1959: John Calipari. He holds one of the most prestigious jobs in basketball, head coach at the University of Kentucky. He has led them to 4 NCAA Final Fours, including the 2012 National Championship. Previously, he reached the Final Four with the University of Massachusetts in 1996 and the University of Memphis in 2008, but both those achievements were vacated to due to rules violations. Coach Cal was not punished either time. 

He's the kind of guy that ESPN show host Tony Kornheiser might call a "preening schmo." The late Temple coach John Chaney seemed to agree: He threatened to kill him during a postgame press conference in 1994. They later reconciled and became good friends. Coach Cal is already in the Basketball Hall of Fame, and has also been heavily involved with Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear's COVID-fighting efforts. So his story is a complicated one.

Honorable Mention: February 10, 1962: Bobby Czyz. The native of Wanaque, Passaic County, New Jersey was IBF Light Heavyweight Champion in 1986 and ’87, and WBA Cruiserweight Champion in 1991, ’92 and ’93.

Dishonorable Mention: February 10, 1963: Lenny Dykstra. With the New York Mets, "Nails" won the 1986 World Series. With the Philadelphia Phillies, "The Dude" a new nickname, because he was calling everybody else "Dude"), he won the 1993 National League Pennant. The center fielder, a 3-time All-Star, remains popular with fans of both teams, and, along with Tug McGraw, may be the only one for whom this is true. 

But neither team has elected into their team Hall of Fame, because he's a convicted drunk driver, a convicted sexual predator, convicted drug dealer, and a convicted fraudster. He's also been rumored to be a bigot toward race, gender and sexual orientation. One hell of a guy, huh?

Honorable Mention: February 10, 1966: Daryl Johnston. The running back made 2 Pro Bowls and won 3 Super Bowls with the Dallas Cowboys. After a few years as a Fox Sports announcer, "Moose" started working with leagues challenging the NFL, and is now working with the new version of the USFL.

Honorable Mention: February 10, 1974: Ty Law. The 1st member of the Bill Belichick-era New England Patriots to be elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the cornerback won 3 Super Bowls and made 5 Pro Bowls.

Honorable Mention: February 10, 1976: Lance Berkman. A 1st baseman, "The Big Puma" made 6 All-Star Games and hit 366 home runs. In 2006, he set National League records for switch-hitters with 45 home runs and 136 RBIs. He won Pennants with the 2005 Houston Astros and the 2011 St. Louis Cardinals, winning the World Series with them. He just became the head coach at Houston Baptist University.

Somewhat Honorable Mention: February 10, 1982: Justin Gatlin. At the 2004 Olympics in Athens, he won the 100 meters, becoming the unofficial "World's Fastest Man." But this was after he served a suspension for doping.

8. February 10, 1905: Chick Webb. Perhaps the greatest drummer in jazz history, he famously beat Gene Krupa of Benny Goodman's band in a drum battle in 1938. Sadly, a long-term illness took his life the next year. He gave Ella Fitzgerald her big break, making her the lead singer of his band.

Honorable Mention: February 10, 1929: Jerry Goldsmith. A composer for movies, he was nominated for 18 Academy Awards, but only won one: For the theme from The Omen. He also composed the theme for Star Trek: The Motion Picture, which became the theme for Star Trek: The Next Generation.

7. February 10, 1890: Boris Pasternak. He won the Nobel Prize in literature for writing Doctor Zhivago, a novel that got him exiled from the Soviet Union. The book, and the movie made from it after his death, have stuck in the world's consciousness, to the point where Billy Joel could include Pasternak's name in "We Didn't Start the Fire."

6. February 10, 1898: Bertolt Brecht. With Kurt Weill, he wrote The Threepenny Opera, including the song that became "Mack the Knife." He once said, "Food comes first, then morals."

Honorable Mention: February 10, 1967: Vince Gilligan. He created the TV show Breaking Bad. He probably understood Brecht and Weill.

5. February 10, 1961: George Stephanopoulos. Many political operatives have tried going from being involved in the process to reporting on it. George may have done it the best, going from working on Bill Clinton's 1992 Presidential campaign to White House Communications Director in Clinton's 1st term, and then to ABC News, where he's hosted their Sunday morning news show, This Week, since 2002.

4. February 10, 1894: Harold Macmillan. He became Prime Minister of Britain in 1957, cleaning up the mess that Anthony Eden left after the Suez Crisis, and was a staunch ally to Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy. Although he was not directly involved in the Profumo Affair, it led to his resignation, shortly after he presided over the rise of The Beatles in his country.

3. February 10, 1937: Roberta Flack. You know that Lauren Hill song you love so much? "Killing Me Softly With His Song"? She hit Number 1 with it in 1973, one of three chart-toppers for her.

Honorable Mention: February 10, 1927: Leontyne Price. One of the greatest living opera singers, she sang at President Bill Clinton's Inauguration in 1993.

2. February 10, 1893: Jimmy Durante. A star in vaudeville in the 1920s, radio in the 1930s, film in the 1940s, and TV in the 1950s and '60s. His heart was bigger than his nose. "Ah cha cha cha!"

Honorable Mention: February 10, 1897: Judith Anderson. The Australian actress scared people in Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca in 1940, and gave Star Trek III a bit of gravitas as an elderly Vulcan priestess in 1984.

Honorable Mention: February 10, 1906: Lon Chaney Jr. Although never as famous as his father, his career in horror films was more diverse: He played Count Dracula, the Frankenstein monster, The Wolf Man, the Mummy, and the Devil himself. He also played Lennie Small in the 1939 version of Of Mice and Men, Sinbad the Sailor, Chief Pontiac, and Jack McCall, the killer of Wild Bill Hickok.

Honorable Mention: February 10, 1930: Robert Wagner. And I'm going to keep listing the actor as "Honorable" until I see more than a rumor that the death of his wife, actress Natalie Wood, was anything other than a tragic accident. 

Honorable Mention: February 10, 1967: Laura Dern. She may be the daughter of Bruce Dern and Diane Ladd, but she may have surpassed both of them in acting.

Honorable Mention: February 10, 1974: Elizabeth Banks. She played Laura Bush in Oliver Stone's film W., but she's better known for comedy.

Honorable Mention: February 10, 1991: Emma Roberts. She may be Eric's daughter and Julia's nice, but she's built her own brand as an actress.

Honorable Mention: February 10, 1997: Chloë Grace Moretz. Don't mess with her: She’s been a superhero, Snow White, two vampires, and Wednesday Addams.

1. February 10, 1950: Mark Spitz. Before Michael Phelps was born, Spitz set the standard he pursued: 2 Gold Medals in swimming at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, and 7 more in 1972 in Munich.

Still alive as of this writing: Calipari, Czyz, Dykstra, Johnston, Law, Berkman, Gatlin, Gilligan, Stephanopoulos, Flack, Price, Wagner, Dern, Banks, Roberts, Moretz, Spitz.