Top 10 March 28 Birthdays

Honorable Mention: March 28, 1897: Sepp Herberger. He coached West Germany to win the 1954 World Cup.

Honorable Mention: March 28, 1899: Buck Shaw. A tackle on Knute Rockne's 1st National Championship team at Notre Dame, 1919, he became a successful coach at both the college and the pro level. He led Santa Clara University to win the 1937 and 1938 Sugar Bowls, and their stadium is now named for them. In 1946, he became the 1st head coach of the San Francisco 49ers, and led them to the 1949 All-America Football Conference Championship Game, but lost. In 1960, he coached the Philadelphia Eagles to the NFL Championship, their last for 57 years.

Honorable Mention: March 28, 1919: Vic Raschi. From West Springfield, Massachusetts, the pitcher became known as the Springfield Rifle. He went 132-66, mostly for the New York Yankees, making 4 All-Star Games, pitching a complete game to win the 1949 American League Pennant clincher, leading the AL in strikeouts in 1951, and helping the Yankees win 6 World Series. In 1954, with the St. Louis Cardinals, he gave up Hank Aaron's 1st career home run.

Honorable Mention: March 28, 1922: Joey Maxim. Giuseppe Antonio Berardinelli took his nom de pugiliste due to his rapid-fire punching. From 1950 to 1952, nearly 3 full years, he was Light Heavyweight Champion of the World. He was best known for defending the title against Middleweight Champion Sugar Ray Robinson at Yankee Stadium, and delivering Robinson only the 2nd defeat of his career, the only knockout.

Honorable Mention: March 28, 1942: Jerry Sloan. The 1st player ever signed by the Chicago Bulls, he starred for them, and coached them, but couldn't get them to a title. He coached the Utah Jazz to 2 NBA Finals berths, the only 2 they've ever had, but lost both times -- to the Bulls.

Honorable Mention: March 28, 1958: Bart Conner. He was a member of the only U.S. team to win the Olympics' overall Gold Medal in men's gymnastics, in Los Angeles in 1984. But he wasn't even the best gymnast in his own marriage: He later married Nadia Comaneci, and they now run a gymnastics school in Bart's native Oklahoma.

10. March 28, 1905: Marlin Perkins. Sponsored by an insurance company, the zoologist hosted Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom from 1963 to 1985. (On NBC until 1971, syndicated thereafter.)

9. March 28, 1862: Aristide Briand. Holding various offices in France from 1902 until his death in 1932, including 4 separate terms as Prime Minister, he was a leading advocate for peace in Europe, and won a Nobel Peace Prize. 

Honorable Mention: March 28, 1942: Neil Kinnock. Leader of Britain's Labour Party from 1983 to 1992.

Dishonorable Mention: March 28, 1945: Rodrigo Duterte. President of the Philippines since 2016, he has been a repressive dictator and a disgusting bigot. (Donald Trump has spoken his approval of him.) Term limits mean he must leave office in 2022. We shall see.

8. March 28, 1914: Edmund Muskie. He is the father of the Democratic Party in the State of Maine. In 1954, he was the 1st Democrat elected Governor in 18 years. In 1958, he was the 1st Democrat that Maine sent to the U.S. Senate in 42 years. In 1968, the Democratic Party nominated him for Vice President with Hubert Humphrey.

In 1972, he ran for President, but flamed out after a dirty-tricks-forced underperformance (despite winning) in the New Hampshire Primary. He served as U.S. Secretary of State in the last 9 months of Jimmy Carter's Presidency. He remains the highest-ranking person of Polish descent in the history of American government.

Honorable Mention: March 28, 1895: Christian Herter. He served as Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, Governor of his State from 1953 to 1957, and Secretary of State under President Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1959 to 1961.

7. March 28, 1944: Ken Howard. He played Thomas Jefferson in the film version of the musical 1776, Coach Ken Reeves on The White Shadow, and Detective Max Cavanaugh on Crossing Jordan. For the last 7 years of his life, 2009 to 2016, he was President of the Screen Actors Guild, and guided its 2012 merger with the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, to form SAG-AFTRA.

6. March 28, 1890: Paul Whiteman. Listening to his music now, you could call him "Paul Whitebread." But he was a pioneer in the recording industry, and nobody brought jazz music, however watered-down, to as many people as he did before he did.

5. March 28, 1955: Reba McIntire. She's been called the Queen of Country, and while Dolly Parton could object, she doesn't. After all, Reba's had several people's shares of hit songs and awards, and Dolly's had a good film career, but Reba had a hit sitcom, which Dolly (so far) hasn't.

Honorable Mention: March 28, 1966: Cheryl James. a.k.a. Salt of Salt-n-Pepa.

4. March 28, 1936: Mario Vargas Llosa. The native of Peru may now be the leading writer in the Spanish language, and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2010. He has dual citizenship with Spain, and has been named the 1st Marquis of Vargas Llosa.

Honorable Mention: March 28, 1868: Maxim Gorky. The novelist was one of the few major creative artists to be successful in Russia both before and after the Bolshevik Revolution.

Honorable Mention: March 28, 1909: Nelson Algren. Although a Detroit native, he became identified with the streets of Chicago, writing about, as he put it, "drunks, pimps, prostitutes, freaks, drug addicts, prize fighters, corrupt politicians, and hoodlums."

His advice included: "Never eat at a place called Mom's" and "When you walk into a poker game, look around the table, and see if you can spot the sucker. If you can't, get out, because the sucker is you."

3. March 28, 1811: John Neumann. At a time when simply being a Catholic in America doomed people to poverty and/or suspicion, this Czech-born Bishop of Philadelphia may have done more for them than anyone, through the schools and outreach programs he founded. 

2. March 28, 1899: Gussie Busch. August Anheuser Busch Jr. only bought the St. Louis Cardinals because he wanted to use their vast radio network to advertise his Budweiser beer. It worked: In just 10 years, Bud went from not even in the Top 10 of America's best-selling beers to Number 1. Along the way, though, he discovered that he loved baseball, and under his ownership, the Cards won 5 National League Pennants and 3 World Series.

Honorable Mention: March 28, 1836: Frederick Pabst. Unlike Gussie, he actually founded a brewing company. But, also unlike Gussie, he could only make his beer "Blue Ribbon," not "The King of Beers."

1. March 28, 1944: Rick Barry. Since Shaquille O'Neal was born in Newark, but was trained to play basketball in Texas, Rick, of Roselle Park, Union County, remains the greatest basketball player ever produced by New Jersey.

In 1964-65, a collegiate year that also included Bill Bradley, Cazzie Russell and Gail Goodrich, he played for the University of Miami and led the nation in scoring average. In 1966, he was named NBA Rookie of the Year. He got the San Francisco Warriors into the 1967 NBA Finals, and led the league in scoring, the 1st time someone other than Wilt Chamberlain had done so since 1958.

He then jumped to the ABA, winning the 1969 Championship with the Oakland Oaks, and reaching the 1972 Finals with the New York Nets. He returned to the team now named the Golden State Warriors, and led them to the 1975 NBA Championship, being named the Finals' Most Valuable Player. He led the NBA in steals that year. When he retired in 1980, his .947 free throw percentage was a career record. (It has since been broken.)

He made 4 All-Star Games in the ABA, and 8 in the NBA. His Number 24 -- he wore it in honor of another legendary San Francisco athlete, Willie Mays -- has been retired by the University of Miami and the Warriors. He's been named to the Basketball Hall of Fame, the New Jersey and Bay Area Sports Halls of Fame, and the NBA's 50th and 75th Anniversary All-Time Teams. He also became a renowned broadcaster in the sport.

Still alive as of this writing: Conner, Kinnock, Duterte, McIntire, James, Vargas Llosa, Barry.