Walter Payton’s Hall of Fame-worthy career set an example for every NFL player to come after him. Even though Payton passed nearly a decade ago, Bears fans remember him to this day as if he had only retired last week. Sportscasters still measure new players against Payton, an intimidating standard to be sure.

Payton was born in Columbia, MS in 1954 and came to the game relatively late in life for an NFL player. It was not until high school that he discovered his talent for and love of the game. He continued to play in college at Jackson State in Mississippi.

Payton was fourth in contention for the Heisman Trophy in 1975, the year that saw him becoming Chicago’s fourth draft pick. Walter Payton got off to a slow start his first season, with a mere 7 touchdowns and 679 yards, but gave the world a taste of what would come later in his final game of the season. This game saw the Bears facing off against the New Orleans Saints; Payton made a 134 yard run, something which had not been seen in Chicago since the Gale Sayers era.

His second year as a Bear saw him with 13 touchdowns and 1,000 yards, a performance which won him the NFL’s 1977 MVP title. The Bears went to the playoffs this year and Payton ran an impressive 274 yards in a single game, a record which stood for 23 years.

Known affectionately as “sweetness” Payton was a favorite with fans and teammates alike for his personality and his impressive record n the gridiron. IN his 13 year NFL career, Payton racked up an astounding 16,726 yards, 110 touchdowns and 77 100-yard rushing games.

Payton made it look easy, with 1,000 yards dashed in each season between 1976 and 1981. Payton played in every Pro Bowl from 1979 until his retirement. His rushing record has been broken since, but is record may still stand today were it not for NFL strikes which cut short the 1975 and 197 seasons.

With the addition of coach Mike Ditka to the team, Payton saw a new batch of players arrive and the Bears were better than ever. Payton lead a division-leading Chicago Bears and broke Jim Brown’s record for yardage in 1984; ever the gentleman, Payton dedicated this feat to athletes whose careers had ended early due to injuries or illness.

Everyone remembers the “Super Bowl Shuffle” of 1986, still heard from time to time in Chicago. This was the year that the Bears made their very first appearance in the Super Bowl and they did not disappoint the fans, despite Payton’s failure to make a touchdown in the game. The Bears triumphed over the New England Patriots 46-10.

The following year, Payton’s retirement was marked with a huge send off at the Bears home field, Soldier Field in Chicago. After his retirement from the game, he stayed active, sitting on the team’s board of directors, beginning a CART racing team and even opening a restaurant. He was name dot the NFL Hall of Fame in 1996, a fitting cap on an extraordinary career.

Payton stunned the world in 1999 with his announcement that he had been diagnosed with the rare autoimmune disease Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis. Payton was placed on an organ transplant waiting list (it wasn’t his style to use his fame to receive treatment before those even sicker than himself). Tragically, he would pass away in November of that year.

The number 34; Payton’s is one which instantly brings a smile to the face of any Bears fan. The foundation started by Payton’s wife Connie is yet another of his legacies, urging the people of Illinois to become organ donors. To this day, people in Chicago feel that they lost something truly special when they lost this remarkable man.

Roger Federer is a name sure to become legendary in the tennis world. He has won four Tennis Master’s Cup titles, thirteen Grand Slam singles titles, fourteen ATP Masters Series titles and an Olympic Gold Medal, all by the age of 27! Federer has won 19 Grand Slam singles titles (a record which still stands), 10 of which were won consecutively between Wimbledon in 2005 and the US Open in 2007. Federer is currently ranked second in the world, having held the number one rank between February 2004 and August 2008; he was also the winner of the Laureus World Sportsman award for four consecutive years between 2004 and 2008.

Federer was born in Basel, Switzerland where he still spends a good deal of his free time. He grew up in the Basel suburb of Munchenstein.

Even at the age of six it was obvious that Federer was a born athlete. He begun tennis lessons at the age of nine, working under the tutelage of a private coach by the time he was ten. Federer also played football and cricket as a teenager; both of which he also showed great potential for. However, he ultimately decided to make his career in tennis, though he continued to play cricket in the off-season. He had won all of the national championships open to him at the age of fourteen, being awarded with the opportunity to train at the Ecublems-based Swiss National Tennis Center. Feder joined the ITF junior tennis circuit in 1996, turning pro by 1998; this year saw him winning the ITF Junior Tennis championship as well as the junior WInbledon and the Orange Bowl.

While most tennis players are more at home on one type of court or another, Federer’s versatility has made him famous. One sportswriter has said that tennis players can be clay court specialists, grass court specialists, hard court specialists; or they can be like Roger Federer. He is best known for his powerful groundstroke, as well as for being a skilled volleyer and baseliner. Federer uses a hybrid grip which takes elements from the semi-western and eastern strokes.

In his career, Roger Federer has won a whopping 57 singles titles. He was named by Time magazine as one of the most influential people of the year 2007. Federer is engaged in charity work outside of his tennis career. He founded the Roger Foundation in 2003, to promote sports to young people and to help disadvantaged persons. At only 27 years old, we may have not yet seen the best of Roger Federer yet.

While Barry Bonds is known as an incredible baseball player, it is other things about him which may eventually be what he is remembered for. Bonds won four MVP awards as an outfielder, four years in a row. He played in the 2007 World Series and is one of the most widely known players in the sport. In 2006, he surpassed even Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron in home runs.

However, this was not accomplished under ideal circumstances, there were already stories of steroid use, and Bonds was not loved dearly by a majority of fans. This feeling was apparently very mutual and Bonds has never been one to bite back hostile words. Even Hank Aaron became disillusioned and disenchanted, and at the end of the history making record chase, refused to attend any more of Bonds’ games. He has a standing record of 762 homeruns giving him sole possession of first place. Bonds also holds records for most homeruns in a single season-73. There are numerous records and accolades that belong to Bonds, but no ball team would sign him during the 2008 season.

With a jet setting career and a financial future already assured, this godson of the great Willie Mays, came under significant scrutiny regarding the well-publicized Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative case, and was charged and indicted with perjury. He had apparently lied about steroid use when he was under oath and the courts held him accountable for his actions.

This has cast a pall over his entire career. Fans questioned the validity of his MVP awards and his achievements within the game - and the league itself has also expressed concern. Achievements which came through the use of steroids, the reasoning goes, are not to be valued as highly as those accomplished solely through an athlete’s natural faculties.

This overshadowed an impressive baseball career that started out in high school. As he was finishing his final term in high school, Bonds was approached by the Giants. As he finished his high school career, the negotiations between Bonds and the Giants were not going as well as projected, and college seemed like a better choice. He continued to play baseball in college and excelled during this time, including seven consecutive hits during the College World Series. He was then named the All American selection that year by Sporting News.

Barry Bonds is still facing obstruction of justice charges that will not be heard in court until March of 2009. The federal prosecutor had submitted paperwork with a typo, alleging that the steroid use, which Bonds still argues he did not take knowingly, was tested for, and found positive in 2001 rather than the year 2000. This year makes a difference due to testing laws that were not implemented until a later date.

Bonds has been spending his time away from the diamond by working with children’s hospitals, a public service which has comforted many sick and even terminally ill children. Bonds holds an honorary chairmanship from the Macy’s Tree Lighting committee - this committee raises money for UCSF Children’s Hospital Palliative Care Program, a children’s hospice.

US Tennis Open winners have been held up high since 1881. This tennis championship is one of the oldest in the world and the fourth and final tournament in the Grand Slam each year. This tournament takes place during the end of August and the beginning of September. There are five different event championships which include the men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles, mixed doubles, wheelchair events, and even events for juniors and seniors.

The US Open is different from the other tournaments in the Grand Slam like the Wimbledon. The US Tennis Open winners are determined by the person that wins the final set tie breaks. In the other tournaments the winners are determined by whoever wins by two games starting at the fifth set for the men and the third set for the women.

Even though it does not draw the crowned heads that one may see at Wimbledon, this is a tournament with a lot of prestige attached and the event draws thousands of spectators from every part of the world as well as many locals. With more than $20 million in prize money awarded in this tournament, it’s easy to see why over 600 players compete in this tournament each year.

The US Open is held in New York City, at the Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens, home of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. Unlike Wimbledon, the events are held on an acrylic court rather than grass.

Since there is more prize money to be won, many players aspire to compete in this tournament. There is a $1.5 million prize for the winners of the main events, with half that amount going to the runner up. Semifinalists are awarded $320,000, quarterfinalists half of this and so on. There are many prizes to be won even by those players who leave without a trophy.

US Open winners in doubles events also receive large cash prizes. Doubles winners split a total of $1.8 million. There is also half a million dollars in prize money to be won in the mixed doubles. The qualifying 128 draw events for both men and women pay up to one million - in total, there is over $20 million dollars in prize money to be won in this tournament.

With so much to be won and the prestige of competing in a Grand Slam tournament, professional tennis players are always interested in this tournament. There are prizes given to the winners in many different events, giving players a much better chance to go home with a prize than in other tournaments; this generates a lot of excitement among fans as well, which makes this tournament incredibly popular year after year.

A living legend in the world of racing if ever there was one, Richard Petty has won an incredible 200 races in his career, holding one of his many records as a seven time winner of the Daytona 500. Other than Dale Earnhardt, he is the only racer to ever win the NASCAR Championship seven times, a record he is justifiably proud of.

Over 35 years in the sport, Richard Petty competed in no less than 1184 NASCAR Sprint Cup races. Not only does he have 200 wins to his record, but also has had 712 top ten finishes. He is considered one of NASCAR’s all time greats and perhaps even the greatest, having had 513 consecutive starts between the years 1971 and 1989.

Richard Petty is actually a second generation racecar driver. Lee Petty, his father, won the first Daytona 500 in 1959 and was a 3 time NASCAR Champion. Richard Petty’s son, Kyle is also well-known in the NASCAR circuit. His grandson, Adam was killed in a racing accident at New Hampshire International Speedway just five weeks after the death of Lee.

The Petty family owns and operates Petty Enterprises, his family’s racing team. Based out of an enormous 100,000+ square foot former Yates Racing facility, he is still active in the organization and is as always popular with the fans and is to this day commonly asked to sign autographs.

He got his start in racing at the age of 21 and was 1959’s NASCAR Rookie of the Year with a record of 9 top 10 finishes (6 of these were top 5 finishes!). He continued to be one of the sport’s top racers right up to his 1992 retirement; his last top 10 finish was in the 1991 Budweiser at the Glen race.

Petty is well known for surviving three dramatic crashes, including one at the 1970 Rebel 400, where his car lost a tire, slammed into the wall and flipped several times. Amazingly, Petty suffered only a shoulder injury, although the incident prompted the league to begin requiring safety netting for the driver’s seat in all subsequent races.

In 1980, at Pocono, he broke his neck and kept the injury hidden for the next few races. In 1988 at the Daytona 500, his crash sent parts everywhere after numerous flips and he sustained temporary vision loss from the g-forces, but otherwise walked away uninjured.

Richard Petty was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1997. He was named one of NASCAR’s 50 greatest drivers in 1998 and was awarded the Medal of Freedom by George H W Bush in 1992, the first sports figure to receive the honor.

Richard Petty was known for his accessibility to his fans, where he would sign autographs for hours and he increased the popularity of the racing sports. He has been featured in movies as himself, such as Speed Zone, Stroker Ace with Burt Reynolds, and the 2008 movie, Swing Vote, besides the 1972 video release, The Petty Story.

Richard Petty has spent nearly his entire adult life in the world of racing and he is still active in NASCAR (though no longer behind the wheel) even now.

Serena Williams really needs no introduction. At present, she is the number one ranked female player in the world of professional tennis. At only 27, she has won a total of 20 Grand Slam titles (8 women’s doubles, 2 mixed doubles and 10 singles), has held all four Grand Slam titles at once and is the current champion in the Australian Open and the US Open. Williams is nothing less than a living legend in tennis and was named Tennis magazine’s 17th best athlete of all time in 2005. She is sure to achieve much more yet as an athlete and enjoys incredibly popularity with fans.

The youngest of five children, her family moved to Los Angeles, where her father decided to begin coaching all of his children in tennis on the public courts in Compton. Serena and her sister Venus especially took to the game, with Serena willing her first tournament before the age of five! By the time she was ten, she had already won 46 tournaments.

Serena and her siblings were all home schooled. Serena’s father, hoping to avoid his daughters having to face racism, stopped sending them to national junior tennis tournaments. Serena then attended a tennis school run by professional player Rick Macci in Haines City Florida. During those times, she sometimes trained with Andy Roddick, who Serena actually beat one time in a practice match.

All these years of training built Serena into an incredible player. While she is best known as a baseline player, her technique consists of taking control of the rallies and Williams is considered to be one of the more aggressive players in the sport. Her serve, return and ground strokes whether fore or backhand are known for their power. Her serves are known as among the best in tennis, winning admiration from players, sportscasters and fans at every match. She serves at a high speed, regularly meeting and even exceeding 120 mph (she broke a record with her serves of 127 and 129 mph at Charleston in 2008). Her return serve can overpower opponents; and she hits both topspin and flat serves on either corner of the service box.

Aside from her playing style, Serena is also known for her unusual and colorful outfits on court. Her family has opened a clothing line named Aneres. She also made several television and movie appearances. She also posed for the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. She eventually made a lucrative career as a product endorser. In May 2004, Serena William’s partnership with Nike debuted custom-designed sports apparel. Serena also received the Celebrity Role Model Award from Avon Foundations in 2003 for her participation in the breast cancer drives. She also had her charities to spend time with off the court. In November 2008, she funded the construction and completion of a secondary school in Kenya.

Generally considered one of the best players in the NBA, Dallas Mavericks point guard Jason Kidd is known by teammates, opponents and fans as a formidable player. He led the New Jersey Nets to two consecutive NBA finals in 2003 and 2003 before joining up with the Mavericks.

He started his NBA Career with the Dallas Mavericks, went to play for Phoenix, and was traded to New Jersey before returning back to Dallas in February, 2008. In April, 2008, he achieved his 100th career triple-double in the final regular season game.

Born in San Francisco, the oldest of 6 children, Jason Kidd would often play on the public city basketball courts in the Oakland area and often against NBA All-Star Gary Payton. The two still talk about those early days.

During high school, Jason received the Naismith Award for the nation’s top high school player, and ended up going to college at University of California in Berkley. Jason Kidd was named a finalist for the Naismith and Wooden Awards as college basketball’s top player and decided to enter the NBA draft in 1994. Berkley retired his number 5 jersey when he left.

Kidd’s achievements are impressive: he was a member of the All-NBA First team from 1999 to 2002 and in 2004, is a one time NBA All-Star and won 2003’s NBA Skills Challenge Championship. As if this weren’t enough, he also was a member of the 1995 NBA All-Rookie First Team and made the All Defensive First and Second Teams from 1999 to 2007!

In 2008, Jason Kidd was on the 2008 Olympic Gold Medal winning US Men’s Basketball team, along with other basketball greats, who went undefeated. In USA Basketball, he has an undefeated record of 56-0 including exhibition games. He has brought home a total of five gold medals, in his Olympic participations of 2000 and 2008 games.

As amazing as his basketball career has been, his personal life has been rocky at times. He was arrested and pled guilty to charges of domestic abuse in 2001. Kidd entered counseling, anger management courses and quit drinking; he later reconciled with his wife.

However, he filed for divorce in 2007, claiming his wife was insanely jealous, paranoid and had threatened to file false reports of abuse. His wife filed as well, claiming physical abuse. The two have three children together.

A year later, it was reported that Jason Kidd was expecting another child with girlfriend and model Hope Dworaczyk.

Despite personal problems, Kidd was one of two players in NBA history to record at lease 14,000 points, 6600 rebounds and 9,000 assists. He joined the ranks of Walt Chamberlin and Magic Johnson as one of three players to average a triple-double for multiple playoff series games. He was named the USA Basketball’s 2007 Male Athlete of the Year. He has been a consistent super-star and an all time triple-double leader with 101, behind Oscar Robertson with 181 and Magic Johnson with 138.

Jason Kidd is one of the most accomplished players in the NBA - he has achieved much already in his career and this NBA legend and Olympic athlete may have a lot of surprises left on his career. He is also active in social work, sponsoring a variety of programs for Dallas area young people.