Born October 31, 1947, Munich, Germany.

When the distance running boom started in the U.S. in the late 1970s, Frank Shorter was a driving force in that surge. A Yale University graduate, Shorter didn't become a nationally ranked runner until after his college days although he was the national collegiate 10,000-meter champion in 1969.

It was in 1972, however, when Shorter literally hit the jackpot. That year, he won the Olympic marathon in Munich --ironically the city of his birth. Shorter also was second in the 1976 Olympic marathon and was a double winner at the 1971 Pan American Games, taking both the 10,000 meters and the marathon. A 14-time national champion, Shorter's 1972 Olympic victory earned him the Sullivan Award as the nation's top amateur athlete. Shorter earned a law degree in 1974 and later started his own athletic supply company. He also worked in television as a sports commentator. He was elected to the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 1984.