William Harrison "Bones" Dillard (born July 8, 1923) is an American track and field athlete, the only male so far to win Olympic titles in both sprinting and hurdling events. Dillard was born in Cleveland, Ohio, attended East Technical High School. He entered Baldwin-Wallace College in 1941 and joined Pi Lambda Phi International Fraternity, and two years later was drafted into the Army. He returned to college in 1946 and resumed athletics, to which he had been inspired by Jesse Owens, who was also from Cleveland and had attended East Technical High School as well. He won the NCAA and AAU 120-yard and 220-yard hurdles in both 1946 and 1947 and he tied world records in both events with a 22.3 in the 220 in 1946 and a 13.6 in the 120.

He particularly excelled in hurdling, and was probably the best hurdler in the world shortly after the war.

However, at the trials for the 1948 Summer Olympics, Dillard failed to qualify for the 110 m hurdles event, though he qualified as third (and last) for the 100 m, not his specialty.

Marion Motley (June 5, 1920 - June 27, 1999) was a professional football player, a fullback for the Cleveland Browns, and briefly for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Motley attended high school at Canton McKinley High School in Canton, Ohio, and played college football at South Carolina State and three seasons at Nevada. As a punishing fullback for the Wolf Pack, Motley played several games at San Francisco's Kezar Stadium against such power teams of the period from the Bay Area: USF, Santa Clara, and St. Mary's; at the time there were no major professional football teams on the West Coast.

During World War II, Motley joined the U.S. Navy, where he first played for Paul Brown with the Great Lakes Naval Training Station team. This team, full of fine players, notably defeated Notre Dame 39-7 in 1945. Motley planned on going back to college to get a degree, but then Paul Brown offered him a job with his new professional team. He started his pro football career in 1946, when the Cleveland Browns were part of the new AAFC.

Lee Louis Daniels (born December 24, 1959) is an American actor, film producer, and director. He produced Monster's Ball and directed the film Precious, which received six Academy Award nominations, including Best Director; the film won two of the awards.

Daniels was born on Christmas Eve, 1959, in Philadelphia and attended Radnor High School. After graduating, Daniels attended Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Missouri. He began his career in entertainment as a casting director and manager after a chance meeting with a Hollywood producer, working on such projects as Under the Cherry Moon and Purple Rain. He continued managing talent, including several Academy Award nominees and winners. The documentary My Big Break features Daniels early in his career when he was managing actor Wes Bentley who starred as Ricky Fitts in American Beauty. In the documentary a dynamic Daniels animatedly comments on Bentley's reluctance to capitalize on his newfound celebrity status. Lee has a sister Joyce Daniels Fennell from Philadelphia. Daniels and Joyce's father, Officer William Daniels, is from West Philadelphia. When he arrived in Hollywood, Daniels first worked for a nursing agency, then created his own agency at age 21. He sold his agency for approx $2 million and went to work as a production assistant. Later, he realized he had not paid taxes on his income but paid them off in time.

Dean Edwards Smith (born February 28, 1931) is a retired American head coach of men's college basketball. Originally from Emporia, Kansas, Smith has been called a “coaching legend” by the Basketball Hall of Fame. Smith is best known for his successful 36-year coaching tenure at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Smith coached from 1961 to 1997 and retired with 879 victories, which was the NCAA Division I men's basketball record at that time. Smith has the 9th highest winning percentage of any men’s college basketball coach (77.6%). During his tenure as head coach of North Carolina, the team won two national titles and appeared in 11 Final Fours.

Smith is also known for running a clean program and having a high graduation rate for his players, with 96.6% of his athletes receiving their degrees. While at North Carolina, Smith helped promote desegregation by recruiting the University’s first African American scholarship basketball player, Charlie Scott, and pushing for equal treatment for African Americans by local businesses. Smith coached and worked with numerous individuals at North Carolina who went on to achieve notable success in basketball, as either players or coaches or both. Smith retired as head coach from North Carolina in 1997, saying that he was not able to give the team the same level of enthusiasm that he had given it for years. Since retirement, Smith has used his influence to help out in various charitable ventures and political activities.