Antonius Johannes "Anton" Geesink (April 6, 1934 – August 27, 2010) was a Dutch 10th-dan judoka from Utrecht. He was a three-time World Judo Champion (1961, 1964 and 1965), Olympic Gold Medalist (1964) and won 21 European championships. He was 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) tall and weighed 270 pounds (120 kilograms).

Geesink first participated in the European Championships in 1951, and placed second in his category. The following year, he won his first European title. Through to 1967, twenty more European titles followed.

At the 1956 World Championships, Geesink was eliminated in the semi-finals against Yoshihiko Yoshimatsu. At the 1961 World Championships, Geesink, then 5th dan, became World Champion in the open class, defeating the Japanese champion Koji Sone. Japanese judokas had won all the World Championship titles contested up to that point.

Judo debuted as an official sport at the 1964 Summer Olympics, which were held in the sport's home country, Japan. Although Japan dominated three of the four weight divisions (light, middle and heavy), Anton Geesink won the final of the open weight division, defeating Akio Kaminaga in front of his home crowd.

Marinus ("Rinus") Jacobus Hendricus Michels OON (9 February 1928 – 3 March 2005) was a Dutch association football player and coach. He played his entire career for the club Ajax Amsterdam, which he later coached, and was a member of the Netherlands national team both as a player and as manager.

Michels became most notable for his coaching achievements, having won the European Cup with Ajax and the Spanish league with Barcelona, and having had four tenures as coach of the Netherlands national team, which he led to reach the final match of the 1974 World Cup and to win the 1988 European Championship. He is credited with the invention of a major football tactic known as "Total Football" in the 1970s, and was named "coach of the century" by FIFA in 1999.

Michels was born in Amsterdam and grew up at the Olympiaweg, a street near the Olympic Stadium. He celebrated his ninth birthday on 9 February 1936, when he received a pair of football boots and an Ajax jersey. Moments later he was playing with his father at a small field near their home. Via Joop Köhler, a friend of the family who was commissioner at Ajax, Michels was introduced to the club and became a junior member in 1940. When World War II started, and specially during the Dutch famine of 1944, Michels' career was set on hold.

Koji Sone (曽根 康治, Sone Kōji^?, November 14, 1928 – April 27, 1981) was a Japanese judoka and world champion.

Robert James "Gino" Marella (June 4, 1937 – October 6, 1999), better known by his ring name of Gorilla Monsoon, was an American professional wrestler, play-by-play announcer, and booker. He is famous for his run as one of the great super-heavyweights, and later as the voice of the World Wrestling Federation as announcer and as backstage manager during the 1980s and 1990s, and added on-screen President to his duties in the latter decade. In professional wrestling, the staging area just behind the entrance curtain at an event, a position which Marella established and where he could often be found during WWF shows late in his career, is named the Gorilla Position in his honor.

Marella attended Jefferson High School in Rochester, New York, becoming a standout athlete in football, amateur wrestling, and track and field. At the time, he weighed over 300 pounds (136 kg), and was affectionately called "Tiny" by his teammates.

Marella was also a standout athlete after high school at Ithaca College in Ithaca, New York. He continued to wrestle, now weighing over 350 pounds, and took second in the 1959 NCAA Wrestling Championships. He also held several school athletic records, including an 18-second wrestling pin, and several track-and-field distinctions. He was inducted into the Ithaca College Athletic Hall of Fame in 1973. During the summers he was at Ithaca College, he was a construction worker in Rochester. One of the buildings he helped construct was the Rochester War Memorial. He was inducted into the Section V Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2010 along with longtime childhood friend Frank Marotta who gave a speech on his behalf.

Johannes Gerrit (Johan) Derksen (born January 31, 1949 in Heteren, Gelderland) is a Dutch sports journalist and former football player. He played professional football between 1966 and 1978 for five clubs: Go Ahead Eagles, Cambuur Leeuwarden, BV Veendam, HFC Haarlem and MVV Maastricht. During and after his active career he became well-known as a sports journalist, specialising in football (soccer). He is the current editor-in-chief of Voetbal International, the country's most prominent football magazine. He is also a television football pundit on RTL7's Voetbal International.

He was born in Heteren, Gelderland was born into a right wing Protestant Christian family. Derksen describes his father as a very strict policeman both professionally and at home. Ever since he was he child he wanted to become a drummer. Derksen, who was an only child, stated his father wanted him to become a footballer instead of choosing the uncertain life of a musician. He played at the local team SDOO Heteren at the time. His family moved to Drenthe when he was a teenager. There he played for amateur soccer clubs Nieuw-Buinen and Rolder Boys before moving to Deventer to join the youth academy of Go Ahead Eagles.