Homer Hadley Hickam, Jr. (born February 19, 1943) is an American author, Vietnam veteran, and a former NASA engineer. His autobiographical novel Rocket Boys: A Memoir, was a #1 New York Times Best Seller, is studied in many American and international school systems, and was the basis for the film October Sky. Hickam has also written a number of best-selling memoirs and novels including the "Josh Thurlow" historical fiction novels. His books have been translated into several languages.

Homer H. Hickam,Jr. is the second son of Homer, Sr. and Elsie Gardener Hickam (née Lavender) and was raised in Coalwood, West Virginia. He graduated from Big Creek High School in 1960. While there, he led a group of boys who built rockets. They called themselves the Big Creek Missile Agency (BCMA). Taking their designs to the 1960 National Science Fair, the BCMA won a gold and silver medal in the area of propulsion. Hickam graduated from Virginia Tech in 1964 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering. While at Virginia Tech he designed a cannon to be fired at games and during corps of cadets functions. The cannon was cast out of brass that had been collected from cadet belt buckles and caps, and scrap he got from his father, the superintendent of a coal mine. The cannon was named "The Skipper" after President John F. Kennedy and has become an icon for the Hokies. The Skipper is now retired and resides in honor in the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets Museum. It has had two successors, Skipper II and III. Traditionally, it is fired after the Hokies score a touchdown.

In the Western classical tradition, Homer ( /ˈhoʊmər/; Ancient Greek: Ὅμηρος, Hómēros) is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.

When he lived is unknown. Herodotus estimates that Homer lived 400 years before Herodotus' own time, which would place him at around 850 BC; while other ancient sources claim that he lived much nearer to the supposed time of the Trojan War, in the early 12th century BC. Modern researchers appear to place Homer in the 7th or 8th centuries BC.

The formative influence played by the Homeric epics in shaping Greek culture was widely recognized, and Homer was described as the teacher of Greece. Homer's works, which are about fifty percent speeches, provided models in persuasive speaking and writing that were emulated throughout the ancient and medieval Greek worlds. Fragments of Homer account for nearly half of all identifiable Greek literary papyrus finds.

Robert Martin Bailey (born September 3, 1968 in Barbados) is a former American football cornerback who played eleven seasons for six teams, the Los Angeles Rams, the Dallas Cowboys, the Washington Redskins, the Detroit Lions, and the Baltimore Ravens from 1991 to 2001 in the National Football League.

Bailey played college football at the University of Miami and was drafted in the fourth round of the 1991 NFL Draft by the Rams.

Bailey was interviewed about his time at the University of Miami for the documentary The U, which premiered December 12, 2009 on ESPN.

He was nicknamed "Beetle" after the comic strip character.

On October 23, 1994 as a member with the Rams, Bailey made the longest punt return in NFL history when he ran 103 yards for a touchdown in a game against the New Orleans Saints. What makes this return stand out is that every single player on the field assumed the ball was going to bounce through the end zone after the punt. Everyone, that is, except Bailey, who was the only person to see that the ball never bounced out of the end zone and was lying in the end zone still in play. He ran up, scooped the ball up, and returned it for a touchdown before anyone realized what had happened.