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Doll Raffert like Juste Fontaine was a lightweight boxer from Milwaukee. Both entered the ring around 1943 and each enjoyed a measure of success in their careers. Doll and Juste fought three times with Rafferty winning two of the fights and Fontaine winning the bout fought in Pittsburgh. Both Rafferty...

The 17th Marquis de Portago was a scion of Spanish nobility who led a reckless life of adventure and died at 28 in 1957. He also carried on love affairs with numerous international models and film stars, although he was married with two children. Alfonso de Portago drove Ferrari sports cars that competed...

Dick Hutcherson was an Iowa transplant who came to southern stock car racing in 1964. He raced out of Camden, South Carolina. Hutcherson had a short but successful career in NASCAR, racing until 1967 when he retired to become crew chief for David Pearson. Hutcherson was among the biggest money winners...

The San Francisco 49ers of 1963 were the doormat of the National Football League's Western Division. An outstanding member of the old All American Conference, the 49ers had yet to find out how to win in the NFL. One of their main issues was at quarterback, where starter John Brodie had developed...

Toni Ulmen was a German Veritas driver who excelled in Formula Two competition, so much so that he won a championship in this division. Unfortunately the German post World War II drivers were kept from competing in Formula One by FIA sanctions following the armed conflict. Nevertheless Toni became...

Giancarlo Baghetti was the son of a Milan, Italy industrialist whose family fortune was instrumental in his rise to prominence in Formula 1 racing in the early 1960s. Giancarlo was selected by the FISA organization to drive one of the Dino Ferrari prototype cars that it had acquired on loan from the...

Alfred Speedy Thompson was one of the most popular and successful drivers of NASCAR's early days. This was a time when there were 40+ races annually and the majority of the events were raced on dirt tracks in Raleigh, Columbia, Montgomery, Langhorne, and the beach course in Daytona, Florida....

Bill Vukovich was the top driver in the United States when he was killed in a tragic multiple car wreck at Indianapolis on Memorial Day 1955. Bidding to win the event for a third and unprecedented time, Vukovich was caught with nowhere to turn but right by a number of cars ahead of him on the backstretch....

Anthony Miles Standish Tony Brooks drove a works Ferrari from 1956 until he departed to drive Cooper cars near the end of a career that ended in 1961. The son of a dentist Tony also trained to become a dentist before he went racing. His father gifted him with the first car that he entered in competition...

Sergio Mantovani was an Italian race car driver from Milan, Italy, who had bright prospects when he was chosen as a Masrati works driver in 1953. Unfortunately his career was all too brief lasting only a season and a fraction from 1954 to 1955. Mantovani had to have one of his legs amputated after...

William Bufalino was a cousin of Buffalo, New York mobster Russell Bufalino. Both were born in Pittstown, Pennsylvania in the early 20th century. William moved to Detroit where he became involved with mobster Papa John Prizola, a reputed narcotics dealer. In 1947 he joined the Teamsters Union and...

Boston Corbett is known primarily as the Union cavalry sergeant who shot and killed Abraham Lincoln's assassin John Wilkes Booth. The slayer of the President was tracked into a barn on the farm of Richard Garrett across the Rappahannock River in Virginia. Corbett stuck his musket in a crack of...

Joakim Jo Bonnier was a famous Grand Prix and sports car racer from Sweden. The heir to a publishing empire Jo also had his own art gallery and was an international playboy. Known for his goateed appearance Bonnier won a single Formula 1 race, the 1959 Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort. He met an untimely...

Maria Teresa de Filippis was from a wealthy family in Naples, Italy. Ironically her brothers gave impetus to her racing career. They had a bet among themselves as to how fast their sister could drive. In the late 1940s Maria entered endurance races of increasing difficulty. She won her first motorsports...