IN: Sherman Joseph Alexie, Jr. (born October 7, 1966) is a Spokane-Coeur d'Alene-American novelist, short story writer, poet, and filmmaker. His writings draw on his experiences as an Indigenous American with ancestry from several tribes. He grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation and now lives in Seattle, Washington. His best-known book is The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven (1993), a collection of short stories.

Alexie was born on October 7, 1966, at Sacred Heart Hospital in Spokane, Washington. As a little child he lived on the Spokane Indian Reservation, located west of Spokane. His father, Sherman Joseph Alexie, was a member of the Coeur d'Alene tribe, and his mother, Lillian Agnes Cox, was of Colville, Choctaw, Spokane and European American ancestry. One of his paternal great-grandfathers was of Russian descent. Alexie was born with hydrocephalus, a condition that occurs when there is an abnormally large amount of cerebral fluid in the cranial cavity. He had to have brain surgery when he was six months old, and was at high risk of death or mental disabilities if he survived. Alexie's surgery was successful; he suffered no mental damage but had other side effects.  His parents were alcoholics though his mother was a sober alcoholic. His father often left the house on drinking binges for days at a time. To support her six children, Alexie's mother, Lillian, sewed quilts, worked as a clerk at the Wellpinit Trading Post and had some other jobs.  Alexie has described his life at the reservation school as challenging because he was constantly teased by other kids as well as endured abuse he described as "torture" from teachers who were white nuns. They called him "The Globe" because his head was larger than usual, due to the hydrocephalus as an infant. Until the age of seven, Alexie suffered from seizures and bedwetting; he had to take strong drugs to control them. Because of his health problems, he was excluded from many of the activities that are rites of passage for young Indian males. Alexie excelled academically, reading everything available, including auto repair manuals.

How did hydrocephalus affect his life?

OUT: Because of his health problems, he was excluded from many of the activities that are rites of passage for young Indian males.


IN: Jess Claiborne Neely (January 4, 1898 - April 9, 1983) was an American football player and a baseball and football coach. He was head football coach at Southwestern University (now Rhodes College) from 1924 to 1927, at Clemson University from 1931 to 1939 and at Rice University from 1940 to 1966, compiling a career college football record of 207-176-19. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1971. Neely was also the head baseball coach at the University of Alabama (1929-1930), at Clemson (1932-1938) and at Rice (1945 and 1948), tallying a career college baseball mark of 109-108-5.

Neely played football at Vanderbilt University from 1920 to 1922 under head coach Dan McGugin. He was captain and halfback of the undefeated 1922 team, and its best passer. Neely belonged to the Delta Tau Delta fraternity.  Although the Commodores expected a "hard game against the university rivals", Vanderbilt shut out Tennessee 20-0. All three Commodore touchdowns came from passes by Neely to Gink Hendrick. Neely's long first-quarter pass hit Hendrick, who ran 25 yards for the touchdown. In the second quarter Hendrick ran to the 4-yard line on a pass from Neely, and the first half ended with Vanderbilt in possession at the Tennessee one-foot line. Hendrick caught another 30-yard touchdown pass from Neely in the fourth quarter. Two weeks later the Commodores lost 56-6 to one of Auburn's greatest teams, Vanderbilt's worst defeat since its 83-0 loss to Georgia Tech in 1917. The Commodores had only one first down, and never moved the ball beyond their 40-yard line. Neely was one of Vanderbilt's few stars, blocking well and passing Vanderbilt's only touchdown to Hendrick in the end zone.  In a "thriller from the start," the Alabama Crimson Tide defeated Vanderbilt for the first time on November 6, 1920 by a score of 14-7. A forward pass from Doc Kuhn to Neely gave the Commodores their sole touchdown. The following week, "expecting one of the greatest football games of the year", Vanderbilt had a difficult practice schedule before its game with the Virginia Cavaliers; Virginia and Vanderbilt tied, 7-7. Early in the game, Vanderbilt mounted a swift offense, with Neely throwing Hendrick a touchdown pass. That season, Vanderbilt opponents gained less on punt returns than they did against any other team in the South because of coverage by Percy Conyers and Neely.

Did he play against any other teams?

OUT: Two weeks later the Commodores lost 56-6 to one of Auburn's greatest teams,


IN: Robert James Fischer (March 9, 1943 - January 17, 2008) was an American chess grandmaster and the eleventh World Chess Champion. Many consider him to be the greatest chess player of all time. Bobby Fischer showed great skill in chess from an early age; at 13, he won a brilliancy known as "The Game of the Century". At age 14, he became the US Chess Champion, and at 15, he became both the youngest grandmaster up to that time and the youngest candidate for the World Championship.

Sources implying that Paul Nemenyi, a Hungarian-Jewish mathematician and physicist and an expert in fluid and applied mechanics, was Fischer's biological father were first made public in a 2002 investigation by Peter Nicholas and Clea Benson of The Philadelphia Inquirer. Throughout the 1950s, the FBI investigated Regina and her circle for her alleged communist sympathies, as well as her previous life in Moscow.  FBI files identify Paul Nemenyi as Bobby Fischer's biological father, showing that Hans-Gerhardt Fischer never entered the United States, having been refused admission by US immigration officials due to his alleged Communist sympathies. Not only were Regina and Nemenyi reported to have had an affair in 1942, but Nemenyi made monthly child support payments to Regina and paid for Bobby's schooling until his own death in 1952. Nemenyi had lodged complaints with social workers, saying he was concerned about the way that Regina was raising Bobby, to the point that, on at least one occasion, Nemenyi broke down in tears. Later on Bobby told the Hungarian chess player Zita Rajcsanyi that Paul Nemenyi would sometimes show up at the family's Brooklyn apartment and take him on outings.  After Paul Nemenyi died in 1952, Regina Fischer wrote a letter to Nemenyi's first son, Peter, asking if Paul had left money for Bobby in his will:  Bobby was sick 2 days with fever and sore throat and of course a doctor or medicine was out of the question. I don't think Paul would have wanted to leave Bobby this way and would ask you most urgently to let me know if Paul left anything for Bobby.  On one occasion, Regina told a social worker that the last time she had ever seen Hans-Gerhardt Fischer was in 1939, four years before Bobby was born. On another occasion, she told the same social worker she had traveled to Mexico to see Hans-Gerhardt in June 1942 and that Bobby was conceived during that meeting. According to Bobby Fischer's brother-in-law, Russell Targ (who was married to Joan), Regina concealed the fact that Nemenyi was Bobby's father because she wanted to avoid the stigma of an out-of-wedlock birth.

What happened with Fischer's father?

OUT:
FBI files identify Paul Nemenyi as Bobby Fischer's biological father, showing that Hans-Gerhardt Fischer never entered the United States,