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Lolo Jones began chasing her dream in high school. After years of living in poverty and an unstable home life she was determined to be the first in her family to go to college. Constantly looking to improve, Lolo earned a scholarship from the famed Louisiana State University Track and Field program and fought to become the best, among the best. With the help of coach Dennis Shaver, Lolo became one of the most dominant athletes in the history of the LSU Women’s Track and Field dynasty, winning three NCAA Titles and 11 All-American honors, most notably in the hurdles. After failing to qualifying for the 2004 Olympics, Lolo turned again to Shaver for inspiration to continue fighting for her dream. After four years of intense training, Lolo found herself right where she wanted to be—on the 2008 US Olympic team and favored to win gold in the 100 Meter Hurdles.

As the first African American center at the University of Alabama, and one of the school’s first black players, Croom earned All-American honors, won three SEC championships and displayed the “can-do” attitude first instilled by his father, Rev. Sylvester Croom Sr. After playing for legendary coach Paul “Bear” Bryant and then coaching under him for a decade, Croom moved on to the NFL as an assistant coach for 17 years before emerging as a leading candidate for what he considered to be the ultimate position—head coach at Alabama. Though it appeared in the spring of 2003 that Croom was on the verge of being named Alabama’s next head coach, it was Mike Shula who ended up getting the job. But the following year, Croom was named head coach at another SEC school, Mississippi State University, making him the first African American head football coach in the history of the conference as well as leaving him with the formidable task of rebuilding a football program facing NCAA sanctions.

In high school Sam Bowie was considered a potential franchise player. Arguably the top recruit in a national class that included Ralph Sampson, James Worthy, Dominique Wilkins and Isiah Thomas, the 7-foot-1 center out of Pennsylvania got off to a strong start at the University of Kentucky and as a member of the 1980 U.S. Olympic basketball team. After Bowie resisted pressure to jump early to the NBA, he continued to raise his level of play as a sophomore. But in a game against Vanderbilt late in the regular season, he suffered what would later prove to be a stress fracture in his left leg. Soon plagued by a long recovery that forced him to sit out two consecutive seasons, he struggled to get healthy. Still, Bowie bounced back as a fifth-year senior in 1984 and helped lead Kentucky to the Final Four.

On March 14, 2008, Alabama found itself trailing Mississippi State 59-56 in the final seconds of the first quarterfinal game of the evening session. Crimson Tide guard Mykal Riley sank a last-second three-pointer as time expired, sending the game into overtime. That shot not only extended Alabama’s season for the moment, but it may have prevented thousands of fans from pouring into the city streets just as a tornado touched down outside the Georgia Dome a few minutes later. Though no one in the Georgia Dome was injured, the building felt the effects of the twister. Enough damage was done to the Georgia Dome to not only delay the completion of the Alabama-Mississippi State game and eventually cause a postponement of the last quarterfinal game of the day, but also to force SEC officials to find a new home to finish the tournament on schedule.

A phenom from Rochester, NY, Abby Wambach defied convention by spurning soccer dynasty North Carolina in favor of the University of Florida, an upstart program which, at the time, was only in its fourth year of existence. That decision paid off quickly, as in her 1998 freshman season Wambach helped the Gators nab the SEC’s first and only national championship in soccer – defeating the powerhouse Tar Heels in the final. With four SEC Tournament titles, two SEC Player of the Year awards and the title of all-time leading scorer at Florida, Wambach positioned herself as a top pick in the 2002 WUSA draft. Selected by the Washington Freedom, she starred alongside icon Mia Hamm and earned a roster spot on an already talent-laden U.S. women’s national team, for which she has starred for the last decade.