Marc Buoniconti — the son of the great, undersized Miami Dolphins line-backer Nick Buoniconti, who captained the Dolphins famed "No Name No Defense," helped Miami to record the NFL’s only undefeated season, and also win two Super Bowls, in 1973 and 1974 — was paralyzed from the neck down while playing high school football in 1985.

Since that moment, the Buoniconti family became leaders in helping to find and fund a cure for spinal cord injuries, starting the Buoniconti Fund, and Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, which has raised, on average, about $10 million each year for decade and a half.

When Buoniconti, the elder, was finally inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, in the summer of 2001, he choose Marc to present him.

"...When they started using labels for me and telling you all the medical cliché’s that I’d never be able to walk again," said the wheelchair bound Marc, in his presenter’s speech, "that I needed a machine to breathe for me, that paralysis can’t be cured — once again you didn’t listen. Dad, you never believed the labels and limitations that others ascribed to you. You faced each challenge head on and made believers out of them. So in closing, I’ve got a label for you that I’ve never mentioned.

"Dad, as I look at all the things they say you couldn’t do, it seems to me that you’re just not a very good listener."

After the crowd laughed, Marc concluded by introducing his father: "My hero, my friend, my dad, Nick Buoniconti."

His father, crying along with pretty much everyone else, bent over and kissed his son.

Provided by The Ultimate of Sports Lists by Andrew Postman and Larry Stone.