Basketball Man

Louisville, Kentucky

Derek Ervin Smith was a college basketball hero in Louisville, helping his team to win the 1980 national championship. In some histories, he's also credited at this time with creating the "high-five" hand slap.

Smith went on to a successful NBA career -- but by 1996 he was 34 years old and retired. In August he traveled with his family on a cruise, hosting on-board basketball clinics for his employer, the Washington Bullets.

During a farewell cocktail party, Smith suffered a massive heart attack and died.

The Bullets team attended Smith's funeral, and eventually his son, Nolan, helped to win a national basketball championship for his college team, as his father had done 30 years earlier. But Smith's most enduring legacy -- aside from the high-five -- will probably be his tombstone, which features a life-size likeness of the basketball star, who stood six foot six inches tall.