Mark Stein

When we found that once-famed soccer club Chelsea had a top scorer named Mark Stein in the early days of the Premier League, we immediately thought...

Don't try to get ahead of us! No, we didn't think Mark Stein was Jewish. We thought he must have been Scottish, a la previously profiled footballer Jock Stein. After all, Stein is a perfectly cromulent Scottish surname, with no relation to the Germanic/Jewy Stein. But no, this Stein is not Scottish at all. The man is black South African, but the name is, in fact, Jewish. Confused yet?

Stein's name comes from his father, Isaiah Stein, an anti-apartheid activist in South Africa. In turn, Isaiah, whose birth father was a pastor, got his name from his adopted one, who was Jewish.

Late in Mark's career, he took a stand against a racist manager, saying "my dad was a political activist who fought against racism in South Africa all his life. So why should I have to put up with it here?" That pretty much ended his playing days.

This Stein might not be Jewish, but that doesn't make him any less of a mensch.