Great comebacks

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Great comebacks

Oracle Team USA won the America's Cup Wednesday after clawing back from a 7-point deficit in what has been called one of the greatest comebacks in sports history. Here are some more amazing comebacks from the world of sports, business, entertainment and politics.

Abraham Lincoln is considered by many to have been the greatest president in history for his role in preserving the nation during the Civil War. But the 16th president, seen here with son Tad, overcame his share of failures. In 1833, Lincoln's business went bankrupt and his assets were seized to help pay off debt that took him years to repay. In 1835, a woman Lincoln may have been engaged to died of typhoid and he battled depression. But, by 1846 the failed businessman had become an attorney and won a seat in Congress. In 1860 he was elected president of the U.S. He won again in 1864, during the throes of the Civil War. He was shot by Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865, and died the next morning.

In 1899, the man whose name has become synonymous with automobiles started the Detroit Automobile Company with the backing of three prominent politicians. Over the next two years, the perfectionist Ford only produced 20 cars at his factory. The company went bankrupt in 1901, but not before Ford learned a few things. In 1903 he founded the Ford Motor Company, which now cranks out millions of cars per year and is the only major car company in the U.S. to never file for bankruptcy.

As a young man, Walt Disney had to file for bankruptcy after his first animation studio -- Laugh-O-Gram -- went belly up. He later lost the rights to his most successful character, Oswald the Rabbit. But he persevered and created Mickey Mouse and a bevy of other characters to become the most famous animator in history. Here he is pictured with the father of modern rocketry, Wernher von Braun, at the Redstone Arsenal in Alabama in 1954.

Golfer Ben Hogan, seen here on the 3rd tee at Augusta National in 1951, survived a head-on collision with a Greyhound Bus in 1949. Doctors said he might never walk again and dismissed the notion he could ever play competitive golf. But the man in the white hat was out of the hospital in two months and back on the tour in a year. In 1953 he had one of the best seasons ever in professional golf, completing the so-called "Hogan Slam" by winning three major championships. The feat was not repeated until 2000 by Tiger Woods.

In 1967, during the Vietnam War, boxing legend Muhammad Ali refused to join the Army. "I ain't got no quarrel with the Vietcong," he said, and was stripped of his title and banned from boxing. In 1978, an underdog Ali knocked out George Foreman in the "Rumble in the Jungle" in Zaire to reclaim the heavyweight champion belt.

In the 1960s, the career of Elvis Presley declined considerably due to a series of bad movies and poor song choices. And rock groups such as The Beatles and Rolling Stones has stolen the crown of "The King." In 1968, a leather-clad Presley stormed back to prominence with an hour-long TV special that featured songs that were more rock-and-roll than his other '60s efforts. Soon, he was selling out huge shows and back on the charts, including a No. 1 record "Suspicious Minds" in 1969.

On the ice, hockey legend Mario Lemieux had few peers. Off the ice, life was a struggle. In the 1989 season, he scored an otherworldly 199 points (114 assists, 85 goals) for the Pittsburgh Penguins and in 1992 was on pace to match Wayne Gretzky's record of 92 goals in a season. The same season, at the height of his career, he announced he had cancer and would have to quit playing hockey to get radiation treatments. In the summer of 1993 he had serious back surgery and missed 48 games of the 1994 season. He left the game temporarily but returned for the 1995 season to win the scoring title. In 1997 he retired, becoming the first player to do so with a greater than 2-point per game scoring average and was immediately inducted into the NHL Hall of Fame.

Magic Johnson won basketball championships at every level of play -- high school, college and pros. In the 1980s he led the Los Angeles Lakers to five NBA championships. Prior to the 1991 season he was diagnosed with HIV and retired immediately. In 1992 he joined other NBA greats to form the gold-medal winning Olympics "Dream Team." He returned to the NBA as a player and later a coach, winning his second NBA All-Star Game MVP title in 1992.

American tennis player Andre Agassi is considered one of the greatest players of all time, but in 1997, he began using crystal meth, tested positive for the drug and was ranked 141st in the world. He was also struggling at home and would soon divorce actress Brooke Shields. Many said the career of Agassi -- who frequently represented the U.S. in international competition -- was over. In 1998 he began his comeback on a tour for players ranked outside the Top 50 and catapulted from 110th to 6th, the biggest increase in ranking in a single year ever. In 1999 he won the French Open, becoming one of the few players to win a major title on three different playing surfaces. He also won the 1999 U.S. Open, and, for the first time, was ranked the world's No. 1 player.

Making a comeback is not as difficult if you are one of the greatest athletes to ever grace a court, but Michael Jordan made it look easy. Jordan, whose Chicago Bulls had won three consecutive NBA (1991-1993) championships, retired in 1993. He announced his "unretirement" midway through the 1995 season with a two-word press release --- "I'm back." The 31-31 team turned things around quickly and went on to win three more consecutive NBA championships.

In 1993, tennis player Monica Seles, the No. 1 player in the world the previous two years, was stabbed in the back with a 9-inch knife during a tennis match. She returned to tennis two years later, and though she never reclaimed the No. 1 ranking she did win the Australian Open in 1996.

Former UGA standout Garrison Hearst was having a great pro career when, in 1998, he broke his ankle while playing the Atlanta Falcons as a member of the San Francisco 49ers. He developed a bone-deteriorating condition similar to the one that ended the career of Bo Jackson and doctors said he might never play again. But he returned in 2001, becoming the first to ever return to the NFL after suffering from avascular necrosis, and ran for 1,200 yards. He was named the Comeback Player of the Year.

In 1985, Steve Jobs was fired from the Apple, the company he loved and co-founded. In 1997 he returned as "interim CEO" of the struggling company and, with the development of the iPod, iPhone and iPad, transformed Apple into one of the most lucrative businesses in history.

In the early 1990s, Robert Downey Jr. was considered one of the best young actors in America. From 1996 to 2001 he struggled with an addiction to cocaine and heroin. He spent several months in jail, a year in court-enforced rehab and was dismissed from the popular TV show Ally McBeal. After five years of turmoil, he returned to small roles and in 2007 portrayed wealthy industrialist Tony Stark in Iron Man, the film that once again made him an A-list actor.

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Oracle Team USA won the America's Cup Wednesday after clawing back from a 7-point deficit in what has been called one of the greatest comebacks in sports history. Here are some more amazing comebacks from the world of sports, business, entertainment and politics.

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