History GeniusBruiser / RealLife

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Ferguson Chris "Jesus" Ferguson]] [[http://m.fulltiltpoker.com/video/LFTP_Jesus_throws-2.m4v can cut vegetables with a thrown playing card]]. While he is certainly an imposing figure at the poker table, the five-time bracelet winner (including the main event title in 2000) owes his success largely to his knowledge of game theory and development of computer simulations, as he has a Ph.D. in computer science.

** Most early NASA astronauts were, in fact, former military aviators. Arguably the most notable among them was John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth and a veteran of three different wars with the US Air Force. In the Korean War, he achieved three victories against MiG-15 fighter jets in his own F-86.
* Any UsefulNotes/SocietyForCreativeAnachronism heavy fighters. History re-enactment is considered a ''very'' nerdy hobby, but those guys fight in full armor with rattan weapons and are trained to hit hard. SCA has given the initial spark on researching and reviving the original Medieval Western Martial Arts.

* Oleksii Novikov, crowned the WorldsStrongestMan in 2020, holds a Masters' degree in International Economics.

* Paul Robeson, All-American and NFL (American) football player, Bachelor of Laws (Columbia), civil rights advocate, Communist, actor, world-renowned singer.

** Putin actually has a Ph.D. in Economics from the St. Petersburg Mining Institute which he got in 1996, shortly after he began his career in politics. [[http://world.time.com/2013/02/28/putins-phd-can-a-plagiarism-probe-upend-russian-politics/ This one is controversial]] since (and not unusual for Russian politicians [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/UsefulNotes/TheNewRussia?from=Main.TheNewRussia of the time]]) it was found that parts of his dissertation were plagiarised and the whole thing may have been ghostwritten since he was also busy running an election campaign when he allegedly wrote it, though it is known that he has publicly and successfully defended the thesis and is clearly smart enough to understand the material.

* UsefulNotes/RasputinTheMadMonk. 6'4" (albeit pretty slim), and (while this has been exaggerated by the myth) renowned for his physical strength and stamina (his "survival" of multiple bullet wounds aside; that was more due to inaccurate shooting and slow bullets than his personal toughness). He was also of above-average intelligence. While the specifics are unclear, he was certainly a gifted SnakeOilSalesman, a cunning if erratic politician, and he was clearly doing ''something'' right when ameliorating the Prince's hemophilia (whether it was hypnosis or [[SimpleMindedWisdom Simple-Minded Medical Advice]] is still a mystery).

* 19th-century Anarchist Mikhail Bakunin was a 6'5", muscular and charismatic adventurer who voluntarily did a lot of heavy lifting and fighting in the various revolutionary conflicts he was involved in, but he is best known as the author of classic Anarchist texts such as ''The State and Anarchy'', and at one point was writing a Russian translation of ''Das Kapital'' by Karl Marx during the period they didn't hate each other's guts (though he quit under controversial circumstances, in part because he preferred action to lengthy writing projects).
* NHL Defenseman Zdeno Chára (currently of the Boston Bruins) is 6'9" and 250 lbs. He also speaks 6 languages in addition to his native Slovak(Czech, Polish, Swedish, Russian, German, and English), has a diploma in financial planning from Algonquin College, and is a licensed realtor in the state of Massachusetts.

** As it turns out, ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' might've been the ultimate example of this trope. Not only was it the most massive land predator to ever live, with a bone-crushing bite and an extremely beefy build, recent studies have shown that it was a neurologically complex animal with extremely powerful senses, including vision better than a hawk's and scent better than a bloodhound's. As if that wasn't enough, [[https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.20.496834v1 a recent study]] has indicated that [[ItCanThink it may have been as intelligent as a modern day baboon]], making it one of the smartest animals of its time.