Having been around horses all his life - his father was a former leading Irish amateur - it came as no surprise when he became Irish amateur champion.
He was an amateur bee keeper but now does it on a more commercial basis.
He outed himself as an amateur chef 10 years ago, when he put a hidden video of him in the kitchen on a CD.
He won 83 of his 86 amateur fights, the highlight being the gold medal he claimed at the Empire Games in Cardiff in 1958.
He remains the consummate amateur, drawing his authority from the peculiar independence of his work.
After all, he reasoned, he was simply an amateur learning to use his Pentax K-1000.
On his website he offers tips for amateur cosmic archaeologists who wish to hunt for Dyson spheres.
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Two years beforehand he had been playing amateur football for Basel-based Old Boys.
He became a talented amateur golfer and a club professional, but health problems prevented him from competing as a pro.
As America's chief librarian he found himself an amateur again, and delighted just as much in the outraged snorts of the professionals.
By 1984, he had compiled an amateur record of 145-17 and a place as a light-heavyweight in the Olympic team that went to Los Angeles.
This weekend's event will be McIlroy's final major competition as an amateur before he turns pro and attempts to win a European Tour card later this year.
He did it first as an amateur in 1962, and then again in the 1969 when he became the first -- and only -- player to achieve the feat in the open era.
The top pick in the 2009 amateur draft, he underwent elbow ligament-replacement surgery on Sept. 10, 2010.
Away from the then amateur game, he paid his way in life working as a bricklayer and later doing public relations for British Gas.
"I would say (he should) stay an amateur because there's still so much to learn and so much to gain, " Lewis told Radio Five Live.
His first taste of acting came with the Theatre Players, an amateur group which he joined while at the bank and took part in their performances at Oxford's St Mary and St John Church Hall.
He was almost as proud of being an amateur jazz critic (writing for years, under a pseudonym, for the New Statesman) as he was of being a professional historian.
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When he was young, he boxed, fished, did amateur radio and belonged to fraternities.
At a press conference, Bernard Fransen, president of KNVB amateur football, said he was "very shocked" by the tragic incident.
"I was playing with Jamie Abbott, who's a really good guy, an amateur, which reminded me of my amateur days, " he said.
Gavin is Britain's first ever amateur world champion and he fancies his chances of emulating Khan's success of holding a professional world title.
By then he was famous enough in the amateur astronomy world that some other amateur astronomers raised money to send him to Vanderbilt to study astronomy.
He probably won't forgive me for saying that a pass in English is not guaranteed as he has managed to spell the amateur bit of amateur jockey wrong in his account profile.
To celebrate we've got a stunning postcard from the sun at the exact moment of solstice, some curious Mexican skulls and an amateur codebreaker who thinks he beat British intelligence agencies at their own game.
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He tied for fifth in 2008 at Royal Birkdale, where he won the Silver Medal as leading amateur.
"Here's this amateur guy who takes what he learned at GE, " he says, sounding like an unreconstructed corporate communicator.
Bruce Deming, a former federal prosecutor and avid amateur cyclist himself, said he doubted the criminal case would be reopened.
Mr. Hoopes, an amateur classical pianist, said he applied the acoustical tricks he learned from designing dozens of theaters and churches.
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