Posted on 07/21/2005 8:28:44 PM PDT by pissant
1. Jackie Robinson
It wasn't what Jackie did as much as the way Jackie did it -- bearing up under the pressure of breaking baseball's color barrier with dignity and class and some damn great ballplaying. And, like few others before or since, he became bigger than the game itself, an American treasure in his own right. Said AL President Gene Budig in 1997, "He led America by example. He reminded our people of what was right and he reminded them of what was wrong. I think it can be safely said today that Jackie Robinson made the United States a better nation."
2. Babe Ruth
Babe was, quite simply the American sports icon of The American Century, a mythic hero who would have had to be invented had he not been flesh and blood. Out of the mouth of Pete Rose, in 1992, came the truth: "If Babe Ruth had been a soccer player, soccer would be our national pastime."
3. Vince Lombardi
Lombardi was voted the greatest coach of all time by ESPN's SportsCentury panel, but he was so much more. During the turbulent 1960s, he became a symbol of all that was right with the old-fashioned, "square" ways. A tough guy, an emotional man, one who inspired great loyalty among his players. Quite simply, the best boss there ever was.
4. Muhammad Ali
Ali was "The Greatest" during his boxing career, but it was after his boxing days were done that he secured his legend as a great American man. Was there ever a more moving moment in sports than when he lit the flame to open the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta? Ailing with Parkinson's, Ali has faced his long physical decline with the kind of courage and grace and humor that have made him not just admired, but truly beloved. Said Pres. Bill Clinton to Ali after the torch-lighting ceremony, "They didn't tell me who would light the flame, but when I saw it was you, I cried.'"
5. Johnny Unitas
A great quarterback, we all know. The greatest ever, probably. But more simply, an admirable man who honored the sports world by being part of it. "He was the kind of man," said Cardinal William H. Keeler at Unitas' funeral, "who would shake the hand of a homeless person and say to that person it was an honor to shake his hand."
6. Nile Kinnick
We're reminded of the legacy of a young man who died too young at the start of every Big 10 football game. The coin that's tossed bears Kinnick's likeness, and it's only one of many tributes to the great Iowa football star and war hero that are scattered around his home state. When he won the Heisman in 1939, he said, famously, "I thank God I was warring on the gridirons of the Midwest and not on the battlefields of Europe." A few years later, Kinnick was killed on a training flight, serving his country in that same war. He had turned down a lucrative pro contract from the NFL's Brooklyn Dodgers to attend law school, and many expected him to eventually become president. "This country is O.K. as long as it produces Nile Kinnicks," wrote Bill Cunningham in the Boston Globe, shortly after Kinnick took home the Heisman. "The football part is incidental."
7. Magic Johnson and Larry Bird
These men made their pro basketball homes on opposite coasts -- one in glamorous L.A., the other in old, work-a-day Beantown, but the 3,000 miles didn't separate them in our minds. Take your pick -- Magic's infectious good humor and enthusiasm and, when it all came crashing down, courage. Larry's hard-scrabble, Midwest, get-it-done can-do everyman attitude. It's impossible. They're heroes bound together by time, and by a sport, and by exhibiting complementary qualities that added up to greatness both on and off the court.
8. Joe DiMaggio
"Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio, our nation turns its lonely eyes to you … " Would any other player, in any sport, have worked in that great line from Simon and Garfunkel's "Mrs. Robinson"? No way. Even though lots of ugly things about Joe's life have come out lately, his fame and heroic stature may be equaled, but never topped. DiMaggio, wrote Page 2's David Halberstam in "Summer of '49, " was "the perfect Hemingway hero, for Hemingway in his novels romanticized the man who exhibited grace under pressure, who withheld any emotion lest it soil the purer statement of his deeds."
9. Billie Jean King
She was the best tennis player of her time, and one of the all-time greats. She fought for equal prize money -- and got it. She created an entirely new format for tennis competition -- World Team Tennis -- and it worked. And she creamed Bobby Riggs in the "Battle of the Sexes," a more important event than the circus-like atmosphere surrounding it foretold. Wrote Neil Amdur of the New York Times after King defeated Riggs, "Most important perhaps for women everywhere, she convinced skeptics that a female athlete can survive pressure-filled situations."
10. 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team
At a time when things looked pretty bleak for the U.S. -- mind-boggling inflation, hostages in Iran, a seemingly endless "energy crisis," and a president who spoke of a "national malaise" -- this team made everything look brighter, at least for a while. By beating the Soviets in the "Miracle on Ice" and going on to win the Gold Medal against the longest odds, the young team of amateurs reminded lots of folks what the best of America was all about.
"It made you want to pick up your television set and take it to bed with you," wrote E.M. Swift in SI, of the team's medal run. "It really made you feel good."
Some resent him because they believe he dumped his ex-wife for Sheryl Crow, and that he made some comments that were interpreted as anti-religious.
But how much do we know about the other "heros." For example, Ted Williams was a hero for his activities on the field, and serving as a pilot, but he was an outspoken atheist as well.
So I just look at Lance as an inspiration to cancer survivors (and yes the yellow bracelets are annoying). But the guy fits the criteria of hero for what he has accomplished in cycling.
Sorry, pissant, you can't pick on the Cowboys and then appease me with a wink.
This is war.
:-)
(diversionary smile)
SD
Clemente definately belongs there.
Uh, yeah, sure. The guy who was a real role-model for kids. Slept with hundreds of women, then got HIV
1. David Robinson
2. Pat Tillman
3. A.C. Green
4. Jesse Owens
5. Vince Lombardi
6. Michael Jordan
7. Walter Payton
8. Mohammed Ali
9. Lance Armstrong
10. Jim Brown
44 oz.? Lou made his point at 20. Lotta admirable 1st basemen: Gil, McCovey (he hit 18 Grand Slams), Tony Perez...
"My hero ? Ted Williams...pilot in WWII & Korea."
VERY good call!
#1 is Steve Largent in my book. Sure, Jerry Rice and others have passed him up as the NFL's all time leading reciever, but the way he did it and the (lack of) physical gifts he did it with, as well as the classy example he set while doing it make him #1 all time for me...JFK
Jim Thorpe (google if necessary).
VERY good choice!!!
Cal Ripken, Jr. owns a Minor League Team.
It's sad that you think people don't know who Jim Thorpe was. Sad, but probably true.
DD
I think I'll help them.
Full name: James Francis Thorpe
Born: May 28, 1887
Died: March 28, 1953
* Height: 6'-1" Weight: 190 lbs.
* Position: Halfback
* He played for Carlisle Indian School, Cleveland Indians, Oorang Indians, Rock Island Independents, New York Giants, Canton Bulldogs and Chicago Cardinals.
* He was the most famous American athlete of the age. He was excellent at every sport he tried.
* He won the decathlon and penthatlon events at the 1912 Olympics.
* He did play major-league baseball from 1913 to 1919.
* Football was his favorite sport. In 1912, Thorpe scored 25 touchdowns and 198 points in leading his Carlisle Indian School team to a national collegiate championship.
* Jim Thorpe was selected by the nation's press in 1950 as the most outstanding athlete of the 20th century.
* Jim Thorpe was also declared as "America's Greatest football player of the half-century," in 1950.
Steffi Graf
Tiger Woods
Bear Bryant
Pat Summitt
I think if you include an athletes personal life into compiling the all-time greatest list a lot of names would fade away and new ones appear. For example, Magic never got the virus from sitting on a toilet. I am also sure he helped a lot of people and tried to keep everything on the hush. Does it balance out??
BTW,IMHO Pat Tillman, Although heroic in deed was a good Pro, He was not the greatest.
I know you still have your Allen Page and Jim Marshall trading cards framed on your wall!!!
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