Calling all heroes (Top 10 sports heroes of all time)

ESPN ^ | April 26, 2003

[Mr. Mulliner]

Calling all heroes

They're the best of the best, exemplifying all the courage and nobility and genius and hard work and modesty and ambition and humility and grace that can be displayed in modern American sports. They're the ones we really want to be like when the going gets tough, they're the ones we want to show our sons and daughters and say, "See? See?" They all had flaws, we know -- they were, despite some signs to the contrary, human. And they're Page 2's greatest sports heroes of all time.

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."

[InvisibleChurch]

agreed. ... i just hope that lance's kids don't freeze him when he dies

[stylin19a]

I'm thinking Moe Berg and Rick Monday.
But I'll take Ted Williams over all.

[Peter Libra]

I led off with a little homily without reading through the complete post. The article qualified American sports persons. Ah well, never mind, I am sure this light hearted contribution has given a deal of harmless and mild food for thought for many Freepers.

Well, anyway, my nomination of Ted (Kid) Lewis of old London Town may just qualify - he fought for four years in America. As a man and gentle human being outside the ring- Jack Dempsey was a fine American. True there was some nastiness about the draft in World War One, but Dempsey made up for it in the next war. (Heavyweight Champion 1919- 1926).

[rightofrush]

Wasn't Lou Gehrig the one who would sharpen his spikes with a file while in the dugout to freak out the other team's second baseman? Some hero - he made Babe Ruth look like a gentleman by comparison.

[baseballfanjm]

The problem is, a lot of the atheletes who were/are good people were/are mediocre atheletes, thus they don't get the headlines. My personal sports, okay baseball, heroes who were/are great atheletes as well are Lou Gherig and Jackie Robinson. I also love Tony Gwynn. I was 8 in San Diego when I became the baseball fanatic I am today. When I got to see him play, he was, to put it politely, a tad overweight, but he still had that sweet swing and I watched him win two of his batting titles.

[TD911]

Ted Williams IS the MAN!

ACE Fighter Pilot in two wars, WWII and Korea. Ask John Glenn.

He had balls of steel.

[baseballfanjm]

I'd have put both those guys over Babe Ruth. Yeah, the Babe was the best baseball player ever, but his behavior I think keeps him from being a true sports hero.

[rightofrush]

If you could put Babe Ruth in there somewhere, you have it nailed. Babe, as a pitcher, was the only one who had a winning record over Walter "Big Train" Johnson.

[rightofrush]

If you could put Babe Ruth in there somewhere, you have it nailed. Babe, as a pitcher, was the only one who had a winning record over Walter "Big Train" Johnson.

Before the Babe, the home-run hero was "Home Run" Baker, who never hit much more than 30 in a season.

[arly]

Numero Uno ... Gordie Howe

[arly]

How did a draft dodger make it to #4 ?...some role model

[Fred Mertz]

I believe you're thinking of Tyrus (Ty) Cobb.

[Mr. Mulliner]

You may be thinking of Ty Cobb. That doesn't sound like Lou Gehrig who I believe was a real gentleman, quiet, and in many ways the opposite of the Babe.

[rightofrush]

Your are right sir! My bad.

[HitmanLV]

I'd add Ric Flair, Tully Blanchard, and Ole & Arn Anderson.

[lawdude]

Rick Monday who jumped a class A bastard to keep him from burning a US Flag on the field.

[Captainpaintball]

This is a silly list for many of the reasons already listed, but also because it doesn't even consider any athletes from the previous centuries and millennia...

Or other solar systems!!! They obviously have NO respect for Intergalactic Zorf Champion Gleekon-6, who, for all intents and purposes re-invented the sport by amassing 1,453,456,839 plutars in a single tri-session.

[Mr. Mulliner]

I just can't believe we made it to post #98 before Gleekon-6's name came up!

[T'wit]

>> Hiya T'wit. I just re-read the title. What the heck is a sports hero?

It's hard to get at the core of what "hero" means. I once spent two years working on that question. Real heroes are almost invariably self-effacing and modest -- not a quality noted in many sports celebrities. We have to look to the great athletes in terms of character and leadership, not merely in their achievements. Jim Thorpe, Lou Gehrig, Ted Williams, Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan, Babe Zaharias and Cal Ripken -- these were people whose character shone as brightly as their athletic skills. Tiger Woods seems on course to join that distinguished group.

By the same standards, we certainly could not put Ali or King on a list of heroes, and I'm having second thoughts about endorsing Michael Jordan. In fact, I'll give Jordan's slot to the Big O -- Oscar Robertson, who was almost as much a pioneer as Jackie Robinson.