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The Greatest Athlete of All-time

bigblue_dl

bigblue_dl

Armed
This is my idea for a great offseason series of polls. Since it gets to be pretty dead around here during the offseason, I'm hoping this would be a way drive some conversations. Given the response I got from one mention in another thread, it appears that there is quite a bit of interest, and that this will definitely drive some interesting conversations.

I'm not going to actually start until the offseason, but I wanted to get this thread started a little early. First of all, I am compiling a list of about 120 athletes that I think should be on the list, since there are some sports in which I couldn't name a single athlete for, and I'm sure I'll miss some other ones, I am going to post that list and then get suggestions on who I've missed. From the list of athletes that I missed, I will use some polls to narrow it down to 8, which will give me 128 athletes for us to vote on. From there I plan on using the cafe poll section, in a way similar to what Brent does for PoTY, to have people vote and cut the list down to 32. At 32, I'll put them in brackets and I'll post head to head polls the rest of the way, until we have one athlete left at the end.

As I mentioned, this should get some good conversations going because, for example, how do you compare what Babe Ruth did to Michael Jordan or Muhammad Ali. I think it will be interesting.

Feel free to suggest possible nominees for the list that I might miss, and sometime after the Frozen 4, probably close to the end of April I will post my list.
 
Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

One of my nominations for the top ten would be Babe Didrickson, since she was so very good at so many different sports for such a long time. Not clear if you intend to mix genders on the same list or have one list for each gender.

Jim Thorpe is my initial nomination for # 1 across all sports and all times based on a 30-second search of my memory...I'm open to change it once I hear other nominations.

also, when you say "all time" that is quite a span of years as well as geography....not sure how we will get data for much earlier than 1896, say (unless the hot tub time machine tells us there was this Greek guy in 735 BC who was totally awesome). Can we nominate people from mythology like Hercules or Achilles? Jousting champions like Sir Gawain or Sir Lancelot were reputed to be?

Myself, I'd be partial to Olympic gold-medal winners in the decathlon for men, hepthathlon for women, since they clearly have to excel in multiple events to win. So many of the people who first come to mind might be great at basketball, minor league in baseball, average at golf. So many great "athletes" specialized so much in only one sport.

Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders also come to mind quickly as being very good at multiple sports. Wilt Chamberlain I believe also did quite well in track and field events while in college.

I'll keep my eyes open for other lists along similar lines. Sounds like a fun project.
 
Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

Wilt Chamberlain gets a nod. Decathlete, plus a pretty good basketball player.

However, I think I'd put Jim Thorpe above him.
 
Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

FreshFish said:
One of my nominations for the top ten would be Babe Didrickson, since she was so very good at so many different sports for such a long time. Not clear if you intend to mix genders on the same list or have one list for each gender.

Jim Thorpe is my initial nomination for # 1 across all sports and all times based on a 30-second search of my memory...I'm open to change it once I hear other nominations.

also, when you say "all time" that is quite a span of years as well as geography....not sure how we will get data for much earlier than 1896, say (unless the hot tub time machine tells us there was this Greek guy in 735 BC who was totally awesome). Can we nominate people from mythology like Hercules or Achilles? Jousting champions like Sir Gawain or Sir Lancelot were reputed to be?

Myself, I'd be partial to Olympic gold-medal winners in the decathlon for men, hepthathlon for women, since they clearly have to excel in multiple events to win. So many of the people who first come to mind might be great at basketball, minor league in baseball, average at golf. So many great "athletes" specialized so much in only one sport.

Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders also come to mind quickly as being very good at multiple sports. Wilt Chamberlain I believe also did quite well in track and field events while in college.

I'll keep my eyes open for other lists along similar lines. Sounds like a fun project.
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I guess when I say all-time, it really isn't all-time, since we don't have information going back much further than 100 years, that will limit us. Other than that, I don't want any limits, male or female (Babe Didrikson is already on my list ;) ), and any sport, from the mainstream North American sports to "Olympic" sports like track and field or swimming. My list is currently at about 90 athletes, so I'm guessing that I have most of the mainstream ones covered. As of now I have athletes that played: Basketball, Hockey, Baseball, Football, Swimming, Golf, Track and Field, Tennis, Auto Racing, Horse Racing, and Gymnastics. I don't know a single soccer player ever or anyone that has played sports like rugby or cricket that may need to be considered.
 
Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

I'd also include Al Oerter if only for longevity at the highest level!


I know there is some ridiculously good cricket player that everyone raves about, I can't recall who though. Men's field hockey is huge in Pakistan and India, from what I hear, and they must have someone amazing to nominate.

For men's soccer, you have to at least include Pele! I've seen film of him and he is pretty amazing.

The Wikipedia article on BDZ says she was named the "10th Greatest North American Athlete of the 20th Century by ESPN, and the 9th Greatest Athlete of the 20th Century by the Associated Press," and so if you can find those lists you might be able to add some prominent names to yours.
 
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Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

Since he hasn't been caught yet, Armstrong (cycling) should be on the list.
 
Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

Hoven.

Forklift racing is a sport, right?
 
Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

5mn_Major said:
Of course.

Jesse Owens
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and Carl Lewis as well. One interesting debate would be "athletic performance" in general and another would be "athletic performance under pressure." For Owens to perform in 1936 Berlin the way he did was quite remarkable.
 
Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

Lionel "Big Train" Conacher, voted the greatest Canadian athlete of the first half of the 20th Century.

Lionel Conacher, in full Lionel Pretoria Conacher (born May 24, 1901, Toronto, Ont., Can.—died May 26, 1954, Ottawa), athlete and politician who was voted Canada’s Athlete of the Half Century (1900–50) and was a Liberal Party member of Parliament.

Conacher dropped out of school after the eighth grade to work. His athletic career stemmed from a prize he won in 1916 for selling the most newspapers—a membership card in a YMCA gymnasium. He won the Ontario 125-pound wrestling championship at age 16 and the Canadian light-heavyweight boxing championship at 20. He played on the championship Ontario lacrosse team in 1922 and on the Toronto American Athletic Association championship baseball team in 1926. He also played rugby for Toronto in the Ontario Football Rugby Union (1920) and for the Toronto Argonauts (1921–22). His most sustained professional sport was ice hockey; he played as a defenseman in the National Hockey League (1925–37) with the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Chicago Black Hawks, the New York Americans, and the Montreal Maroons and was a member of Stanley Cup winning teams in 1934 (Chicago) and 1935 (Montreal).

Conacher was elected to the Ontario legislature in 1937. During World War II he was recreational director for the Royal Canadian Air Force. He was elected to Parliament in 1949 and 1953. He died of a heart attack after hitting a triple in a softball game between members of Parliament and the parliamentary press gallery. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, posthumously, in 1994.
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Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

FreshFish said:
and Carl Lewis as well. One interesting debate would be "athletic performance" in general and another would be "athletic performance under pressure." For Owens to perform in 1936 Berlin the way he did was quite remarkable.
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When I was in high school, the program for the state track meet listed the national records. And all those decades later, Jesse Owens STILL held the national record for the 100 yard dash--he shared it with several others--but his name was first on the list.

Carl Lewis deserves major consideration here, not only for the wheel barrow full of Olympic gold medals, but for winning the long jump four times. I saw a graph a few years ago that listed all of the "longest" long jumps ever. Bob Beaman had the one unconscious leap of course, but Carl Lewis jumps represented maybe 75% of the longest jumps ever (at that time). His anchor leg in the world record setting 4X100 relay at Seoul was at the time, and I believe may still be, the fastest 100 meters anybody has ever run. And even though style and elegance aren't necessarily big factors here, he had both in abundance. I've always believed that speed is the greatest athletic gift. You can work on your starts and your conditioning, but you're either Carl Lewis or you're not. When he was 5, he was the fastest 5 year old anybody in his neighborhood had ever seen.
 
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