What's new
By:
USCHO Fan Forum

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

  • The USCHO Fan Forum has migrated to a new plaform, xenForo. Most of the function of the forum should work in familiar ways. Please note that you can switch between light and dark modes by clicking on the gear icon in the upper right of the main menu bar. We are hoping that this new platform will prove to be faster and more reliable. Please feel free to explore its features.

The Greatest Athlete of All-time

Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

brookyone said:
If there's ever a campaign to expand the list:

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/ysXMUxBML4g" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

All those I could think of have been mentioned. Just want to plug the athlete I consider the best of those I've actually seen in action. I looked for a video clip of the play but couldn't find one...just this written account of a play Bo Jackson made:



I've saw the throw many times on video way back when. It was the greatest throw I've ever personally seen. It looked more like a line drive off a bat than ball thrown by a human.
Click to expand...

She's got my vote!
 
Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

Priceless said:
Seriously? Eating is a sport?

How about Doyle Brunson for Texas Hold 'Em poker then?
Click to expand...

Stu Ungar for poker, too.

He is one of only two people to have won the World Series of Poker Main Event three times (Johnny Moss also has three WSOP titles but his first was obtained by a vote of the players, not by winning a tournament). He is also the only person to win Amarillo Slim's Super Bowl of Poker three times, the world's second most prestigious poker title during its time.
 
Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

Old Pio said:
The late Toni Sailer and Jean Claude Killy come quickly to mind when you mention Alpine skiiers.
Click to expand...

Killy was the first to come to mind. Stenmark and Giradelli too. Hermann Maier also popped in there, but he had technology available to him that Killy didn't. I reluctantly put Vonn in that same group. She's an amazing skier and one hell of an athlete, but she also has technology that previous generations didn't. Plake is the best free skier in any era and the late Shane McConkey was one of the few in Plake's league as far as ability IMO.
 
Last edited:
Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

FreshFish said:
OK then, I'll narrow my suggestions down considerably from that list I added earlier only to include Bob Mathias (seriously, two decathlon gold medals!), Diana Taurasi, Edwin Moses, and Al Oerter as you added Sanderson and Graf already.
Click to expand...
(I can go over 128, it isn't a big deal, realistically I can go up to 160)

I will add all of these.
 
Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

jen said:
Not sure how many baseball players you want, but...

Roberto Clemente
Honus Wagner
Christy Mathewson

Jimmie Foxx seems random.

Also, including Josh Gibson opens a can of worms, so either don't do it, or include Satchel Paige too. Buck Leonard. Cool Papa Bell. Hard to draw a line there. Reliable stats and info are very hard to find for anyone who didn't spend the majority of their career in MLB.

Not Keith Hernandez :p
Click to expand...
I added them, and I added Satchel Paige, and that is where I will draw the line there. One position player, one pitcher, each of which I understand to be the best batter and pitcher. Also, I can get rid of Foxx, he is one that I wasn't sure of, but you know a bunch more about baseball than me, and I obviously have enough people. :p
 
Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

huskyfan said:
Shaun White for sure. if Secretariat is in so should Man O War.

Rocky Marciano??
John Elway??? but no Bart Starr or Joe Montana?

hockey needs Terry Sawchuk and Bobby Hull!
Click to expand...
I have Joe Montana, Shaun White and Man O War. I don't think Bart Starr makes the cut...Elway is borderline, IMO. I read about Marciano earlier today and I thought he deserved a spot on the list, he is the only undefeated, untied world champion ever.
 
Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

SteveP said:
Not even close to being the most successful. Annemarie Moser-Proll and Marc Giradelli have more overall World Cup and discipline World Cup championships than Vonn.
Click to expand...

She has more individual discipline titles than Giradelli (he has 9, she has 12) and is one away from Giradelli (5 vs 4 for Vonn) in overall titles. Vonn also has more WC race wins than Giradelli (53 vs 46). She is also two more individual discipline titles (12 vs 10) than Prol and only two from tying Proll in overall titles (6 vs 4). Proll does have 62 WC race wins to Vonn's 53.

Now Vonn does ski in an era where there are four WC disciplines (five if you consider the combined a discipline). Proll skied in one where there were three (again, four if you consider the combined a discipline, which didn't come into play until the mid 70s).
 
Last edited:
Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

Some really famous boxing journalist died recently (Bert Sugar). Sports Illustrated ran a picture spread of his top pound-for-pound boxing champions since 1900. Ali was # 7 (!!! :eek: ); Joe Louis was # 4, and Sugar Ray Robinson was # 1. Most of the boxers were from the 1910s through 1930s. overlapping each other at one end or the other. Not at all suggesting that you include many or more than the one below.

Anyway, if part of being a "great athlete" is performing your best when the stakes are highest, then Joe Louis deserves consideration; his rematch with Max Schmeling had significant political overtones....

The[ir] two fights came to embody the broader political and social conflict of the times. As the first significant African American athlete since Jack Johnson, Louis was among the few focal points for African American pride in the 1930s. Moreover, as a contest between representatives of the United States and Nazi Germany during the 1930s, the fights came to symbolize the struggle between democracy and fascism. Louis' performance in the bouts therefore elevated him to the status of the first true African American national hero in the United States.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

FreshFish said:
Some really famous boxing journalist died recently (Bert Sugar maybe? memory for name is uncertain). Sports Illustrated ran a picture spread of his top pound-for-pound boxing champions since 1900. Ali was # 4, if i recall correctly; Joe Louis I think was ahead of Ali. Most of the people on the list were different weight classes (only 2 or 3 heavyweights) and many were from the 10s, 20s and 30s. Not at all suggesting that you include many or any, if I can find a link it's interesting in its own right.

Anyway, if part of being a "great athlete" is performing your best when the stakes are highest, then Joe Louis deserves consideration; his rematch with Max Schmelling (sp?) had significant political overtones.
Click to expand...
I have Joe Louis on the list. The boxing list I was reading today had it #1 Louis, #2 Ali, #3 Robinson, #4 Tyson, #5 Marciano
 
Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

bigblue_dl said:
I have Joe Louis on the list.
Click to expand...

if it's not too much to ask, would you mind posting an updated list? Maybe take a few more ideas on the "weakest" nominees to remove to be replaced by someone "more worthy"?

Also, it does sound like you are trying to be broadly representative, at least to have one or two significant candidates from most major athletic disciplines. May I humbly suggest a wheelchair athlete? I've read about several; I'm hoping some other reader of the thread can suggest someone or two....
 
Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

FreshFish said:
if it's not too much to ask, would you mind posting an updated list? Maybe take a few more ideas on the "weakest" nominees to remove to be replaced by someone "more worthy"?

Also, it does sound like you are trying to be broadly representative, at least to have one or two significant candidates from most major athletic disciplines. May I humbly suggest a wheelchair athlete? I've read about several; I'm hoping some other reader of the thread can suggest someone or two....
Click to expand...
That is fine with me, I just need to know names. I will post the list, and if there are weak candidates that should be removed I can do that.
 
Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

Bart Starr is the only quarterback with FIVE championship rings. take that John Elway!
 
Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

bigblue_dl said:
That is fine with me, I just need to know names. I will post the list, and if there are weak candidates that should be removed I can do that.
Click to expand...

Thank you. I'm looking forward to it.

This is kind of fun, sort of a low-key laboratory experiment in cooperative participatory democracy.
 
Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

Auto Racing:
Dale Earnhardt
Richard Petty
AJ Foyt
Michael Schumaker

Baseball:
Babe Ruth
Ty Cobb
Ted Williams
Walter Johnson
Sandy Koufax
Lou Gehrig
Jackie Robinson
Hank Aaron
Cy Young
Josh Gibson
Roger Clemens
Stan Musial
Barry Bonds
Pete Rose
Dave Winfield (also basketball)
Pedro Martinez
Jimmie Foxx
Alex Rodriguez
Nolan Ryan
Willie Mays
Ricky Henderson
Albert Pujols
Joe DiMaggio
Roberto Clemente
Honus Wagner
Christy Mathewson
Satchel Paige
Cal Ripken Jr.

Basketball:
Michael Jordan
Wilt Chamberlain
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Magic Johnson
Bill Russell
Kobe Bryant
Karl Malone
Larry Bird
Moses Malone
LeBron James
Shaquille O'Neal
Oscar Robertson
Diana Taurasi
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top