Settle bet - most famous US athlete, all time
 

I had a spirited discussion with my adult kids tonight and I’d love to hear from this group…

Who do you think is the most famous US athlete of all time? The most energy in our discussion included Jordan, Ruth, Ali and Serena Williams.

Who ya got??

Jordan has been famous since the mid-1980s, Ali since the mid-1960s, but Ruth has been famous for more than a century. More sports fans have revered, and loved, Ruth than any other athlete by far.

Jim Thorpe??

duplicate

I'd agree with this.

Another interesting way to look at it might be to see which US athletes had the highest name recognition globally at any given point in time. In that case, I'd say Michael Jordan wins in a landslide.

I think Tiger would be up there too. And maybe even Ali.

As far as the original question goes, I'd say Ruth as well. If it was worldwide, then you'd have someone like Pele.

I would say that a random poll of anywhere in the world would find far more people that could vaguely name Jordan than anyone. If this was 1945 I would say Ruth, but it’s not. Random Brazilian or Nigerian twenty somethings are not discussing Ruth right now. Even Jordan is likely aging out of the world lexicon and being replaced by Lebron. That’s the circle of natural progression.

If fame is measured just today, maybe. Few people remember Thorpe.

But from 1914 through 1980, nobody knew who Michael Jordan was. That's why I think, of all the people who have lived, Ruth is the obvious answer.

Jordan.

Jordan, then LeBron if we are talking about now. Basketball is king.

I think it's Jordan or LeBron James for folks under a certain age. Before that maybe Ali or Jim Brown

Jim Brown retired 58 years ago. Was he ever internationally renowned?

Ruth, Ali, Jordan depending on your era.

For a brief period of time it was Tony Hawk.

I'm a Canadian who worked as a sportswriter in China from 2010-20 -- a job that included extensive travel all over Asia and the Pacific Rim. During a week-long trip to North Korea in 2017, I had a rare opportunity to interact with fellow sports journalists from the DPRK, Mongolia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and several other countries. The one American athlete they ALL knew and wanted to learn more about was Ali. The same was true in Japan, where baseball is king. Ruth, Jordan and Woods weren't even on their radar.

I would think this order:

Ruth
Ali
Jordan

I went down this path with a 20 something year old 'sports guy' I worked with last month. His last name was Cobb - so naturally I asked him if he was related to Ty Cobb. Blank Stare. Ok maybe he didn't grow up in a sports family... I asked if ANYONE had ever asked him this question - 'yeah a few times but I don't know why'....

That led me to dig deeper. Babe Ruth - not a clue. I didn't strike gold until I mentioned Griffey and Jordan. So anything pre-1980 was dinosaurs and cavemen to this guy. He does know his sports though - just nothing more than 40 years ago. He did know every NFL, MLB, NBA champion, MVP, #1 pick etc from the past 15 years.

I didn't mention Ali - but I'd bet he didn't know.

He did also know Jackie - but only from the movie 42...

So to settle this kind of bet - I'd vote Jordan.

I might be biased, but I gotta go with Ali on this one.

Is the question:

"The most famous US athlete, in the US?"

or

"The most famous US athlete, in the World?"


:confused:


If it's the 1st one, maybe we can consider some baseball, football players....if it's the 2nd one, Babe Ruth might have a hard time cracking the Top 10.

Anyone who has never heard of Cobb or Ruth does not meet my definition of a "sports guy."

But then, paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for shiny, newly printed cardboard doesn't meet my definition of "investment."

Caitlyn Jenner. Over 15 million "followers"

Michael Jordan does not do social media I believe but one of his sneakers has 28 million followers.

It was once Ali, but it is almost certainly Jordan now, more for the sneakers that are one of the most globally recognized symbols of American culture than his immense skill.

I can't think of anyone close in football. Brady's probably the most well known but he's not at Jordan's level. Not even close.

Jordan shoe revenue
When the 2023 Nike fiscal year ended in May, Jordan accumulated $6.6 billion in revenue.
This is its highest total revenue to date. It also signifies a staggering 29.4% increase from the $5.1 billion mark the recent year.
Compared to its revenue in the 2016 fiscal year, which tallied $2.8 billion, the Jordan brand has grown by over 135%.
Surprisingly, while most brands suffered losses during the pandemic in 2020, the Jordan footwear brand raked in $4.8 billion and enjoyed a 29.7% growth—the brand’s highest jump since 2016.
Even in 2021, Jordan’s revenue showed steady gains with a 6.3% increase, totaling $4.8 billion by the end of the fiscal year.
The only time the revenues plummeted for the past seven years was recorded in 2018 when the Jordan brand scored $2.9 billion, 6.5% lower than the $3.1 billion total sales in 2017.

So I was thinking a bit more about this --- The population of the United States in 1914 was about 99 million people, and there have been five generations (roughly 25 years in length) from 1914 until today, where the US population is around 333 million.

The population of China in 1980 was 1.25 billion, and today it is 1.4 billion. That's two generations of people, but a much larger population base. The same trend would be seen in India.

I'm not a population / demography expert (maybe a Net54 statistician can help), but I wonder whether Jordan beats Ruth on popularity even on aggregate numbers over time because Jordan would have been much, much more popular than Ruth in both China and India, and since 1980, that's a lot of people.

Ali was a global icon. The guy was known everywhere, from the U.S. to Africa, to places like the Middle East. And it wasn’t just about his boxing. His stance on Vietnam, his involvement in the Civil Rights Movement, and his larger-than-life personality made him more than an athlete—he was a symbol of standing up for what you believe in. Even people who didn’t watch boxing knew who Ali was, and they respected him.

Jordan’s a close second for sure. He dominated basketball, and let’s be real, his Air Jordans are legendary. His global impact on the sport and pop culture can’t be denied. But while Jordan’s fame came mostly through sports and branding, Ali was bigger than the game. He was about social issues, humanity, and even post-retirement, he stayed relevant as a symbol of perseverance.

And as for Babe Ruth—don’t get me wrong, he was a huge figure in American sports and changed baseball forever, but his fame was more localized. He dominated the U.S., but his name didn’t really travel globally the way Ali’s and Jordan’s did. Baseball wasn’t the international sport that basketball or boxing became, so while Ruth’s a legend in American history, his influence just didn’t reach the same worldwide level. Ali and Jordan transcended sports in a way that Ruth, unfortunately, didn’t.

So yeah, for me, Ali takes the top spot because his legacy goes beyond just sports. Jordan’s still a GOAT in his own right, but Ali had that extra level of worldwide fame and influence.

The documentary on the Ali-Foreman fight is fascinating, one of the aspects being the overwhelming support of the crowd for Ali. As an aside, it's amazing the George Foreman of that film and fight became who he eventually became more than a decade later.

1) Ali

2) Bruce Lee

3) Hulk Hogan

4) Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Babe Ruth

If it is from a World context, and you ignore more recent decades where globalisation has made that World smaller in terms of stars (so discounting Tiger Woods, Williams, even Jordan etc), then the most famous US sportsperson through the ages globally, or at least in Europe, is likely Jesse Owens.

Owens and the 1936 Olympics story transcends sport. I’m late 40s and, here in British Isles, everyone of my vintage would certainly know of Jesse Owen’s irrespective of whether they had any knowledge or interest in sports.


As an aside, in terms of baseball, when we talk about sports (mainly soccer) in the UK and when occasionally US sports have come up, I’ve sometimes referenced vintage baseball. Babe Ruth is the one common name that everyone appears to know. Very few of these people would know of Mickey Mantle.

In fact, a number of years ago I asked my mother (in her 70s) and my partner (in her 40s) which baseball players they could name. Neither has any interest in sport but both named Babe Ruth. The only other name referenced was Joe DiMaggio. Again, there is a recognition here partly for non-sport reasons i.e. the Marilyn Monroe connection and then Simon & Garfunkel song.



Interestingly, notwithstanding the Jesse Owens reference to transcending sport, very few people with an interest in sport on this side of the pond would have heard of Jackie Robinson.

Most famous world-wide, or in the US?

I think I lean towards Ali for global fame.

The global vs "local" thing is a solid dividing line.

Just in the US, I'd think Ruth, although many would be more popular briefly, I don't think brief fame counts. Or mor that it counts as an entirely different discussion.

Internationally I'd go with Ali. Jordan and Lebron are up there but I think it's too soon for them.

Then there's the who is the most popular right now question.

Right now locally? Maybe Caitlyn Clark? Getting tons of press, and a lot of attention.

early on? Major Taylor. Not as popular here, but very popular in Europe and Australia.

I think most here aren't paying attention to the actual question.
It's "Most famous US athlete, all time". It's not the most famous NOW.
So there is only one answer, it's clearly Babe Ruth.
There may be others more famous now or somewhat previously, but the fact that he has been the most famous icon for what is by far the longest time, he is without doubt the most famous "ALL-TIME".
Ali, Jordan, and others win for most famous "SHORT-TIME" or "NOW".

Even during Babe Ruth's prime years, Jack Dempsey would have been more famous world-wide than him. Much more!

What? It's a seniority question now?

Babe Ruth's got tenure over everybody else. That's a way to never lose your place in history I guess.

I don't know. I don't think so. I think that's a possible "interpretation" of the question...but certainly not in the spirit of how it was presented.

And he was literally forgotten about by the general public by the 1940s/50s.

No he wasn't

What has the "spirit" of the question have to do with anything? That's how you interpret it.
Let's stick to the ACTUAL terminology used for the question.

If you believe he was actually more popular than Ruth during his heyday, then this by far is more believable.

OJ

I would say Jordan by a mile. Everyone knows who he is. Besides baseball people almost nobody knows who Babe Ruth is. Sure many have heard the name but couldn't give you a singe fact about him beside at one time he played baseball. I owned a commercial greenhouse and set up in 3 different towns every week selling at markets for around 5/6 years. Just wearing a pair of Jordans would get comments. We had a Net54 T-Shirt with Babe Ruth on it. I had exactly one person the entire time mention the shirt that I wore many times.

It's Babe Ruth. Bet settled, period, end of discussion. Even idiots know about Babe Ruth; anyone, any age.

I think the discussion has revealed the ambiguity of the original question. Perhaps the OP may wish to clarify it.

And a card...

Attachment 634431

The period in history is very relevant, but here are my top 5 - put in any order you desire.

Ali
Ruth
Thorpe
Jordan
Jesse Owens

Hard to argue against this list. That said, I’m confident if those 5 names were given to well-informed sports enthusiasts here in the UK with at least a basic level interest in sports history that 90% /95%+ would know of Ali, Ruth, Jordan and Jesse Owens.

However, I suspect well less than 50% (actually less than 10%) would know of Jim Thorpe. That’s not to disrespect his legacy. Awareness globally is a different thing than awareness within USA or wider Americas.

Thx Peter - it was a pretty loose discussion so the question was not super well defined.

But I’ll try now:

If we polled all US adults today and asked them “who is the most famous US athlete in history, who would you say it is?”

Or may be better ways to tighten the question… it’s just for fun, but I think the question above is close to the spirit of my casual family bet.

Biggest sport in the world by far is football ( soccer to you and me.
So I’ll enter into the discussion

Pelé - widely regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of the sport, he was among the most successful and popular sports figures of the 20th century.

US-Ruth
Worldwide-Jordan, think shoes!

If we are talking about who US adults today think is the most famous US athlete in history, I'm going with Michael Jordan.

Jordan. There is more people under 25 that don't know who Babe Ruth is then you think.

He’s not a US athlete

Jordan, Tiger, currently Caitlin Clark has to be up there as well


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100%

My 22 year old son wants some love for Michael Phelps

None given. :)
Jordan. End of discussion.

I agree with Jordan by a mile. Just for fun I am on a forum that has sections for pretty much everything in life. So I posted this question in their sports section. So far it has 50 responses and there are only 2 that said Babe Ruth and one of them has Babe Ruth as their user name. Jordan and Ali had the most votes. What I noticed from asking on a forum not focused on baseball is I actually got a very large range of answers. You could tell what sports people watched/liked by who their answer was. There were even a few answers with people I had never heard of but it was the posters sport of choice.