Quote:
Originally Posted by D. Bergin
Is the question:
"The most famous US athlete, in the US?"
or
"The most famous US athlete, in the World?"
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. |
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.