OT: Who would you put on your sports Mt. Rushmore. This is harder than it sounds...

[Vintageclout]

Originally Posted by jbhofmann

I had a whole paragraph typed up to push Secretariat but deleted it because I thought I'd get laughed at.

There's not a single event that gives me bigger goosebumps than seeing him open up and just run at the Belmont.

Fyi, you would be 100% correct by placing Secretariat on that list. What SEC accomplished in the Triple Crown, racings greatest stage, was unprecedented and will never be repeated again. To place his 3 TC wins in perspective, if you put all 3 races together, he would have beat American Pharoah by 57 lengths or 456 yards (1.5 football fields!!!). In fact, when ESPN completed a poll of the greatest 100 athletic accomplishments, Secretariat's Belmont Stakes run was ranked 2nd, only behind Chamberlain's 100 point game. No horse has ever come within 9 lengths of his 1.5 mile dirt track Belmont Stakes record....talk about dominance and separating yourself from your peers. In his Kentucky Derby win he ran each quarter mile fraction faster than the preceding one, accelerating the entire 1.25 mile race, also unprecedented in race horse history. As a final nail in the coffin, he still holds the fastest times for ALL 3 Triple Crown races, covering over 150 years, over 4,000 race horses and approximately 450 races! Bottom line is Secretariat stretched the physical limits of what the standard thoroughbred race horse should be able to accomplish and THAT is what truly defines superiority in sports. It's not just that he won great races, it was the manner in which he won them. As a side note, his iconic stature is likewise monumemtal, and if you are old enough to have been around in 1973, he was the most significant sports personality in the world, even appearing on the front cover of 3 major periodicals in the same week (Time, Newsweek & Sports Illustrated).

That said, my top 4 sports icons are: Ruth, Ali, Jordan and Secretariat. All 4 have the perfect combination of incredible feats for their respective sports, coupled with an "unearthly" stature versus their peers. Whether an animal should be considered an Athlete will always be open for discussion, but for my money, Big Red's unprecedented performances have earned him the right to join this iconic list. If ESPN can classify him as an athlete, that's good enough for me.

Regards,
JoeT

[Mike (18colt)]

Jim Thorpe (may be best athlete of 1st half of 20th century).
Bo Jackson (may be best athlete of 2nd half of 20th century).
Abby Wambach (one of leading female athletes of recent history, inspired millions of girls, and, since LGBT was mentioned in an earlier post, is openly married in a same sex relationship).
Secretariat (sheer dominance that's hard to compare others to).

Also considered Pele, Ali, Jim Brown, Tiger, Wilt, Kareem, Serena, Gretzky, Ruth, Cobb, Aaron, Unitas, Montana, Tyson, MJ, Oscar, Owens, Lewis, Phelps, Jenner, and probably several others.

[rats60]

Originally Posted by Vintageclout

Fyi, you would be 100% correct by placing Secretariat on that list. What SEC accomplished in the Triple Crown, racings greatest stage, was unprecedented and will never be repeated again. To place his 3 TC wins in perspective, if you put all 3 races together, he would have beat American Pharoah by 57 lengths or 456 yards (1.5 football fields!!!). In fact, when ESPN completed a poll of the greatest 100 athletic accomplishments, Secretariat's Belmont Stakes run was ranked 2nd, only behind Chamberlain's 100 point game. No horse has ever come within 9 lengths of his 1.5 mile dirt track Belmont Stakes record....talk about dominance and separating yourself from your peers. In his Kentucky Derby win he ran each quarter mile fraction faster than the preceding one, accelerating the entire 1.25 mile race, also unprecedented in race horse history. As a final nail in the coffin, he still holds the fastest times for ALL 3 Triple Crown races, covering over 150 years, over 4,000 race horses and approximately 450 races! Bottom line is Secretariat stretched the physical limits of what the standard thoroughbred race horse should be able to accomplish and THAT is what truly defines superiority in sports. It's not just that he won great races, it was the manner in which he won them. As a side note, his iconic stature is likewise monumemtal, and if you are old enough to have been around in 1973, he was the most significant sports personality in the world, even appearing on the front cover of 3 major periodicals in the same week (Time, Newsweek & Sports Illustrated).

That said, my top 4 sports icons are: Ruth, Ali, Jordan and Secretariat. All 4 have the perfect combination of incredible feats for their respective sports, coupled with an "unearthly" stature versus their peers. Whether an animal should be considered an Athlete will always be open for discussion, but for my money, Big Red's unprecedented performances have earned him the right to join this iconic list. If ESPN can classify him as an athlete, that's good enough for me.

Regards,
JoeT

I thought about Secretariat, but there is someone else who blows him away. As great as the Belmont, setting a world record on the final leg of the triple crown, it pales in comparison to what Jesse Owens did at the 1935 Big Ten Championships. In 45 minutes, he set 3 world records and tied a fourth. That was the greatest feat in sports history. If I were to include someone on this list for a short career vs. those others with decades of accomplishments, it would be Owens. We all know what he did at the Olympics, winning 4 gold medals in the face of Hitler and the Nazis, but that was only his second best achievement. He would be more deserving than Secretariat in my opinion.

[jbhofmann]

Originally Posted by rats60

I thought about Secretariat, but there is someone else who blows him away. As great as the Belmont, setting a world record on the final leg of the triple crown, it pales in comparison to what Jesse Owens did at the 1935 Big Ten Championships. In 45 minutes, he set 3 world records and tied a fourth. That was the greatest feat in sports history. If I were to include someone on this list for a short career vs. those others with decades of accomplishments, it would be Owens. We all know what he did at the Olympics, winning 4 gold medals in the face of Hitler and the Nazis, but that was only his second best achievement. He would be more deserving than Secretariat in my opinion.

I know the history of Owens and love the Berlin story, but Owens isn't the measure by which all sprinters gauge themselves. Records are typically meant to be broken...especially timed events. Secretariat lives on, and Owens has been passed by long ago.

[Vintageclout]

Originally Posted by rats60

I thought about Secretariat, but there is someone else who blows him away. As great as the Belmont, setting a world record on the final leg of the triple crown, it pales in comparison to what Jesse Owens did at the 1935 Big Ten Championships. In 45 minutes, he set 3 world records and tied a fourth. That was the greatest feat in sports history. If I were to include someone on this list for a short career vs. those others with decades of accomplishments, it would be Owens. We all know what he did at the Olympics, winning 4 gold medals in the face of Hitler and the Nazis, but that was only his second best achievement. He would be more deserving than Secretariat in my opinion.

You make valid points except for one big difference between what Owens accomplished versus Secretariat. Jessie Owens records have been long shattered while Secretariat's amazing feats have withstood the test of time. Yes, even in lieu of all the progressive training, technology and track enhancements over the past 42 years, no horse can come close to his most hallowed records. That is why SEC stands tall above the rest. In 1973, he set 6 track records, 2 official world records and 2 "unofficial" world records "pulling up" 1/8 mile AFTER the wire. 3 track records still stand, as well as 3 of those 4 world records holding firm. The only world record not holding up was his 9 furlong peformance in the Marlboro Cup, surpassed by only a single horse by 1/5 of a second! His world class combination of sheer speed and staying power (sprinter & distance running) is unparalled in thoroughbred race horsing history. Even the immortal Babe Ruth has seen most of his legendary records fall, yet no horse can even come close to what Secretariat accomplished. Remember how Babe Ruth amazingly out homered most TEAMS in the early 1920s? Well consider the great American Pharoah being crushed by 57 lengths in the combined 3 Triple Crown races....that says it all!

[BeanTown]

Saw this in a current auction

[steve B]

Going outside the idea of influence outside of sports, and running with the current theme of dominance in a sport.

Eddy Merckx - 525 pro cycling victories, far more than anyone else. And not just in little races, 11 wins came in the big tours, 26 in major races, and 4 world championships 1 amateur and 3 pro. Many wins were by huge margins.

Beryl Burton - British time trial specialist, she won seven world championships, 90 British titles, and set a 12 hour record that remained better than the mens record for 2 years. And won the best all-round competition in the UK every year from 1959-1983.

Steve B

[Baseball Rarities]

Babe Ruth
Jackie Robinson
Jim Brown
Michael Jordan

[jingram058]

Originally Posted by Baseball Rarities

Babe Ruth
Jackie Robinson
Jim Brown
Michael Jordan

My God, that's hard to outdo!