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

[PolarBear]

Theagenes of Thasos

[cardsfan73]

Stan Musial, Wayne Gretzky, Jim Brown & Bill Russell.

[jrlebert]

Very surprised that nobody has brought up this name, and he's not even done yet:

Michael Phelps.

There are swimmers right now who are training 6-8 hours a day in just one event. Whether it is the IM, or butterfly, or freestyle, or a particular distance of any of those, they are training in just ONE event, hours a day, years at a time.

In the 2008 Olympics, Phelps won GOLD medals in EIGHT events, either setting the World Record (7 events) or Olympic Record (1 event) in all eight. That's akin to Usain Bolt winning the gold in the 100, 200, 400, 100 relay, 400 relay, 110 hurdles and 400 hurdles, and one other event just for good measure.

There is simply no comparison in the history of sport. He is the all-time leader in medals won, 22, with the closest competitor 4 behind, and the closest American 10 (!) behind. He also has the most gold medals of all time, 18, with the closest competitor at 10.

What Phelps has done is simply unreal, and he is going to add to his total, hopefully, next year in his swan song Olympics.

Phelps has to be on there.

My Rushmore:

Michael Phelps, Barry Sanders, Michael Jordan, and Nolan Ryan.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Phelps doubtless is the best swimmer ever, but I don't think a sport where the participants' faces are mostly in the water and are otherwise obscured by goggles is ever going to really capture the public the way other sports do. I would put Carl Lewis on the same tier in terms of Olympians by the way.

And NOLAN RYAN? You mean the guy Bill James ranks the 24th best pitcher ever?

[packs]

I don't think Phelps will ever be an American icon. He has too much baggage and makes dopey decisions between the 4 years of the Olympics. People just aren't going to think of him when they think of sports. I don't think Gretzky really makes the cut either. Hockey and soccer aren't going to enter a lot of people's minds in America.

Of course if this is just a "sports" monument, then yes Gretzky all the way.

[glynparson]

Ruth, Brown, Gretzky, Jordan for female I tink Diedrikson Didrickson whichever way it was correctly spelled is the no brainer.

[drmondobueno]

A monument to a time gone by.......

Oh, sorry, this is a baseball site....naw, will stick with these guys

[perezfan]

Originally Posted by glynparson

Ruth, Brown, Gretzky, Jordan for female I tink Diedrikson Didrickson whichever way it was correctly spelled is the no brainer.

Naming an all-sport Mt. Rushmore is a near-impossible task, but I align the closest with Glyn's post. And spelling "Didrikson" correctly is nearly as impossible!

Jackie Robinson, Ray Dandridge, Ty Cobb , Pete Rose ALL AMERICAN CITIZENS

[fkm_bky]

3 men and 1 woman

Ruth - larger than life while living and maybe even more so in death.
Jackie Robinson - amazing player and bigger influence on sport than anyone else.
Gretzky - I think he was the greatest player at his sport than any other person in history.
Serena Williams - arguably the greatest female athlete of all time.

So many other worthy options out there of course!

Bill

[Carter08]

Ruth
Jordan
Gretzky
Brady

[GRock]

Nicklaus
Ruth
Brady
Serena

Next
Jordan
Gretzky
Ali
Tiger

[Rhotchkiss]

I am sure I have commented on this thread before, but here are my thoughts today:

Ruth
Brady
Gretzky
Jordan

[cammb]

Babe Ruth
Gretsky
Pele
Herb Brooks

[Alaskanmade]

Ruth, Gretzky, Jordan, Ali

[Bicem]

Originally Posted by Alaskanmade

Ruth, Gretzky, Jordan, Ali

Same.

[Keith H. Thompson]

Dan Brouthers
Ty Cobb
Ernie Harwell
Charles Gehringer

[Touch'EmAll]

Great thread, I have enjoyed browsing through all the picks. The OP said, "your" Mt. Rushmore - not the statistically most correct Mt. Rushmore.

I probably go with:

Ruth
Ryan
Aaron
Paige

[Dewey]

Michael Jordan - because he was the greatest competitor I've ever seen and he transcended sport with Nike in a way that created a new type of athlete-entrepreneur.

Serena Williams - because she is the greatest tennis player of all time and the other half of humanity needs representation. 23 majors, 14 doubles majors, 3 or 4 gold medals.

Wayne Gretzky - because anyone legitimately called "The Great One" makes the cut. Getting to sit in the corporate seats handed down from my mom's Eastern European boss was about the best thing in my teenage years. Go Kings Go!

Alex Honnold - because he accomplished the greatest athletic achievement in human history. Period.

[mikemcgrail]

EDDY MERCKX
The cycling GOAT. Remove all of his success at the Tour de France and he would still be the cycling GOAT!!


ISAAC BURNS MURPHY
More than a century before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in major league baseball, black athletes were dominating America's first national sport. The sport was horse racing and the greatest jockeys were slaves and the sons of slaves. Isaac Burns Murphy was the greatest of them all.

He won 628 of his 1,412 starts—a 44% victory rate which has never been equaled, and a record about which Hall of Fame jockey Eddie Arcaro said: "There is no chance that his record of winning will ever be surpassed.”

He rode in eleven Kentucky Derbies, winning three times. He was the first jockey to win three Kentucky Derbys. Murphy is the only jockey to have won the Kentucky Derby, the Kentucky Oaks, and the Clark Handicap in the same year (1884).


ONOMASTOS OF SMYRNA
Onomastos of Smyrna was the first ever Olympic champion in boxing and also wrote the rules of Ancient Greek boxing as well. He also holds a record which remains remarkable even today. After hundreds of ancient and modern Olympiads, he’s still the boxer with the most Olympic boxing titles (4) to his name. Laslzo Papp, the world’s greatest amateur boxer of the twentieth century, came close to Onomastos’ record—but he stopped at three Olympic victories before becoming a professional boxer.


MARTIN STREL
Martin Strel is a Slovenian long-distance swimmer. He is one of the most elite endurance athletes, best known for swimming the entire length of various rivers. Strel holds successive Guinness World Records for swimming the Danube, the Mississippi, the Yangtze and the Amazon. He's been attacked by piranhas and dodged dead bodies on the most grueling swims ever completed. His athletic accomplishments are too impressive to make sense of.

Strel's first two river swims were the Krka river (65 miles) in 28 hours in 1992, and the Kolpa river (39 miles) in 16 hours in 1993.

In 2000, he swam the length of the Danube, covering 1,878 miles in 58 days, setting a world record and providing a taste of things to come.

Two years later, he broke his own record on the Mississippi, swimming from northern Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico (2,360 miles) in 68 days. He spent about 12 hours in the water each day.

In 2003, he swam the entire Paraná River (2,484 miles) in Argentina in 24 days. He swam from dawn to dust and averaged over 49 miles per day.

In 2004, he took on the toxic waters of the Yangtze, covering 2,488 miles in 50 days, passing several floating corpses along the way. The Yangtze provided a useful tune-up for his greatest swim of all, the Amazon.

In 2007, he swam from Peru to the South Atlantic (3,278 miles) in 68 days. The Amazon is home to one-third of the animal species in the world and Strel encountered most of them up close. He avoided the candiru. He managed to swim past crocodiles that lined the shores in shallow waters. He escaped bull sharks. Strel wasn’t able to dodge all the predators, however. He brought home a souvenir he’ll never lose; an eight-inch gash across his back where piranhas bit through his wet suit. It is a half-inch deep. He didn’t bother to get it stitched.

Strel was 52 years old when he finished his Amazon swim !!!

[mrreality68]

Originally Posted by mikemcgrail

EDDY MERCKX
The cycling GOAT. Remove all of his success at the Tour de France and he would still be the cycling GOAT!!


ISAAC BURNS MURPHY
More than a century before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in major league baseball, black athletes were dominating America's first national sport. The sport was horse racing and the greatest jockeys were slaves and the sons of slaves. Isaac Burns Murphy was the greatest of them all.

He won 628 of his 1,412 starts—a 44% victory rate which has never been equaled, and a record about which Hall of Fame jockey Eddie Arcaro said: "There is no chance that his record of winning will ever be surpassed.”

He rode in eleven Kentucky Derbies, winning three times. He was the first jockey to win three Kentucky Derbys. Murphy is the only jockey to have won the Kentucky Derby, the Kentucky Oaks, and the Clark Handicap in the same year (1884).


ONOMASTOS OF SMYRNA
Onomastos of Smyrna was the first ever Olympic champion in boxing and also wrote the rules of Ancient Greek boxing as well. He also holds a record which remains remarkable even today. After hundreds of ancient and modern Olympiads, he’s still the boxer with the most Olympic boxing titles (4) to his name. Laslzo Papp, the world’s greatest amateur boxer of the twentieth century, came close to Onomastos’ record—but he stopped at three Olympic victories before becoming a professional boxer.


MARTIN STREL
Martin Strel is a Slovenian long-distance swimmer. He is one of the most elite endurance athletes, best known for swimming the entire length of various rivers. Strel holds successive Guinness World Records for swimming the Danube, the Mississippi, the Yangtze and the Amazon. He's been attacked by piranhas and dodged dead bodies on the most grueling swims ever completed. His athletic accomplishments are too impressive to make sense of.

Strel's first two river swims were the Krka river (65 miles) in 28 hours in 1992, and the Kolpa river (39 miles) in 16 hours in 1993.

In 2000, he swam the length of the Danube, covering 1,878 miles in 58 days, setting a world record and providing a taste of things to come.

Two years later, he broke his own record on the Mississippi, swimming from northern Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico (2,360 miles) in 68 days. He spent about 12 hours in the water each day.

In 2003, he swam the entire Paraná River (2,484 miles) in Argentina in 24 days. He swam from dawn to dust and averaged over 49 miles per day.

In 2004, he took on the toxic waters of the Yangtze, covering 2,488 miles in 50 days, passing several floating corpses along the way. The Yangtze provided a useful tune-up for his greatest swim of all, the Amazon.

In 2007, he swam from Peru to the South Atlantic (3,278 miles) in 68 days. The Amazon is home to one-third of the animal species in the world and Strel encountered most of them up close. He avoided the candiru. He managed to swim past crocodiles that lined the shores in shallow waters. He escaped bull sharks. Strel wasn’t able to dodge all the predators, however. He brought home a souvenir he’ll never lose; an eight-inch gash across his back where piranhas bit through his wet suit. It is a half-inch deep. He didn’t bother to get it stitched.

Strel was 52 years old when he finished his Amazon swim !!!

Great stuff and great learning

Thanks for sharing

[tkd]

Ruth
Brady
Jordan
Gretzky

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by mikemcgrail

EDDY MERCKX
The cycling GOAT. Remove all of his success at the Tour de France and he would still be the cycling GOAT!!


ISAAC BURNS MURPHY
More than a century before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in major league baseball, black athletes were dominating America's first national sport. The sport was horse racing and the greatest jockeys were slaves and the sons of slaves. Isaac Burns Murphy was the greatest of them all.

He won 628 of his 1,412 starts—a 44% victory rate which has never been equaled, and a record about which Hall of Fame jockey Eddie Arcaro said: "There is no chance that his record of winning will ever be surpassed.”

He rode in eleven Kentucky Derbies, winning three times. He was the first jockey to win three Kentucky Derbys. Murphy is the only jockey to have won the Kentucky Derby, the Kentucky Oaks, and the Clark Handicap in the same year (1884).


ONOMASTOS OF SMYRNA
Onomastos of Smyrna was the first ever Olympic champion in boxing and also wrote the rules of Ancient Greek boxing as well. He also holds a record which remains remarkable even today. After hundreds of ancient and modern Olympiads, he’s still the boxer with the most Olympic boxing titles (4) to his name. Laslzo Papp, the world’s greatest amateur boxer of the twentieth century, came close to Onomastos’ record—but he stopped at three Olympic victories before becoming a professional boxer.


MARTIN STREL
Martin Strel is a Slovenian long-distance swimmer. He is one of the most elite endurance athletes, best known for swimming the entire length of various rivers. Strel holds successive Guinness World Records for swimming the Danube, the Mississippi, the Yangtze and the Amazon. He's been attacked by piranhas and dodged dead bodies on the most grueling swims ever completed. His athletic accomplishments are too impressive to make sense of.

Strel's first two river swims were the Krka river (65 miles) in 28 hours in 1992, and the Kolpa river (39 miles) in 16 hours in 1993.

In 2000, he swam the length of the Danube, covering 1,878 miles in 58 days, setting a world record and providing a taste of things to come.

Two years later, he broke his own record on the Mississippi, swimming from northern Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico (2,360 miles) in 68 days. He spent about 12 hours in the water each day.

In 2003, he swam the entire Paraná River (2,484 miles) in Argentina in 24 days. He swam from dawn to dust and averaged over 49 miles per day.

In 2004, he took on the toxic waters of the Yangtze, covering 2,488 miles in 50 days, passing several floating corpses along the way. The Yangtze provided a useful tune-up for his greatest swim of all, the Amazon.

In 2007, he swam from Peru to the South Atlantic (3,278 miles) in 68 days. The Amazon is home to one-third of the animal species in the world and Strel encountered most of them up close. He avoided the candiru. He managed to swim past crocodiles that lined the shores in shallow waters. He escaped bull sharks. Strel wasn’t able to dodge all the predators, however. He brought home a souvenir he’ll never lose; an eight-inch gash across his back where piranhas bit through his wet suit. It is a half-inch deep. He didn’t bother to get it stitched.

Strel was 52 years old when he finished his Amazon swim !!!

To see Strel, your first reaction is not going to be, there is perhaps the most remarkable endurance athlete ever to live.

https://unofficialnetworks.com/2016/...-best-athlete/

[Cliff Mehrtens]

Wayne Gretzky (did things never seen before OR after him)

Babe Ruth (did things never seen before OR after him)

Wilt Chamberlain (did things never seen before OR after him)

The numbers on these three are phenomenal. Unmatched. Then, and since then.

[JollyElm]

Mine is based on the exciting entertainment value felt by younger sports fans. The players we were glued to the TV watching every time they touched the ball or puck.

1. Wayne Gretzky - DUH!!!!!!!! What's that quote? He was better in his sport than anyone else was in theirs.
2. Reggie Jackson - every single one of his at bats was a magical moment of great expectations. You could not wait for him to step into the batter's box for another chance of knocking the ball into oblivion!!
3. 'Dr. J.'/Dominique Wilkens - man oh man did both of these uber-coordinated freaks of nature attack the court!! Completely mesmerizing.
4. Mark Gastineau - whether you rooted for him or against him, your level of involvement was the same, one-hundred-freaking-percent!!

[Gorditadogg]

Originally Posted by Dewey

Michael Jordan - because he was the greatest competitor I've ever seen and he transcended sport with Nike in a way that created a new type of athlete-entrepreneur.

Serena Williams - because she is the greatest tennis player of all time and the other half of humanity needs representation. 23 majors, 14 doubles majors, 3 or 4 gold medals.

Wayne Gretzky - because anyone legitimately called "The Great One" makes the cut. Getting to sit in the corporate seats handed down from my mom's Eastern European boss was about the best thing in my teenage years. Go Kings Go!

Alex Honnold - because he accomplished the greatest athletic achievement in human history. Period.

Alex Honnold's climb up El Capitan was absolutely breath-taking and I still think impossible.

[steve B]

I'm glad to see so many mentions of Merckx.

The only reason I left him off my list is that I don't think he's had as much influence outside sports as some other athletes.

But if the only criteria is total domination of a sport he's got to be in the mix.
1969 He won every classification at the Tour de France, overall winner, points(best sprinter) King of the mountains, combined, and most combative.

1974 he was the first to complete cyclings triple crown, Giro D'Italia, Tour de France, and world championship.

525 wins in 1800+ races, 445 of 1585 as a professional. 54 wins in 120 races in 1971 still the record for most wins in a season.

I doubt we'll see anything like that again in the sport, as it's become more of a team and specialists sport. The big tour winners are good at everything, but rarely great at everything.

[riggs336]

Ali, Didrickson, Owens, Ruth

[timzcardz]

Lou Gehrig

Vince Lombardi

Jesse Owens

Richard Petty

[Eric72]

Rusty Kuntz, Pete LaCock, Dick Cox and Bock Hooker...

Oh wait, wrong thread...

Babe Ruth, Michael Jordan, Jim Thorpe, Wayne Gretzky.

Jim Thorpe may have been the greatest athlete from 1900-Present, and the other three are usually mentioned in discussions regarding the greatest player of all-time within their respective sports.

[the 'stache]

Originally Posted by Eric72

Rusty Kuntz, Pete LaCock, Dick Cox and Bock Hooker...

Oh wait, wrong thread...

Babe Ruth, Michael Jordan, Jim Thorpe, Wayne Gretzky.

Jim Thorpe may have been the greatest athlete from 1900-Present, and the other three are usually mentioned in discussions regarding the greatest player of all-time within their respective sports.

Eric, I'm ashamed of you. I thought that you, of all our forum members, would take this kind of thing seriously.

Oh, and you forgot Dick Trickle (hey, we are including all sports here!)

Thorpe and the aforementioned Babe Didrikson are both interesting choices. It's just so hard to pick only four. I wanted to include persons that aspired to excellence, while simultaneously elevating sports to a higher level. Jesse Owens was another I thought of.

Keep it up, guys. Some good choices I hadn't thought of.

BTW, I want to go on record as saying that I won't object to Miss Rousey's inclusion in this discussion. I would be afraid to. I'm banged up enough as it is. I've seen what she will do to the human arm, and I like the use of both of mine.

[steve B]

Originally Posted by PolarBear

Theagenes of Thasos

Had to Google that one. Yeah, ok. He would be a possibility for the fourth spot. Hard to argue with a guy being looked on as almost a god

Steve B

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by steve B

Had to Google that one. Yeah, ok. He would be a possibility for the fourth spot. Hard to argue with a guy being looked on as almost a god

Steve B

His 1300 crowns blows away Phelps.

[frankbmd]

Who else has an army?

Arnold Palmer

[timn1]

Jack Johnson
Jackie Robinson
Arthur Ashe
Wilt Chamberlain

[PolarBear]

Originally Posted by frankbmd

Who else has an army?

Kiss.

[jason.1969]

Originally Posted by frankbmd

Who else has an army?

Arnold Palmer

Pat Tillman

[RTK]

Babe Ruth
Jackie Robinson
Jesse Owens
Jimmy Clark or Ayrton Senna
strong consideration for either Gretzky or Bobby Orr

I think athletes that changed the direction of their respective sport or society in general should be recognized not just those with statistical accomplishments.Rushmore has four presidents, a sports Rushmore would definitely need more being there are so may sports.

[steve B]

Originally Posted by RTK

Babe Ruth
Jackie Robinson
Jesse Owens
Jimmy Clark or Ayrton Senna
strong consideration for either Gretzky or Bobby Orr

I think athletes that changed the direction of their respective sport or society in general should be recognized not just those with statistical accomplishments.Rushmore has four presidents, a sports Rushmore would definitely need more being there are so may sports.

How could I have forgotten Senna ?! He was a tremendous driver and outspoken about his sports problems where others simply kept quiet and cashed their checks. Racing as a whole is far safer because of him.

Steve B

[Steve D]

Originally Posted by frankbmd

Who else has an army?

Arnold Palmer

Franco Harris


Steve

[Edward]

jim otto
dave dravecky
marv throneberry

[RTK]

The on court heroics of basketball wouldn't be possible if traveling wasn't allowed.It's all about the "show", the NASCAR of stick & ball sports. Jordan was a tremendous athlete though. He was the NBA in his era, he received the benefit of doubt from the officials. I have a tough time putting him on the list.