How well-known are these all-time great sports figures?

[edjs]

Originally Posted by Fred

I cut the following list down to only people that have played baseball. The list has the original percentages. I didn't change any of those.

What former major league player is missing from this list that most MLB players have heard of? At least most or all baseball fans know this name? It aint rocket science....

Babe Ruth 99%
Muhammad Ali 99%
Jackie Robinson 99%
Lou Gehrig 95%
Mickey Mantle 95%
Roberto Clemente 80%
Joe DiMaggio 75%
Ty Cobb 75%
Shoeless Joe Jackson 60%
Jim Thorpe 30%
Honus Wagner 15%
Satchel Paige 15%
Rogers Hornsby 3%
Christy Mathewson 3%
Walter Johnson 3%
Josh Gibson 2%

Cy Young. Also, you forgot to take out Ali.

[Fred]

Dang, that was a bit too easy...

[Bored5000]

Originally Posted by Fred

Dang, that was a bit too easy...

Young is a bit of a special case, though, because the award named for him is such a part of baseball to this day. Vezina's only real claim to fame among the public today is that there is an award named for him, and Vezina's award is still not as well known as the Cy Young award is to baseball.

I left Cy Young off the list because I think WaJo and Matty are better indicators of fame, since neither of them have a pitching award named for them that keeps their names in front of the public every year.

If there was no such thing as the Cy Young award, his notoriety would go down sharply among the modern population.

If there was no such thing as the Heisman Trophy, how many people would ever know John Heisman today? The answer to that is just about zero.

[h2oya311]

I'm embarrassed by some of my wife's responses to some of the athletes on the list:

Babe Ruth 99% - yes
Muhammad Ali 99% - sorta - she first thought he was a basketball player, then remembered he was a boxer (phew)
Jackie Robinson 99% - no thought he might have been a track star...she did know that he was black though. OMG
Pele 99% - yes
Lou Gehrig 95% - yes
Mickey Mantle 95% - yes
Joe Frazier 80% - no
Roberto Clemente 80% - yes
Joe DiMaggio 75% - yes
Ty Cobb 75% - yes
Shoeless Joe Jackson 60% - yes
Wilt Chamberlain 50% - no
Bill Russell 50% - no
Jack Dempsey 30% - no
Joe Louis 30% - no
Rocky Marciano 30% - no
Jim Thorpe 30% - no
Jack Johnson 25% - no - she hears that name and thinks of the singer/songwriter
A.J. Foyt 25% - no
Richard Petty 25% - no
Honus Wagner 15% - yes
Satchel Paige 15% - no
George Mikan 10% - no - nor did I
Rogers Hornsby 3% - no
Christy Mathewson 3% - no
Walter Johnson 3% - no
Bobby Jones 2% - no
Bronko Nagurski 2% - no
Josh Gibson 2% - no
Georges Vezina 1% - no

Clearly I have some influence on her baseball knowledge, but need to work on the guy that apparently 99% of Americans should know!!!