World’s Top 10 Athletes of All Time

They come and they don’t just go. They leave us records that remain unmatched. Their numbers and names seem insufficient that we need to call them by their nicknames. Some leaped so high, other ran too fast. Most are endowed with the gift of accuracy and foresight. All of them know more than one sport. They excel in more than one of them. Call tem the top ten best athletes the world has ever known.

#1 Dave Winfield

When Bobby Thomson hit his home run known as “the shot heard ’round the world ” for the New York Giants, Dave Winfield was born. It was in his senior years in high school that Winfield started to earn his reputation as a 6′6″ formidable athlete in baseball and basketball. Even in his college days at the University of Minnesota, American Basketball Association and National Basketball Association head coach Bill Musselman had already lauded Winfield as the best rebounder he had.

But Winfield’s best shot was not only circling the basketball court for he was drafter by four team in three professional sports.. Though he never played football in college, the Minnesota Vikings chose Winfield in the 17th round of the National Football League.

Baseball was his third though definitely not his underrated sport. He was an All-Star player with 34 home runs for the San Diego Padres. His direct leap to the Major League Baseball, skipping the minor leagues, made him remarkably commendable.  His stellar ratings could not be completed without the mention of his five out of seven Gold Glove Awards as a Yankee after hitting 744 runs between 1982 and 1988.

Having played for six teams (San Diego Padres, New York Yankees, California Angels, Toronto Blue Jays, Minnesota Twins, Cleveland Indians) between 1973 and 1995 without losing his feat as a formidable sports figure, Dave Winfield is rightly placed in the select world’s top ten athletes of all times.

A popular slogan adopted in 1992 after Winfield appealed for more crowd noise was just perfect for someone who has secured his position in the world of sports. His influence have kept on reverberating ’round the world. True indeed, “Winfield Wants Noise.”

#2 Babe Zaharias

Our roster of the world’s top ten athlete of all times does not only pay tribute to  the gents who played well in their respective games. Also included in our list is the embodiment of female flexibility who earned such reputation after finishing first in golf, basketball, and track and field. The Guinness Book of Records gave her similar credits as the most versatile female competitor. She was Mildred Ella “Babe” Didrikson Zaharias.

Her nickname “Babe”,  coined not as an address for a girl or young woman, was made after Babe Ruth when she hit five home runs in a single baseball game. However, Babe was never detached from domestic chores women excelled in. She was a superb seamstress who made the clothes she wore including her golfing attire. Who says she won no medals for sewing? Babe was a sewing champion during the State Fair of Texas in Dallas in 1931.

When most athletes who have found their niche in a particular sport, Babe Didrikson beg to differ; she set five world records in javelin throw, 80-meter hurdles, high jump and baseball throw all in a single afternoon.

Although Babe Didrikson was known for her athletic records in track and field and basketball, she was also an expert diver, roller-skater and bowler. She may not won in billiards tournament but her athletic nature also manifested in the game as a competitive pocket pool player.

Her career in golf, though it came short and late, crystallized Babe into a figure known as America’s first female golf celebrity. She was on her peak of golfing success until cancer delayed her winnings. But she remained tough and resilient to any hurdles when she was still able to clinch gold medals in 1955 despite her serious condition.

Of all the records that Babe has broken, the greatest was her decisive athletic winnings that debunk claims of female incompetence in sports.

#3 Willie Mays

What distinguished Willie Mays from the other Major League player? It would be impossible to answer in unison as it is equally impossible to get a single answer. But what Willie May did that none could ever match was this: he hit a home run in every inning from 1st to 16th. His first Major League manager. Leo Durocher, attests to it saying: “He could do the five things you have to do to be a superstar: hit, hit with power, run, throw, and field.”

Mays’ remarkable career did not happened overnight. He may have completed 660 home runs but his was not a good start after hitting zero in his first twelve at bats. The 13th came and he hit a homer. It prefigured Mays continuous ascend to the top. A skill such as his was necessary for his team, New York Giants, at a time when Giant’s posed a comeback in 1951 to outplay the Dodgers.

His military post during the conflict in Korea stole 266 games from him but it was estimated that had he played during those times, he and not Hank Aaron would have broke Babe Ruth’s home run record. Among the select few such as outfielders Roberto Clemente and Ken Griffey Jr., Mays won twelve Gold Glove Awards in a row.

Just before he ended his 13 years playing over 150 games, Mays finished 3rd in the National League Most Valuable Player voting and in 1970, Sporting News had even named him as the “Player of the Decade” for the 60s. Say all our praises to “The Say Hey Kid.”

# 4 Bo Jackson

Vincent Edward “Bo” Jackson was good at kicking and hitting the ball. He was superbly good at it that he earned his reputation as a professional football and baseball player after being named an All-Star in two major sports.

People knew Bo by the slogan “Bo Knows,” which was after his series of Nike advertisements that promoted cross-training sports shoe.

In the history of All-Star Game, Bo and Willie Mays have something in common. Both have hit a home run and steal a base in the same game. He had his famous “wall run” on July 11, 1990 against Baltimore Orioles when he caught a ball 2-3 strides away from the wall. He eventually noticed the wall and did his walking-on-the-wall stunt.

When Bo was about to undergo a hip replacement surgery, he promised his mother to his a home run for her after his recovery. His mother died before he could return but Bo was able to fulfill his promise by hitting a home run right after his surgery. He was raised to an all-star status following his achievements as All-Star Game MVP in 1989.

Bo cannot choose between football and baseball but he was forced to do so until the Los Angeles Raiders owner allowed Bo to continue his baseball career and play football only part-time until the end of the baseball season. Although a second-stringer to Marcus Allen, Bo’s 221 yards on 1987 still holds the Monday Night Football record, which he achieved only 29 days following his first National Football League carry.

No one believed Bo when he said that would play baseball again after he recovered from the hip surgery but as what Nike advertisement said of him, “Bo Knew.” He just homered his first at-bat against the New york Yankees after his recovery.

# 5 Jesse Owens

When Jesse Owens achieved international recognition for bagging four gold medals (100 meters, 200 meters, long jump, and 4×100 meter relay team) during the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany, it was known that Hitler used the games to promote concepts of  “Aryan racial superiority” over ethnic Africans. Yet Owen was an African-American. He was, however, quick to deny media allegations that Hitler snubbed or failed to recognize his winnings.

The fusion of sports and politics, which was clearly manifested in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, is no longer a novelty. As President Jimmy Carter thought of boycotting the 1980 Moscow Olympics, Owens tried to convince him that the Olympic ideal is above politics. More than winning gold, Owen had the spirit of a true Olympian.

Owens worked in a shoe repair shop after class and during that time he realized that his feet were made for running. He needed his work badly that his junior-high track coach allowed him to practice before school. He was still a student at the East Technical High School when he equalled the world record of 9.4 seconds in the 100-yard dash. He set three world records in only 45 minutes in the 100 yard, the long jump, the 220 yard, and the 220 yard low hurdles.

# 6 Wayne Gretzky

Gretzky stature was unimpressive. Since he started his career even before he reached 10, envious mothers of his opponents would disapprove of him. When Gretzky was about to join the National Hockey League, critics dismissed him as too small, too wiry, and too slow to conquer the NHL.

But Gretzky possessed what other hockey players did not– intelligence and accurate reading of the game. He knew where the puck would be going and made the right move for the win.

His stellar hockey career would not be completed without his nine Hart Trophies as the most valuable player, ten Art Ross Trophies for most points in a season, five Lady Byng Trophies for sportsmanship and performance, five Lester B. Pearson Awards, and two Conn Smythe Trophies as playoff MVP. Such roster of awards earned him his nickname “The Great One” and his reputation as the best player in the history of the National Hockey League. Nobody could disagree with that for Gretzky was the only NHL player to accumulate over 200 points in just one session,  which he achieved four times.

Gretzky’s athletic career started so early. At the age of ten, he already totaled 378 goals and 120 assists in just 85 games with the Brantford Nadrofsky Steelers. At 16, he even surpassed the OMJHL single-season scoring record that earned him his title as OMJHL Rookie of the Year and Most Sportsmanlike awards.

His feats in hockey always come as a surprise to many. During the 1978 World Junior Championship, Gretzky was the youngest player. He ended up as the top scorer and was eventually voted to the All-Star team.

# 7 Jim Thorpe

Like other athletes who made it on this list of ten most outstanding players in the world of all time, Jim Thorpe was considered as one of the most versatile athletes. His versatility though extended to modern sports or events that were introduced only in the 90s.

When pentathlon and decathlon were just two new events in the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockhol, Sweden, Thorpe’s versatility manifested for he easily won the gold. He easily won the awards. His Olympic record of 8,413 points remained unmatched for nearly two decades.

During the awarding of prizes for the Olympics, King Gustav V of Sweden said to him: “You, sir, are the greatest athlete in the world.” No one could doubt it.

Aside from winning the Olympic gold medal in the pentathlon and decathlon, Thorpe also played American football in college and later as a professional. He also displayed his athletic skills in professional basketball and baseball. Football was his favorite sport but it was in the track and field, where he competed only intermittently, that Thorpe gained more fame.

Thorpe’s sports were as diverse as his Irish, French and Indian lineage. Besides track and field, baseball, basketball, and football, he also joined lacrosse and even won an award in a ballroom dancing competition during college.

Associated Press named Thorpe was the greatest athlete of the first half of the twentieth century in 1950.

# 8 Muhammad Ali

Listed as ESPN’s choice of the greatest heavyweights of all time in December 2007, Muhammad Ali was a former three-time World Heavyweight Champion and was the only man to have won the covetable prize three times in a row. Sports Illustrated and the BBC have earlier crowned Ali in 1999 as “Sportsman of the Century.” His legacy in the world sports have kept on reverberating though.

This American boxer loved to boast before winning the game and almost always predicate the outcome of the fight accurately. Standing six feet and three inches tall, Ali had a peculiar practice inside the ring by heavily relying on foot speed to avoid punches rather than use his hands to defend his face. He speak of his fighting style as “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.”

Hi 1960-1963 record showed an impressive 19-0 and 15 knockouts  after defeating illustrious boxes such as Tony Esperti, Doonie Fleeman, Alonzo Johnson, Jim Robinson, Willi Besmanoff, George Loga, Henry Cooper, Doug Jones, and Lamar Clark, who previously won all 40 bouts by knockout.
In his one of the most anticipated bouts, “The Fight of the Century,” Ali had his first professional defeat by Frazier, an equally skilled and undefeated fighter capable of clinching the heavyweight crown.

Ali, however, regained his title in “The Rumble in the Jungle when he defeated George Foreman, who had previously won 37 out of 40 bouts by knockout mostly in just three rounds. The Rumble in the Jungle was made into documentary film, When We Were Kings, which made it to the 1996 Academy Award. The bout ranked 7th in the British television program called “The 100 Greatest Sporting Moments.

# 9 Michael Jordan

The National Basketball Association said it right when it spoke of Michael Jordan: “By acclamation, Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time.” The American professional player was renowned for his leaping ability by performing slam dunks from the free throw line. He gained nicknames such as “Air Jordan” and  “His Airness” for it.

Jordan’s stellar NBA record was composed of five MVP awards, ten All-NBA First Team designations, nine All-Defensive First Team honors, 14 NBA All-Star Game appearances and three All-Star MVP, six NBA Finals MVP awards, ten scoring titles, three steals titles, and the 1988 NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award. His regular season scoring average at 30.12 points per game is the highest in NBA history.

ESPN named Jordan as the greatest North American athlete of the 20th century while Associated Press listed him next to Babe Ruth as an athlete of the century. After leading Chicago Bulls and Washington Wizards, Jordan will be eligible for the Basketball Hall of Fame award in 2009.

# 10 Jim Brown

The number one player in our list is a professional football player, actor, and social activist. His name is Brown. Jim Brown.

In his nine-year career as a running back for the National Football League Cleveland Browns, Brown was considered as the best running back of all time. The Sporting News named him as the greatest professional football player. Brown also excelled in lacrosse. The National Lacrosse Hall of fame even considered him as “greatest lacrosse player ever.”

He leads in NFL records for the single-season, career touchdowns, rushing touchdowns, total touchdowns, and all-purpose yards. Brown was the only NFL rusher who obtained an average of over 100 yards per game. His prowess as a receiver out of the backfield involved the catching of 262 passes for 2,499 yards and 20 touchdowns.

Among the list of movies Brown appeared in as an actor includes: The Dirty Dozen, 100 Rifles, Three the Hard Way, The Running Man, Original Gangstas and, just recently, On the Edge.