RE: OT: 5 Greatest Athletes Born in Your School's State
North Carolina
1. Sugar Ray Leonard - Rick Flair
2. Meadow lark Lemon - Curly Neal
3. Richard Petty - Dale Earnhardt
4. Gaylord Perry - Jim Catfish Hunter
5. David Thompson - Michael Jordan (?)
RE: OT: 5 Greatest Athletes Born in Your School's State
(06-21-2015 12:32 AM)Rabonchild Wrote: North Carolina
1. Sugar Ray Leonard - Rick Flair
2. Meadow lark Lemon - Curly Neal
3. Richard Petty - Dale Earnhardt
4. Gaylord Perry - Jim Catfish Hunter
5. David Thompson - Michael Jordan (?)
Brooklyn, NY. But that's fine you only needed five. Five numbers but ten names...sneaky.
RE: OT: 5 Greatest Athletes Born in Your School's State
My West Virginia Top 5 matches one of the earlier ones. This isn't in any order.
Randy Moss- enough said
Jerry West- enough said
Mary Lou Retton- USA's first ever all-around women's gymnastics gold medalist.
Hack Wilson- his single season RBI record of 191 while playing for the Cubs will likely never be broken. He was born in PA but raised in West Virginia.
Hal Greer- one of the NBA's 50 greatest players when that was announced close to 20 years ago now.
Others:
Hot Rod Hundley
Gunner Gatski
Sam Huff
John Kruk
George Brett
Jason Williams
Jack Dempsey...could make a strong top 5 case here.
Lou Holtz
Nick Saban
Bill Mazeroski
Phil Pfister won the World's Strongest Man competition about 10 years ago. Even brought the competition to Charleston.
(This post was last modified: 06-21-2015 10:54 AM by ThunderingHerdFan.)
RE: OT: 5 Greatest Athletes Born in Your School's State
(06-21-2015 01:24 AM)Saint Greg Wrote:
(06-21-2015 12:32 AM)Rabonchild Wrote: North Carolina
1. Sugar Ray Leonard - Rick Flair
2. Meadow lark Lemon - Curly Neal
3. Richard Petty - Dale Earnhardt
4. Gaylord Perry - Jim Catfish Hunter
5. David Thompson - Michael Jordan (?)
Brooklyn, NY. But that's fine you only needed five. Five numbers but ten names...sneaky.
See this post earlier:
(06-19-2015 04:19 PM)marlonfield Wrote:
Michael Jordan was born in Brooklyn,NY
TribeNiner Wrote:
See the original post, though "we will count moving there very young and being raised there for their younger years."
He moved there when he was very young and has always considered himself a North Carolina native.
For instance, on SI's greatest athletes from every state, he is listed for North Carolina, not New York.
RE: OT: 5 Greatest Athletes Born in Your School's State
As a result of what can only be described as an egregious error I want to add Justin Timberlake to the top five list for Tennessee. Clearly one of the best athletes to ever emerge from the hallows of Tennessee.
I mean those dance moves. And he plays a little hoops too.
RE: OT: 5 Greatest Athletes Born in Your School's State
(06-21-2015 07:15 AM)ThreeifbyLightning Wrote: As a result of what can only be described as an egregious error I want to add Justin Timberlake to the top five list for Tennessee. Clearly one of the best athletes to ever emerge from the hallows of Tennessee.
I mean those dance moves. And he plays a little hoops too.
RE: OT: 5 Greatest Athletes Born in Your School's State
(06-21-2015 12:32 AM)Rabonchild Wrote: North Carolina
1. Sugar Ray Leonard - Rick Flair
2. Meadow lark Lemon - Curly Neal
3. Richard Petty - Dale Earnhardt
4. Gaylord Perry - Jim Catfish Hunter
5. David Thompson - Michael Jordan (?)
RE: OT: 5 Greatest Athletes Born in Your School's State
(06-20-2015 09:48 AM)ThreeifbyLightning Wrote:
(06-19-2015 04:18 PM)BlueRaiderBoy Wrote: The five greatest athletes (or historical Figures in athletics) born in Tennessee, might include:
1. First Black BB player at Vanderbilt and SEC: Perry Wallace, Nashville Native
2. QB Heisman Winner Nat'l Championship Coach: Steve Spurrier
Johnson City Native
3. Olympic Gold (3) Medal Winner and TSU Tigerbelle: Wilma Rudolph
Clarksville Native
4. Memphis and NBA Star: Anfernee "Penny" Hardaway
Memphis Native
5. Chicago Bears and Vandy QB Bill Wade
Nashville Native
Second Tier or Honorable Mention:
6. David Price- Pitcher Detroit Tigers, Tampa Bay Rays, Vandy Murfreesboro Native
7. Don Griffin- NBA Def. Rookie of the Year, two time Super Bowl Champ 49ers, MTSU All-American Murfreesboro Native
8. Sonny Gray-Pitcher Oakland A's, Vandy Smyrna Native
9. Clyde Lee- NBA 12 year career and SEC Player of the Year at VU
Nashville Native
10. Shawn Marion-NBA Journeyman, UNLV and Phoenix Suns
Clarksville Native
I believe you intended to say NFL for Griffin.
Others I think you could have probably include in front of these others ... again because the original post asked for greatest athlete not most accomplished.
The one you left off is the only man from MT to grace the cover of Sports Illustrated - once considered the greatest athlete in the world in his time.
RE: OT: 5 Greatest Athletes Born in Your School's State
Top athletes born in Virginia (in my opinion).
1) Secretariat (No human is stronger or faster than a horse and he was one of if not the best ever).
2) Ace Parker (NFL HOF member. You likely don't know about him but you should Google him to find out. Bo Jackson followed in HIS footsteps).
3) Moses Malone (NBA HOF member and one of the top 50 players in history per some report. Went directly from high school to the pros before it became a normal thing to do).
4) Francis Tarkenton (NFL stats: 47,003 passing yards - 6th all time, 342 passing TDs - 4th all time, 124 wins as a starter - 5th all time, 3,674 rushing yards - 4th most by a QB).
5) Allen Iverson (NBA scoring champ and all star for many years. Was also a fantastic high school football player but chose to concentrate on basketball in college and beyond).
Other possibilities:
Lawrence Taylor
Carl Hairston
Carrol Dale
Charles Haley
Michael Vick
Gary Clark
Roger Brown
William Fuller
Henry Jordan
Willie Lanier
Bruce Smith
Norman Snead
Dell Curry
Bob Dandridge
Alonzo Mourning
Ralph Sampson
Justin Verlander
Michael Cuddyer
David Wright
Pernell (Sweet Pea) Whitaker
RE: OT: 5 Greatest Athletes Born in Your School's State
(06-19-2015 04:18 PM)BlueRaiderBoy Wrote: The five greatest athletes (or historical Figures in athletics) born in Tennessee, might include:
1. First Black BB player at Vanderbilt and SEC: Perry Wallace, Nashville Native
2. QB Heisman Winner Nat'l Championship Coach: Steve Spurrier
Johnson City Native
3. Olympic Gold (3) Medal Winner and TSU Tigerbelle: Wilma Rudolph
Clarksville Native
4. Memphis and NBA Star: Anfernee "Penny" Hardaway
Memphis Native
5. Chicago Bears and Vandy QB Bill Wade
Nashville Native
Second Tier or Honorable Mention:
6. David Price- Pitcher Detroit Tigers, Tampa Bay Rays, Vandy Murfreesboro Native
7. Don Griffin- NBA Def. Rookie of the Year, two time Super Bowl Champ 49ers, MTSU All-American Murfreesboro Native
8. Sonny Gray-Pitcher Oakland A's, Vandy Smyrna Native
9. Clyde Lee- NBA 12 year career and SEC Player of the Year at VU
Nashville Native
10. Shawn Marion-NBA Journeyman, UNLV and Phoenix Suns
Clarksville Native
I believe that Don Griffin was born and raised in Georgia, coming to TN when he went to college at Middle.
RE: OT: 5 Greatest Athletes Born in Your School's State
(06-19-2015 04:39 PM)USMSTUD Wrote: You could start a decent football team with these 5
Walter Payton
Jerry Rice
Brett Favre
Jackie Slater or Will Shields
Lem Barney or Willie Brown
Others:
Danny Manning
Spencer Haywood
Roy Oswalt
Ralph Boston
RE: OT: 5 Greatest Athletes Born in Your School's State
(06-20-2015 10:50 PM)Side Show Joe Wrote:
(06-20-2015 08:11 PM)ODU AGGIE Wrote: I am a fan of ODU, but being from Texas, I submit for your consideration the following list of Texans:
Willie Shoemaker – quite likely the best jockey of all time. Shoemaker won eleven Triple Crown races including four Kentucky Derbys.
Jack Johnson - boxing’s heavyweight champion for seven years (1908-1915). He was the Mohamed Ali of the early 20th century.
Ernie Banks – He was a 14-time all star and two-time NL MVP. You just cannot leave Mr. Cub off this list.
Byron Nelson – known as the “father of the modern golf swing”, Nelson won the life time grand slam with six wins in golf’s four major tournaments. In 1945 he had 11 consecutive tournament wins and won 18 of the tour’s 35 tournaments that year.
A J Foyt – Drove in the Indianapolis 500 35 consecutive years and won at the Brickyard four times He also won the Daytona 500, the 24 Hours of LeMans and the 12 hours of Sebring.
Honorable Mention
Tom Landry – although best known as a coach, Landry was also an All-pro defensive back for the Giants before becoming a player/coach. He was captain of his high school football team that was undefeated his senior year, and was co-captain of the Longhorns his senior year at the University of Texas. While with the Giants, he developed the 4-3 defense that is still in use today. He coached the Cowboys for 28 years and has a record likely to never be broken, coaching the Cowboys to 20 consecutive winning seasons. Oh – he also was a pilot on 30 combat missions over Germany in B-17s during WWII.
This is the list of guys (and a gal) that I considered, are also equally deserving, but when you limit the list to five, some good ones get left off:
Bob Lilly
Ben Hogan
Rogers Hornsby
Bobby Labonte
Bobby Lane
Lee Trevino Nolan Ryan
Bubba Smith
Doak Walker
Tris Speaker
Payne Stewart
Joe Greene
George Foreman
Sammy Baugh
Earl Campbell
Roger Clemens
John David Crow
Eric Dickerson
Eddy Matthews
Don Meredith
Joe Morgan
Babe Didrikson Zaharias
I don't see how when ranking the greatest Texas athletes you can leave Nolan Ryan and his "7 No Hitters", 5,714 strikeouts, and 27 year career out of the top five. Ernie Banks was good, but not Nolan Ryan good.
Kenneth Hall the "Sugarland Express" should be in the top 5 too. He could possibly be the greatest high school running back ever. In 1953 Hall recorded 4,045 yards and 57 TDs in a 12 game season. Hall rushing average that season was 337 yards a game. In his 4 seasons of high school football Hall rushed for over 11,000 yards.
I agree about Kenneth Hall. He was probably the greatest high school RB ever. Many of his HS rushing records in Texas are still in place today.
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OT: 5 Greatest Athletes Born in Your School's State
