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SLAM! Sports Century in Review INTERACTIVE CONTESTS ALSO ON SLAM!  |
CENTURY STARS Baseball Babe Ruth Perhaps the most compelling sports personality of the century ... Set career home run record (714) and single-season home run record (60), both broken ... Was a great pitcher before he became game's first true slugger. Willie Mays Brilliant center fielder who made tough plays look routine ... Hit 660 home runs, third on career list behind Hank Aaron and Babe Ruth ... Career .302 hitter who finished with 3,283 hits and appeared in 24 All-Star games. Walter Johnson Pitching for lowly Washington Senators won 417 games, second only to Cy Young's 511 ... Baseball's first 3,000-strikeout pitcher ... Had 10 straight 20-win seasons from 1910-19 ... Threw record 110 shutouts with 2.17 ERA. Ty Cobb Baseball's first 4,000-hit man ... Won American League batting title 12 times, nine in a row, and finished with .367 average ... Set records for hits (4,191) and stolen bases (892), both broken. Football Jim Brown Won eight NFL rushing titles in nine years ... Finished career with 20 records including rushing yards (12,312), yards per carry (5.2), and rushing touchdowns (106) ... Nine-time Pro Bowl selection. Red Grange Football's first great running back ... Played at Illinois, where he once rushed for 365 yards in a game ... In 1924 against unbeaten Michigan, scored TDs the first four times he touched the ball ... Became first star of NFL. Otto Graham Led Cleveland Browns to 10 straight championship games, winning seven of them, first in All-America Conference and then NFL ... His teams went 105-17-4 over decade from 1946-55 ... Threw for 23,584 yards and 174 TDs. Lawrence Taylor Redefined position of linebacker ... Played with fierce determination and undisguised rage ... Had seven straight double-digit sack seasons, including 201/2 in 1986 when he was MVP ... Finished career with 1321/2 sacks. Basketball Michael Jordan Led Chicago Bulls to six NBA championships ... A ten-time scoring champion, averaged record 31.5 points ... Was a five-time regular-season MVP and won three playoff MVPs. Wilt Chamberlain First player in NBA history to top 30,000 points ... Led league in scoring seven times and rebounding 11 times ... Averaged 50.4 points in 1961-62, same season he scored record 100 points in one game. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar NBA's career leading scorer with 38,387 points in 20 seasons ... Also set blocked shots record with 3,189 ... Six-time MVP ... Size and agility forced NCAA to bar dunks when he was an All-American at UCLA. Magic Johnson Won five NBA championships with Los Angeles Lakers after leading Michigan State to NCAA title in 1979 ... Three-time MVP ... Career cut short by AIDS virus, but won an Olympic gold medal as part of first Dream Team in 1992. Hockey Wayne Gretzky Rewrote hockey record books ... Finished brilliant career with NHL records for goals (894), assists (1,963) and points (2,857) ... Scored record 92 goals in 1981-82 ... Had at least one point in 51 straight games in 1983-84 Gordie Howe Scored 975 goals, 801 in NHL, rest in WHA ... Played 25 seasons in NHL, retired for two years and then returned at age 45 to play seven more years with sons in WHA and NHL ... Seven-time MVP ... Led NHL in scoring six times. Bobby Orr Hockey's first great rushing defenseman ... Twice led NHL in scoring ... Won Norris Trophy eight straight times as league's best defenseman and three straight MVP awards ... Career shortened by knee injuries. Jacques Plante Introduced goaltenders mask in 1959 ... Won or shared seven Vezina Trophies as NHL's best goalie, five straight from 1956-60 ... MVP in 1962, one of just four goalies to win that award ... Won 434 games in 18 seasons. Tennis Martina Navratilova The dominant women's player of her time ... Won 166 titles in her career, more than any male or female player ... Winner of 56 Grand Slam titles ... Once had a 54-match winning streak followed by a 74-match streak. Bill Tilden In 1920, became first American to win Wimbledon ... Began string of six straight U.S. titles that year ... Led U.S. to seven straight Davis Cup championships 1920-26 ... Voted greatest player of first half of century. Rod Laver Won Grand Slam in 1962 and repeated in 1969, only person to twice sweep Australian, French, Wimbledon and U.S. titles in same year ... Won four Wimbledon crowns, three Australian and two each at French and U.S. Helen Wills Moody Winner of eight Wimbledons, three French and seven U.S. titles ... Nicknamed "Little Miss Poker Face," for her impassive look on the court ... Lost to contemporary Suzanne Lenglen in their only meeting. Golf Bobby Jones Introduced term "Grand Slam" to sports by sweeping U.S. and British Amateurs and Opens in 1930 ... No other golfer has swept four majors in the same year ... Designed Augusta National, home of the Masters. Arnold Palmer Charismatic figure who helped popularize sport and drew huge galleries nicknamed "Arnie's Army" ... Won seven majors, including three Masters ... Seven strokes back in last round, rallied with 65 to win 1960 U.S. Open. Jack Nicklaus Burst on golf horizon at age 22, beating Arnold Palmer in playoff at 1962 U.S. Open ... Won 20 major titles -- six Masters, four U.S. Opens, three British Opens and five PGAs as well as two U.S. Amateurs. Babe Didrikson Zaharias Olympic hurdles and javelin champion in 1932 ... Turned to golf late in life, winning British and U.S. Ladies championships, then turning pro and winning three U.S. Women's Opens. Track and Field Carl Lewis America's most decorated Olympian with nine gold medals and one silver ... Matched Jesse Owens' record, winning four golds at the 1984 games ... Set or shared 10 world records. Jackie Joyner-Kersee Winner of six Olympic medals, three in the heptathlon and three in long jump ... Also won four World Championship golds, two in each of her specialties ... Captured eight U.S. long jump and six heptathlon titles. Jesse Owens Set Olympic standard with four gold medals in 1936 Berlin games, shattering German dictator Adolf Hitler's racist theories ... Broke three world records and tied another in less than one hour at 1935 Big Ten championships. Paavo Nurmi Won track and field record 10 gold medals in three Olympics, 1920, 1924, 1928 ... Set world records for distances from 2,000 meters to 20,000 meters ... In 1924 Olympics, set records for 1,500 and 5,000 meters in less than one hour. Boxing Muhammad Ali Brash heavyweight champion who became spokesman for a generation ... First man to win heavyweight championship three times ... Sat out 31/2 years after refusing induction in Army during Vietnam War. Joe Louis Held heavyweight title for 12 years, longer than any other fighter ... Posted 68-3 record with 54 knockouts in 17 years ... Knocked out German Max Schmeling in one-round landmark rematch June 22, 1938. Sugar Ray Robinson Pound for pound, the best boxer of his time ... Won 175 of 202 fights from 1940-1965 ... Five-time middleweight champion ... Also held welterweight title for four years and nearly won light heavyweight crown, as well. Jack Dempsey The Manassa Mauler ... Heavyweight champion during the Golden Age of Sports ... Loser of Long Count fight against Gene Tunney, who beat him twice at end of career ... Trailblazed first $1 million gates in boxing. Racing Man o' War Lost just one race in 21 career starts ... Held out of 1920 Kentucky Derby but won Preakness and Belmont Stakes and was unbeaten in 11 races. Secretariat Won 16 of 21 career starts ... Winner of 1973 Triple Crown ... Won Belmont by record 31 lengths and world record time of 2:24 for 11/2 miles on dirt ... Also set record with time of 1:59 2-5 for Kentucky Derby. Eddie Arcaro Jockey for two Triple Crown champions, Whirlaway in 1941 and Citation in 1948 ... Rode 4,779 winners and finished in the money in more than half of his 24,092 races ... Posted career earnings of $30,039,543. Bill Shoemaker Rode 8,833 winners, record broken in 1999 by Laffit Pincay ... Had 1,009 of his winners in stakes races ... Earned over $123 million in purses ... Won four Kentucky Derbies, two Preakness and five Belmonts. Auto Racing A.J. Foyt Started record 35 Indy 500s and was first driver to win race four times ... Career leader in Indy-car victories with 67 ... Also won Daytona 500 in 1972 and 24 hours of Le Mans in 1967. Richard Petty Stock car racing's top star with 200 career victories, 95 more than any other driver ... Won seven NASCAR championships ... Won seven Daytona 500s and once won a record 10 straight races. Mario Andretti Winner of 52 Indy-car races, second best in history, trailing only Foyt ... Won Daytona 500 in 1967 and Indy 500 two years later ... Won 12 Formula One races and series championship in 1978. Juan Manuel Fangio Argentine driver nicknamed "The Maestro" ... Won record five Formula One titles in eight years, including four straight 1954-57 ... Dominant driver in Formula One series, winning 24 races in 51 starts. 
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