20 years later: ESPN SportsCentury Top 100 Athletes

[Remote]

In 1999, ESPN ranked the top 100 athletes of the century.

ESPN.com: Top N. American athletes of the century

rank athlete sport
1 Michael Jordan basketball
2 Babe Ruth baseball
3 Muhammad Ali boxing
4 Jim Brown American football
5 Wayne Gretzky ice hockey
6 Jesse Owens track and field
7 Jim Thorpe baseball / track and field / American football
8 Willie Mays baseball
9 Jack Nicklaus golf
10 Babe Zaharias golf / track and field
11 Joe Louis boxing
12 Carl Lewis track and field
13 Wilt Chamberlain basketball
14 Hank Aaron baseball
15 Jackie Robinson baseball
16 Ted Williams baseball
17 Magic Johnson basketball
18 Bill Russell basketball
19 Martina Navratilova tennis
20 Ty Cobb baseball
21 Gordie Howe ice hockey
22 Joe DiMaggio baseball
23 Jackie Joyner-Kersee track and field
24 Sugar Ray Robinson boxing
25 Joe Montana American football
26 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar basketball
27 Jerry Rice American football
28 Red Grange American football
29 Arnold Palmer golf
30 Larry Bird basketball
31 Bobby Orr ice hockey
32 Johnny Unitas American football
33 Mark Spitz swimming
34 Lou Gehrig baseball
35 Secretariat horse
36 Oscar Robertson basketball
37 Mickey Mantle baseball
38 Ben Hogan golf
39 Walter Payton American football
40 Lawrence Taylor American football
41 Wilma Rudolph track and field
42 Sandy Koufax baseball
43 Julius Erving basketball
44 Bobby Jones golf
45 Bill Tilden tennis
46 Eric Heiden speed skater
47 Edwin Moses track and field
48 Pete Sampras tennis
49 O J Simpson American football
50 Chris Evert tennis
51 Rocky Marciano boxing
52 Jack Dempsey boxing
53 Rafer Johnson track and field (decathlon)
54 Greg Louganis diving
55 Mario Lemieux ice hockey
56 Pete Rose baseball
57 Bill Shoemaker jockey
58 Elgin Baylor basketball
59 Billie Jean King tennis
60 Walter Johnson baseball
61 Stan Musial baseball
62 Jerry West basketball
63 Satchel Paige baseball
64 Sammy Baugh American football
65 Althea Gibson tennis
66 Eddie Arcaro jockey
67 Bob Gibson baseball
68 Al Oerter track and field
69 Bonnie Blair speed skater
70 dikk Butkus American football
71 Roberto Clemente baseball
72 Bo Jackson baseball / American football
73 Josh Gibson baseball
74 Deion Sanders American football / baseball
75 Dan Marino American football
76 Barry Sanders American football
77 Cy Young baseball
78 Bob Mathias track and field (decathlon)
79 Gale Sayers American football
80 A J Foyt auto racing
81 Jimmy Connors tennis
82 Bobby Hull ice hockey
83 Honus Wagner baseball
84 Man o' War horse
85 Maurice Richard ice hockey
86 Otto Graham American football
87 Henry Armstrong boxing
88 Joe Namath American Football
89 Rogers Hornsby baseball
90 Richard Petty auto racing (NASCAR)
91 Bob Beamon track and field
92 Mario Andretti auto racing
93 Don Hutson American football
94 Bob Cousy basketball
95 George Blanda American football
96 Michael Johnson track and field
97 Citation horse
98 Don Budge tennis
99 Sam Snead golf
100 Jack Johnson boxing

 

[Remote]

How wrong were they?

 

[dtownreppin214]

This was when ESPN was in it's prime. Great great docuseries.

 

[Hey_zeus]

I used to watch these, Who's Number 1, Stump The Schwab, Ringside Classics and all the old boxing joints all day on ESPN classic when i was in middle school. NFL Films with Steve Sabol, RIP to him and his pops..

SN: Wish NBA had equivalents of that for the 60s footage. In depth looks at those Celtics teams and their battles with the top stars of the era would've been amazing.

 

[Nero Christ]

you should put "North American" in the title

 

[Rev Leon Lonnie Love]

Floyd still getting slighted by these networks even after retirement

 

[Remote]

Floyd still getting slighted by these networks even after retirement

When this list came out, Floyd was like 2.5 years into his career, breh.

 

[FTBS]

How wrong were they?

Outside of the horse, how were they wrong? They could only go by what was known at the time.

Edit: Or was this an endorsement?

 

[Hey_zeus]

20 years later, I've still only heard of Babe Zaharias because of this doc.

 

[Remote]

Outside of the horse, how were they wrong? They could only go by what was known at the time.

Edit: Or was this an endorsement?

Kareem being below Magic and Bill Russell
Jack Johnson being 100th.

 

[Knights89]

I wish you could find all the sportscentury online to watch

 

[Po pimp]

LOL@Babe Ruth over Ali

 

[Malcolmxxx_23]

This was when ESPN was in it's prime. Great great docuseries.

Breh remember this
Espn sportscentury docs

The intro this is

 

[Lefty Gunz]

ESPN Classic used to replay these all summer. This, who’s Number 1 and Top 5 reason you can’t blame...

 

[Hey_zeus]

ESPN Classic used to replay these all summer. This, who’s Number 1 and Top 5 reason you can’t blame...

Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame CWebb for the T/o in the 93 NCAA Title game had a young breh