40 Favorite Athletes

These are 40 of my favorite sports figures. They are in no particular order, but will probably follow a slight pattern as I mentally run through various sports. I will include the sport to give reference, just in case some of these get obscure.

1. Bob Feller, baseball
   
2. Terry Bradshaw, football
   
3. Jim Thome, baseball
   
4. Jerome Bettis, football
   
5. Michael Jordan, basketball
   
6. Larry Bird, basketball
   
7. Mario Lemieux, hockey
   
8. Wayne Gretsky, hockey
   
9. Tony Hawk, skateboarding
   
10. Lynn Swann, football
    
11. Joe Greene, football
    
12. Hines Ward, football
    
13. Willie Stargell, baseball
    
14. Roberto Clemente, baseball
    
15. Patrick Roy, hockey
    
16. Pele, soccer/futbol
    
17. Mia Hamm, soccer/futbol
    
18. Mary Lou Retton, gymnastics
    
19. Travis Hafner, baseball
    
20. Len Barker, baseball
    
21. Joe Charboneau, baseball
    
22. Jack Nicklaus, golf
    
23. Tiger Woods, golf
    
24. Mario Andretti, racing
    
25. AJ Foyt, racing
    
26. John Elway, football
    
27. Michael Irving, football
    
28. Julius Ervin, basketball
    
29. George Brett, baseball
    
30. Hank Aaron, baseball
    
31. Shawn Johnson, gymnastics
    
32. Paul Child, MISL/soccer/futbol
    
33. Stan Terlecki, MISL/soccer/futbol
    
34. Pikabu Street (sp?) - Skiing
    
35. Greg Norman, golf
    
36. Cliff Lee, baseball
    
37. Lou Gehrig, baseball
    
38. Emmitt Smith, football
    
39. Jesse Owens, track
    
40. Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka, wrestling
    

For the record, on this list, I did not hit the search engines despite wanting to in a couple of cases. So, I'd think of things like, "Oh, man that women's volleyball chick" or "that guy who did the speed skating" or "something...Day... man, the jockey..." - but since I could not easily come up with their names, they were left off the list.

The last ones kinda came to me as I ran through various sports in my head all over again. I remember going to the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh and seeing Jimmy Snuka in person. I was 10 or 11 when we were all into wrestling, and thinking back now, we watched guys like Bobby Backlund, Roddy Piper, Ric Flair, many folks who are still amazingly around and still involved with wrestling.

Some people will look at this list and ask, "where's so-and-so?" There are two answers for that: 1) I really did run out of numbers, and 2) I forgot that person. Oh, there is a 3rd option: while that person may have been famous or great or whatever, he or she was not one of MY favorites, necessarily.

I selected these because they stand for something to me, in my life, in some way. Or they have a special meaning to me because of memories, accomplishments, what they might have stood for. There are a lot of reasons we choose the famous people we enjoy watching, enjoy talking about. And why do we do such things? I think it's because those people provide a common thread among our friends and family. But, they also provide a link between strangers. I could walk up to many people and utter one of the names above, and except for a few regional/obscure names, the person I mention the name to would have recognition of that name. I may have to try that for fun sometime.

Feel free to share your list of favorite athletes. Or, for that matter, feel free to check out any of the "40 Things" lists and reply with your variation!