This is all I have:

http://www.kentuckytourism.com/explore/k...ports.aspx

(06-21-2015 09:31 AM)ODU BBALL Wrote:  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

Good list right here. I'd add Ken Easley and place him way up there near the top, too. I'd add Grant Hill and probably place him near the middle. When it came to athleticism, both were freakish in their respective games. The great "Sweet" Lou Whitaker should be added near the middle. John Newman of NBA fame should be centered in there. People don't like him, but I'm seeing a few on the list are not better athletes than Percy Harvin. Finally I'd place Clyde "the Glide" Austin somewhere above Cuddyer and Wright and this is looking pretty adequate to me.

Reggie White, David Price, Sonny Gray, John Henderson, Too Tall Jones, Bill Belichick,Bobby Hamilton, Chad Pennington, Wilma Rudolph, James Stewart, Jason Witten, llyod Carr, mack brown, Ric Flair, Steve Spurrier, Tommy Hearns, Tim Mcacarver, todd helton,

(06-21-2015 12:46 PM)GCEagle Wrote:  

(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

No Steve McNair, no list.

Not saying Mississippi is the top but football only with Archie Manning, Brett Favre, Walter Payton, Jerry Rice, Steve McNair, LC Greenwood, and Duece McAllister, Mississippi has to be near the top

(06-20-2015 01:05 AM)blazing tiger Wrote:  For Alabama:

Willie Mays
Joe Louis
Hank Aaron
Jesse Owens
Evander Holyfield

Honorable Mention:

Charles Barkley
Satchel Paige
Bo Jackson
Joe Namath

Joe Namath never set foot in Alabama until he went to college.

Bo Jackson as a honorable mention?!?!?!?!?!

Bo Jackson might be the greatest athlete of the 20th century.

I'll do the 5 greatest (in my opinion) West Virginia born by sport:
Football: Randy Moss, Frank Gatski, Sam Huff, Chuck Howley, and Gino Marchetti.
Baseball: George Brett, Hack Wilson, Lew Burdette, Bill Mazeroski, and John Kruk.
Basketball: Jerry West, Hot Rod Hundley, Hal Greer, Deron Williams, and Alexis Hornbuckle (needed a female).
Olympic Sports: Mary Lou Retton, Randy Barnes, Kayla Williams, ?, and ?.
Football Coaches: Nick Saban, Ben Schwartzwalder, Lou Holtz, Fielding Yost, and John McKay. (It was hard to leave out Jimbo Fischer but you did say 5)
Basketball Coaches: Bob Huggins, Clair Bee, Cam Henderson, Mike D'Antoni, and Eddie Cameron. (I know that Mr. Cameron of Cameron Hall fame was actually born in a Pittsburg hospital but his parents lived in WV at the time of his birth until they later moved to Indiana)

Top 5 athletes regardless of sport: Jerry West, Randy Moss, Hal Greer, Mary Lou Retton, and George Brett.

and Donny Robinson for baseball as big hitting pitcher for Pittsburgh

(06-22-2015 09:56 AM)FearTheLion Wrote:  

(06-21-2015 09:31 AM)ODU BBALL Wrote:  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

Good list right here. I'd add Ken Easley and place him way up there near the top, too. I'd add Grant Hill and probably place him near the middle. When it came to athleticism, both were freakish in their respective games. The great "Sweet" Lou Whitaker should be added near the middle. John Newman of NBA fame should be centered in there. People don't like him, but I'm seeing a few on the list are not better athletes than Percy Harvin. Finally I'd place Clyde "the Glide" Austin somewhere above Cuddyer and Wright and this is looking pretty adequate to me.

I agree with all of the people that you would add to the "Other Possibilities" list of athletes born in Virginia. Two things though -

1) I was not attempting to list every possibility that I could come up with. Was just trying to give a representation of some of the many accomplished athletes to come from the state.

2) The "Other Possibilities" list was not intended to be in any order other than being broken down by Football first, Basketball second, Baseball third, then the great Sweet Pea Whitaker in his own boxing category.

I appreciate your comments.

(06-19-2015 06:50 PM)PirateJim Wrote:  

(06-19-2015 03:08 PM)TribeNiner Wrote:  This is a thread we have going at NinerNation and I thought it was interesting, so I thought I'd pose it over here.

In YOUR opinion, who are the 5 greatest athletes born/raised in your school's state? This can be athletic accomplishments combined with athletic ability, or however YOU choose to define it. For the purposes of this thread, it does not count if they moved to your state for college or professional sports, etc. Only natives of the state - we will count moving there very young and being raised there for their younger years.

For NC, my list is the following (in no order):

David Thompson
Michael Jordan
Richard Petty
Ray Floyd
Gaylord Perry

I haven't come up with one for VA, yet.

For NC you could consider Jim "Catfish" Hunter, Roman Gabriel, and Julius Peppers

I'd throw Buck Leonard in there over David Thompson. drugs did him in before he was 30.

(06-24-2015 04:50 AM)bonegreen Wrote:  and Donny Robinson for baseball as big hitting pitcher for Pittsburgh

Taught both Donnie and his wife in High School. He was a very good pitcher (rookie pitcher of the year when he was signed by the Pirates) and could hit well too. I've been to his house and the bar he once owned in Huntington. I just felt he was not as good as the 5 mentioned or even my 1st alternate Steve Yeager.
"The Caveman" was actually born across the river from his Kenova, WV home in Ashland, Ky.
Since I listed my 1st alternate for baseball (Yeager), here are my 1st alternates for football (Carl Lee) and basketball (Jason Williams).

(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 (?)

Come on guys, the thread title clearly says athlete. I love RP and DE as much as the next guy. I worked in racing for 12 years getting my start with Alan Kulwicki and winning the NASCAR Winston Cup Championship in '92 in the position of Team Manager. I disclose this to give a little qualification to my view. I don't know about you, but I say an athlete needs to be able to run a 100 yards. He needs to be able to have a vertical jump of greater than 6". I doubt RP nor DE could do either upon winning their first championship.

They were tough as nails with enormous nerve, skills, and ability to win in their profession. I'm not going to say they were not athletes, but greatest, come on. They were both most likely at their prime athleticism at the age of 18 rather than when they were at the top of their profession.

As far as men, there has not been one mentioned yet who was more man than those two, I'll toss in David Pearson, though he's out of SC, to be right there with them. I will further say that some of the kids driving in NASCAR today are very good athletes, but they offer no where near the right to manhood these three men did during there day.

NASCAR is about man and his machine competing against other men and their machines and I despise what NASCAR has done to destroy the machine part of that equation and made it more about the "pretty-boy" behind the wheel.

Carry on with your athletes. Sorry for the passion.

(06-19-2015 08:43 PM)BRtransplant Wrote:  

(06-19-2015 08:24 PM)Saint Greg Wrote:  For Louisiana I'm going to say:

Peyton Manning
Bill Russell
Karl Malone
Terry Bradshaw
Mel Ott

Fred Dean was known as "the natural" by NFL coaches. He was one of the strongest players in the NFL and he never worked out with weights. Fast and quick on his feet, Fred was one of the best athletes ever, from any state. Any list for Louisiana must have Fred Dean at the top of it.

Those are very impressive names. but I would likely have to find room to add Vida Blue to Louisiana's list.

Vida Blue won 24 games, the Cy Young Award & the American League MVP Award in 1971, and was the heart and soul of the 3-time World Champion Oakland A's in the early 1970's. He was a 6-time All Star, and is one of only 4 Major League Pitchers to pitch for both the American and National League in the All Star game. He pitched in the majors for 17 years. He was a hell of an athlete.

After a contract dispute with A's owner Charlie Finley sidelined him for most of 1972, Blue returned to form to win 20 games in 1973, 17 games in 1974, and 22 games in 1975, as an integral member of the Oakland Athletics' five straight American League Western Division pennants from 1971 to 1975, and three consecutive World Championships in 1972, 1973, and 1974. Perhaps his finest postseason performances were four innings of shutout relief work against the Detroit Tigers to save Game 5 of the 1972 American League Championship Series and a complete-game 1-0 shutout against the Orioles in Game 3 of the 1974 ALCS.

He finished his 17-year major league career with a 209-161 record and a 3.27 ERA.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vida_Blue

(06-19-2015 08:43 PM)BRtransplant Wrote:  

(06-19-2015 08:24 PM)Saint Greg Wrote:  For Louisiana I'm going to say:

Peyton Manning
Bill Russell
Karl Malone
Terry Bradshaw
Mel Ott

Fred Dean was known as "the natural" by NFL coaches. He was one of the strongest players in the NFL and he never worked out with weights. Fast and quick on his feet, Fred was one of the best athletes ever, from any state. Any list for Louisiana must have Fred Dean at the top of it.

My friend and mentor Scott Myers created Dean's Hall of Fame bust. He was a great player.

(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
Joe Greene
George Foreman
Sammy Baugh
Earl Campbell
Roger Clemens
John David Crow
Eric Dickerson
Eddy Matthews
Don Meredith
Joe Morgan
Babe Didrikson Zaharias

David Overstreet
Kenneth Hall

Reggie White
Penny Hardaway
Steve Spurrier
Ed 'Too Tall' Jones
Oscar Robertson

(06-26-2015 12:46 PM)72Tiger Wrote:  Reggie White
Penny Hardaway
Steve Spurrier
Ed 'Too Tall' Jones
Oscar Robertson

So! Let me get this straight. The Big "O", Oscar Robertson was born in Tennessee. This Board has now become very educational. And to think this information came from a Memphis State fan! Who would a thunk it?