Everyone has an opinion
 

Hanging out at the 19th hole yesterday watching the final round of the PGA and of course Woods gets mentioned, as he always does when you discuss either golf or excellence, and up came the question of who would be on your all-time North American athletes Mt. Rushmore. Lots of interesting thoughts.

Me:

Babe Ruth
Michael Jordon
Tiger Woods
Wayne Gretzky

Honorable mention

Jim Brown
Muhammad Ali
Secretariat
Jim Thorp

I wasn't even the first one to bring up Big Red

2nd team Honorable Mention

Martina Navratilova
Jesse Owens/Michael Phelps-prob. leaning towards Michael
Lou Gehrig
Wilt Chamberlain

Maybe we need one for every sport, hard for me to leave out Jack Nicklaus at the top.

Tiger over Nicklaus? The 2nd place finishes in 19 other majors is huge to me.......but I’m biased being from Columbus.

Obviously the Tiger vs. Jack discussion materialized, and both sides have merit, but to me, Woods' persona and periods of just utter domination (5 or more tournament wins in a row, 3 separate times) and times that he just destroyed the field and his almost immediate rise to the top of the game upon turning pro makes him the greatest golfer ever in my mind. And the Ruthian recognition he has through out the world as THE golfer gives him a Mt. Rushmore iconicizm in my mind.

Jerry Rice

Henry Aaron

Michael Jordan

Bruno Sammartino

Owens came up big also. So did Jackie Robinson.

It was more than just their accomplishments on the field, it was their impact beyond sports. It was really hard for me to leave Ali off for Gretzky on that front, but Gretzky's impact on hockey was so profound I kept coming back to him.

Heck, I finished my round at about 2:00 and didn't leave until about 5:30. There were about 10 guys in on it for most of the discussion, until the 2 guys that started it couldn't really think (or walk) straight anymore.

Babe Ruth
Muhammad Ali
Jim Thorpe
O.J. Simpson....lol, I mean Jim Brown

Backside of mountain:

Ty Cobb
Joe Louis
Tiger Woods
Tom Brady

Persona? Character? You want to compare their character? Really?

Ted Williams
Bobby Orr
Larry Bird
Bill Belichick

My Top Four:

Babe Ruth
Ted Williams
Muhammad Ali
Michael Jordan



Honorable mention:

Bill Russell
Wayne Gretzky
Henry Aaron
Willie Mays
Roberto Clemente
Lou Gehrig
Tom Brady
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Walter Peyton
Jim Brown
Barry Sanders
Oscar Robertson
Magic Johnson
Wilt Chamberlain
Larry Bird
Jack Nicklaus
Tiger Woods
Pete Rose
Secretariat
Man O War



Other:

Shoeless Joe Jackson
Lance Armstrong
Barry Bonds
Ben Johnson
Marion Jones
Tim Donaghy
Tonya Harding
Justify




I've been around long enough to have seen every name I mentioned compete with the exception of The Babe, Shoeless Joe, and Man O War.

Fyi, as a lifelong horseracing fan, it seems strange to see Man O War at the bottom of any greatest of all time list (especially one I created myself.)

After anybody's top four, there's easily another 15-20 names you could make a case for.

Imo, you wouldn't be wrong if any of those 15-20 made your top four.

As long we're creating a National Monument of sorts, I decided to create a third category of "Other." :rolleyes:




-jp

.

Tom Brady
Babe Ruth
Michael Jordan
Bobby Fischer

Persona. Yea, wrong word.

Anyhow, Tiger Woods is one of my 4, Jack Nicklaus isn't. No disrespect meant towards The Golden Bear.

:ThmbUp: