Your State's Sports Mt. Rushmore

[Papa Steve 55]

So there is an interesting thread about the Mt Rushmore of golf. I started thinking  about who I put on my states Mt Rushmore of sports, Mass.

I picked players not from Mass, but identified with Boston teams. you can pick a home grown person who you feel is strongly associated with your state, even if they played else ware, I picked pros because of the weakness of college sports, other than Doug Flutie, in New England. The pick is not limited to pros though. I'm blessed to have a team in each major sport so I went that way, you don't have too.

So mine are, in no order;

Bobby Orr

Ted Williams

Bill Russell

Tom Brady

No championships for Williams, 18 for the other guys.

Edited September 26, 2018 by Papa Steve 55

[Elmer]

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Lou Gehrig
Vince Lombardi
Mike Tyson
Walter Hagen
Pat Riley (my 8th grade English teacher dated him in high school so had to be on the list)

 

I could whittle the list down a little, but that would be work!
the wealth of legendary talent my state has produced is astounding! I could make a dozen lists from the people I left on the cutting room floor!

[Kalnoky]

Phil Knight

Marcus Mariotta

Ashton Eaton

Bill Walton

Steve Prefontaine

 

 

[boogielicious]

On 9/26/2018 at 4:44 PM, Papa Steve 55 said:

So there is an interesting thread about the Mt Rushmore of golf. I started thinking  about who I put on my states Mt Rushmore of sports, Mass.

I picked players not from Mass, but identified with Boston teams. you can pick a home grown person who you feel is strongly associated with your state, even if they played else ware, I picked pros because of the weakness of college sports, other than Doug Flutie, in New England. The pick is not limited to pros though. I'm blessed to have a team in each major sport so I went that way, you don't have too.

So mine are, in no order;

Bobby Orr

Ted Williams

Bill Russell

Tom Brady

No championships for Williams, 18 for the other guys.

As much as I respect Williams, I would put David Ortiz on there instead of him. 3 championships and the most clutch post-season Red Sox player ever. I agree with the rest.

[iacas]

2 minutes ago, boogielicious said:

As much as I respect Williams, I would put David Ortiz on there instead of him. 3 championships and the most clutch post-season Red Sox player ever. I agree with the rest.

I don't think your state should include people who played some of (or even all of) their careers with a team in your state. I think it should be people born or raised in your state.

Otherwise, it's too shifted toward the bigger cities. Larry Bird should probably be in Indiana's Mt. Rushmore (guessing, here), not Massachusett's.

Boston, New York, California, Florida… even Texas, Pennsylvania. Too many good sports teams.

Sidney Crosby is not a Pennsylvanian, nor is Terry Bradshaw, Mario Lemieux, Evgeni Malkin… Roberto Clemente, whatever.

Arnold Palmer is up there on PA's Mount Rushmore. Tiger is on California's, not Florida's.

[boogielicious]

12 minutes ago, iacas said:

I don't think your state should include people who played some of (or even all of) their careers with a team in your state. I think it should be people born or raised in your state.

Otherwise, it's too shifted toward the bigger cities. Larry Bird should probably be in Indiana's Mt. Rushmore (guessing, here), not Massachusett's.

Boston, New York, California, Florida… even Texas, Pennsylvania. Too many good sports teams.

Sidney Crosby is not a Pennsylvanian, nor is Terry Bradshaw, Mario Lemieux, Evgeni Malkin… Roberto Clemente, whatever.

Arnold Palmer is up there on PA's Mount Rushmore. Tiger is on California's, not Florida's.

Interesting take on this. In that case it would be tough to decide:

Rocky Marciano, Ali Raisman, Mark Bavaro, Jim Craig, Pat Bradley, Alberto Salazar, Francis Ouimet, Nick Buoniconti, Johnny Kelley, Tony Conigliaro, Howie Long, Doug Flutie,Tom Glavine, Patrick Ewing, Tim Daggett, Rebecca Lobo, Shalane Flanagan.

So if I had to pick 4 I would quality with not living and pick:

Marciano, Kelley, Conigliaro and Quimet. 

Including Living:

Marciano, Raisman, Bradley, Glavine.

Interesting side note about Howie Long. He grew up in Charlestown, but went to school in Milford because Charlestown was a really bad place then. He didn't win athlete of the year in HS, a friend of mine did who was a really good track athlete. Howie was good in HS, but really improved in college.

[mcanadiens]

I'll go with:

Jack Nicklaus, Columbus

Jesse Owens, Cleveland

Paul Brown, Massillon

Ken Griffey Jr., Cincinnati

* By athletic achievement Pete Rose would be there, but I can't have him. 

[billchao]

3 hours ago, iacas said:

I don't think your state should include people who played some of (or even all of) their careers with a team in your state. I think it should be people born or raised in your state.

This is a good point. New Jersey has two football teams that still claim to be New York even though their home stadium hasn't been in New York for decades.

It's also a bit hard to compile a list simply because there are so many sports I don't follow or know the history of, but with a little bit of research, here is my list:

Amos Alonzo Stagg

Mary Decker

Carl Lewis

Derek Jeter

Honorable mentions: Hobey Baker (though I hesitate to include him because his only association with NJ is going to college in Princeton), Shaquille O'Neal, Goose Goslin, Franco Harris, Bill Parcells, Mike Trout (who I'd probably replace Jeter with, when his career is over).

[DaveP043]

Virginia might have a pretty good golf Mt Rushmore with Sam Snead, Lanny Wadkins, Curtis Strange, and Vinny Giles (US and British Am champion)

[MarvChamp]

Hogan, Nelson, Trevino, Crenshaw (Plus Spieth, Demaret, Judy Rankin, Babe Didrickson Zaharias, Kathy Whitworth. O'Meara, January....). Sorry, this is Texas. Will need several Rushmores. 😎 Best, -Marv

[Zekez]

Pennsylvania

Arnie

Joe Montana

Josh Gibson

Wilt Chamberlain

 

Four different sports represented.

 

[dennyjones]

It's hard to only have a few:

Magic Johnson - East Lansing

Derek Jeter - raised in Kalamazoo, MI

Tony Dungy - Football Hall of Fame - Jackson, MI

Floyd Mayweather Jr - Grand Rapids

Charlie Gehringer - Fowlerville, MI

Earl Morrall - Muskegon

Kirk Gibson - Waterford

Serena Williams - born in the Saginaw area

Joe Louis - raised in Detroit

 

with the shortened golf season, Michigan isn't home to too many serious golf champions.   They move to some state that has sunshine!

I'm sure there are others but...

 

[trombettista_vecchio]

On 9/26/2018 at 4:44 PM, Papa Steve 55 said:

So there is an interesting thread about the Mt Rushmore of golf. I started thinking  about who I put on my states Mt Rushmore of sports, Mass.

I picked players not from Mass, but identified with Boston teams. you can pick a home grown person who you feel is strongly associated with your state, even if they played else ware, I picked pros because of the weakness of college sports, other than Doug Flutie, in New England. The pick is not limited to pros though. I'm blessed to have a team in each major sport so I went that way, you don't have too.

So mine are, in no order;

Bobby Orr

Ted Williams

Bill Russell

Tom Brady

No championships for Williams, 18 for the other guys.

That's definitely mine as well, although Rocky Marciano is hard to leave off.

Williams is the all time career leader in on-base average and second only to Ruth in slugging average and OPS.

He's either the greatest or second greatest hitter of all time. (And he gave me an autographed ball in 1956--it's encased in glass on my bookshelf.)

Seems impossible to leave him off, but if Championships were made the requisite, Marciano would take his place.

49-0, after all.

 

[Papa Steve 55]

10 hours ago, trombettista_vecchio said:

That's definitely mine as well, although Rocky Marciano is hard to leave off.

Williams is the all time career leader in on-base average and second only to Ruth in slugging average and OPS.

He's either the greatest or second greatest hitter of all time. (And he gave me an autographed ball in 1956--it's encased in glass on my bookshelf.)

Seems impossible to leave him off, but if Championships were made the requisite, Marciano would take his place.

49-0, after all.

 

Yeah, I was born and raised in Brockton. My dad was friends with him and his brothers. They are still digging around trying to find all the money he hid in jars. Only took cash for a fight.

[Slim_Pivot]

On 9/28/2018 at 3:08 PM, DaveP043 said:

Virginia might have a pretty good golf Mt Rushmore with Sam Snead, Lanny Wadkins, Curtis Strange, and Vinny Giles (US and British Am champion)

Sam Snead was West Virginia

[jsgolfer]

Maine isn't the hotbed of pro sport athletes or even great college athletics, but here they are.

Joan Benoit Samuelson

Billy Swift

Mike Bordick

Bob Stanley

Ricky Craven

[boogielicious]

36 minutes ago, jsgolfer said:

Maine isn't the hotbed of pro sport athletes or even great college athletics, but here they are.

Joan Benoit Samuelson

Billy Swift

Mike Bordick

Bob Stanley

Ricky Craven

Joan is a great pick though!

[DaveP043]

1 hour ago, Slim_Pivot said:

Sam Snead was West Virginia

http://www.worldgolfhalloffame.org/sam-snead/

This says that Snead was born in Ashwood, VA.  He worked as a youngster, and then as a pro, at the Homestead, in Hot Springs.  It was only later that he became pro at the Greenbrier in WV.  I imagine that both states would be proud to claim him.