Top 25 Revoluntary Athletes Who Changed Sports In America

[ILS1]

1. Muhammad Ali

2. Jackie Robinson

3. Billie Jean King

4. Babe Ruth

5. Arthur Ashe

6. Joe Namath

7. Curt Flood

8. Jack Johnson

9. Jim Brown

10. Michael Jordan

11. Babe Didrikson

12. George Mikan

13. Dale Earnhart

14. Bill Russell

15. Wilt Chamberlain

16. Red Grange

17. Tiger Woods

18. John Carlos/Tommie Smith

19. Hank Aaron

20. Larry Bird/Magic Johnson

21. Arnold Palmer

22. Mia Hamm

23. Spencer Haywood

24. Tony Hawk

25. Lance Armstrong



Top 25 Revoluntary Athletes (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/multimedia/photo_gallery/2005/07/01/revolutionary/content.1.html)

[HighSchool Fan]

decent list, not a great one. i would leave billie jean king out or drop her down towards the bottom. i can't believe that they didn't put in 2 of the greatest golfer of all time. bobby jones and jack nickalaus(sp). tony hawk shouldn't be on the list either. another that is missing is Wayne Gretsky.

[District303aPastPlayer]

Tony hawk is justified on the list.
Billie Jean should be lower.
Drop Jordan and replace him with Bird and Magic.

[BHBrave08]

Jordan was the greatest basketball player of all time by far. Much better than Bird and Johnson.

[Txbroadcaster]

yes Jordan might be the greatest of all time, bit what did he do to change the sport of basketball? Bird and Magic brought basketball to the national stage, before them the NBA was still on tape delay.

I will even say Jordan's style hurt the NBA, he ushered in an era that saw two man basketball become the focal point. Why? Because the Bulls had so much success with letting Jordan take the ball with 8 seconds in the shot clock and working his magic. Fun to watch when he did it, but when other teams tried to emulate it, not that pretty.

Also Tony Hawk is the face of skateboarding and extreme sports. Whether you like them or not, you have to admit that they have a niche in our culture now


For those that think Billie Jean should be lower or not on the list, you have to realize until she beat Bobby Riggs, women were not suppodes to be able to compete with men.

Remember, it is not the top 25 greatest, but the top 25 that CHANGEd the sport.

[District303aPastPlayer]

Originally posted by Txbroadcaster
yes Jordan might be the greatest of all time, bit what did he do to change the sport of basketball? Bird and Magic brought basketball to the national stage, before them the NBA was still on tape delay.

I will even say Jordan's style hurt the NBA, he ushered in an era that saw two man basketball become the focal point. Why? Because the Bulls had so much success with letting Jordan take the ball with 8 seconds in the shot clock and working his magic. Fun to watch when he did it, but when other teams tried to emulate it, not that pretty.

Also Tony Hawk is the face of skateboarding and extreme sports. Whether you like them or not, you have to admit that they have a niche in our culture now


For those that think Billie Jean should be lower or not on the list, you have to realize until she beat Bobby Riggs, women were not suppodes to be able to compete with men.

Remember, it is not the top 25 greatest, but the top 25 that CHANGEd the sport.

i agree that jordan was a great player, but he was given the title of greatest by the referees... think about how many fouls he got away with in all of his career. Hell, one of his "defining" shots would have never taken place had it not been for a push off. His style is waht propelled high schoolers to forego college... he hurt the game... so i guess he does deserve his place after all... (my opinions do not reflect that of anyone but me)

[JHS_c/o_06']

well if everything we've been hearing is true...then someone is gonna get bumped off after this season so they can make room for West Orange-Stark's Kenneth (think thats his first name) Beasley. :D :D :D

[HighSchool Fan]

Originally posted by Txbroadcaster
For those that think Billie Jean should be lower or not on the list, you have to realize until she beat Bobby Riggs, women were not suppodes to be able to compete with men.



she beat a 55 year old man. what are the chances of Bjon Borg beating Venus or Serena Williams today??

[Phil C]

Billie Jean King did do a great accomplishment because by beating Bobby Riggs she elevated the popularity of women's sports (which should have been done sooner) and tennis in general. The feat wasn't that much because as mentioned because of the large age differences. Now if she had beant Borg or Conners that would have been a great feat. But it did serve a good purpose. Overall though the match was really a con game that Riggs and King used to get more money out of (commercials that followed for example) and the American public were the suckers. I remember that Howard Cossell was one of the announcers for the game and when the game was obviously going to be a rout he mentioned this game was historically significant and people should be watching that instead of a movie on the other channell (which was Bonnie and Clyde). Thanks to his reminder I switched the channel to the other stations. :)

[Phil C]

Jordon and some of the other players didn't change basketball for the better in some cases. I remember they were strict on travel (more than 2 steps) when you went to the basket but now they seem to be lax on that especially for certain players.

[Phil C]

George Foreman not on the list! You gotta be kidding! Winning the World Heavy Weight Championship in Boxing at age 45! Now that impresses me more that King beating a 55 year old man almost twice her age.

[AggieJohn]

micheal should be higher

[District303aPastPlayer]

Originally posted by AggieJohn
micheal should be higher

all he did was make street ball more noticeable... the Fab 5 changed basketball greatly too... you have Iverson, Artest and Sprewell in the league because the Fab 5 became accepted. .... i dont know, im not a jordan fan...

[sicem74]

ya district i think fab five should be on there that was a great team and they were all good players! Chris Webber,Ray Jackson,Jalen Rose,Juwan Howard,Jimmy King!The Members of the Fab 5!

[big daddy russ]

Red Grange and Bill Russell should both be higher.

Maybe its just me, but I think that the guy who saved the NFL should be higher than Jim Brown. Jim Brown changed the offensive and defensive planning in football (bigger DTs and LBs came around because of him) but not much else.

Before Grange signed with the Bears back in the 20's, the college ranks were the place for all the best players. The NFL was having a tough time drawing revenue and was getting somewhat close to folding altogether. But when the most popular college player of the time (from the University of Illinois) signed a record-breaking deal with the (kind of) hometown Chicago Bears and started traveling troughout more of the country, more people finally got their chance to see the Galloping Ghost.

Bill Russell single-handedly invented defense in basketball. Before him it was a one-on-one game between five guys. Then he got there and every time a guard would blow by his man there was this big, long-armed 6'9" black man waiting for him in the paint. He was so ahead of his time that the rest of the league didn't catch up with his "help defense" for another 10-15 years... and yes, that includes Wilt Chamberlain.

[big daddy russ]

Originally posted by District303aPastPlayer
.... i dont know, im not a jordan fan...
I'm with you on this one, A. It's still not a proven fact that Jordan was the greatest ever, just the opinion of a bunch of sportswriters. It's funny how those guys can influence the opinion of an entire nation by saying "he was a champion in the purest form" when just 35 years ago we had a guy who led his team to 11 championships during his 13 years in the league. And he handled the retirement of one of the four greatest point guards the world's ever seen by racking up another title the very next year.

[Phantom Stang]

I'm suprised that Sammy Baugh was not included on this list. Before him, the forward pass was just an occasional novelty in pro football.

[cat dog horse]

Originally posted by District303aPastPlayer
all he did was make street ball more noticeable... the Fab 5 changed basketball greatly too... you have Iverson, Artest and Sprewell in the league because the Fab 5 became accepted. .... i dont know, im not a jordan fan...

wow what do u have against him?you make him sound like just an average basketball player, greatest of all time IMO

[District303aPastPlayer]

Originally posted by cat dog horse
wow what do u have against him?you make him sound like just an average basketball player, greatest of all time IMO

he was.

[gato 76]

What about the great Jesse Owens.

[BullFrog Dad]

How about Jan Stenerud and Dick Fosbury?

[Phil C]

Man you all have some good points about Red Grange, Sammy Baugh, Jan Stenerud and others. Bill Russell was great but he had the much more talent and better coaching than Wilt had and even his coach Red Auerback said that had Wilt been with Boston instead of Bill then he would have probably been on the most championships. In fact Red tried to trade to get the draft right to Wilt but was not successful.
Jessie Owens certainly comes to mind not only because of his great track accomplishments but the influence on the 1936 Olympics.