Well you know Johnny was, I've seen all of those movies ! :)

I understand what you are saying, I think it is only fair to keep athletes in their own era. Tiger Woods is a dominate force, better than Jack Nicklaus due to physical ability and technology of the clubs, but someday he will be surpassed by a younger person. Tiger has not passed Jack in terms of wins, but in time he will.

Somebody will come along and break records and people will proclaim them the greatest.........

From Ali to Tyson as with any sport, it's all passed along the lines in time.

Now if you want to debate records...... There are many records that will probally never be broken again......... 7 straight Tour DeFrance will probally never be reached again.

I think it's relative to one's era.

Yes, Thorpe's numbers are surpassed by today's athlete's, and players are faster and bigger and stronger today.

But no one has excelled in as many athletic endeavors as Thorpe did in his era, before or since.

Then I nominate Goliath, who probably turns out to be a fat dude of about 6'2".

Yeah, probably.

I just can't wrap my mind around it. Thorpe is the greatest athlete of all time, even though he was NOT the fastest, biggest, or strongest, BUT because his competition was vastly inferior overall?
Maybe if we'd had the foresight to relegate Bo Jackson to the Special Olympics, he'd be a demi-god by now.

A friggen BB player is not the greatest athlete of all time give me a break.

Yeah, I can see your point.
Based on this idea, the greatest athlete of all time would have to be whoever is the all time record holder in the pentathlon?

Is there another event that has more competitions?

I really can get behind this idea.

I can't get behind the idea of an athlete who has excelled in only a single sport.

Mildred 'Babe' Didrikson Zaharias was voted the outstanding woman athlete of the century in a 1950 Associated Press poll. Though she gained her greatest professional fame as a golfer, she rivalled Jim Thorpe in her remarkable ability to excel at nearly any sport. She began as a basketball All-American, then won two track and field golds at the 1932 Olympics. Next she turned professional and began touring the country, exhibiting her prowess in track, swimming, tennis, baseball, and even billiards. In 1935 Zaharias took up golf and excelled at that, too, winning 82 tournaments in a 20-year career. She was only 42 when she died of cancer in 1956.

other should be running away with this.

Ali has 6 votes to Wilt's 4?

I think not . . .

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...n/ali-wilt.jpg

--Infidel Goat

bump: I am still pulling for other.

Tonya Harding

Even I know that for pure energy expenditure Soccer players trump basketball players and the people that do the Iron Man Triathlon top them all. Jordan may be the greatest BB player ever but even that is in question as convincing cases could be made for Chamberlain and Russell as well.

Jesse Owens...............he even made Hitler look silly.

Is hubcap flinging a sport?