Mt. Rushmore of Athletes- by Ryan J. Murphy

Recently on Sports Center the rapper Ice Cube did a segment where he named his ‘Mount Rushmore’ of athletes. This means the four best/most influential athletes of any sport, ever. He said his four ‘Mt. Rushmore’ athletes would be Muhammad Ali, Jackie Robinson, Jim Brown, and Magic Johnson. I wanted to do this as well, but do it for every sport, meaning the four best/most influential for each sport individually.

Baseball: Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson, Ted Williams, and Lou Gehrig.

Honorable mentions: Mickey Mantle, Derek Jeter, Cy Young, and Hank Aaron.

Basketball: Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Honorable mentions: Wilt Chamberlain, Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neil, and Bill Russell.

Football: Jerry Rice, Jim Brown, Joe Montana, and Lawrence Taylor.

Honorable mentions: Johnny Unitas, Reggie White, Tom Brady, and Walter Payton.

Hockey: Wayne Gretzky, Gordie Howe, Bobby Orr, and Mario Lemieux.

Honorable mentions: Patrick Roy, Martin Brodeur, Ray Bourque, Steve Yzerman, and Mark Messier.

Golf: Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Arnold Palmer, and Bobby Jones.

Honorable mentions: Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Walter Hagen, and Sam Snead.

Boxing: Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, Sugar Ray Robinson, and Joe Louis.

Honorable mentions: Mike Tyson, Sugar Ray Leonard, Jack Dempsey, and Julio Caesar Chavez.

I don’t follow Soccer or Tennis enough to do a list on those.

So what do you think of the lists?