Golden ages of sports cities

New York from 1950s to early 60s:
Baseball Giants: Mays, Monte Irvin (more for the Negro Leagues, though), Leo Durocher, Hoyt Wilhelm
Dodgers: Robinson, Reese, Snider, Campanella
Yankees: DiMaggio, Mantle, Berra, Ford, Stengel, Rizzuto
Football Giants: Emlen Tunnell, Frank Gifford, Y.A. Tittle, Roosevelt Brown, Steve Owen (head coach), Sam Huff, Arnie Weinmeister, Tom Landry (played, then defensive coordinator), Vince Lombardi (offensive coordinator)
Knicks: Harry Gallatin, Richie Guerin, Dick McGuire
Rangers: Andy Bathgate, Harry Howell, Gump Worsley, Chuck Rayner, plus other guys at the tail end of their careers
Titans/Jets: Don Maynard
Mets: Richie Ashburn (only one year though, then retired)

 

Well, when you have 10 freaking teams in town, and one of them is the Yankees, you'd damn well better have a few hall of famers.
Pre-1960 New York breaks the scale for this discussion. It was the epicenter of the sports universe. The city had a 50-year golden age.

 

Depends how long you want to stretch out the era. You could take Pittsburgh from 1970 through the mid-80s and get to 13, more if you count Pitt guys (Dorsett, Marino and Rickey Jackson).

Steelers: Bradshaw, Swann, Stallworth, Webster, Lambert, Greene, Lambert, Ham, Harris, Noll.
Pirates: Clemente, Stargell
Penguins: Lemieux

I'm probably forgetting somebody, but I threw this together fairly quickly. I also stretched the edges to include Clemente, who died while still an active player in '72 and Lemieux, who began his career in '84.

 

Danny Murtaugh and Al Oliver have decent Hall cases, but likely won't go in there. Yeah, I went there. And yes, I am riding this thread to a new direction.

 

For Cincinnati it's obviously mid-70's to early 80's. Aside from the Big Red Machine being at its height, the Bengals made the playoffs in 75, 81, and 82, UC basketball won its conference tournament in 76 and 77, made the NCAA 75-77 and made the Sweet 16 in 75. The Reds continued to be decent until the 82 season.

 

Also the golden years of FM radio hijinks in that town, too.

 

WKRP was an AM station - fun fact, it's position on the dial was never revealed and it's final episode on CBS (a rerun in the summer) won it's time slot and finished no. 7 overall for the week. CBS wanted to bring it back, but the actors were already attached to other shows.

 

No team reached the heights of the Big Red Machine during this period, but 1960-70 had to be pretty exciting in Cincinnati. Oscar Robertson and Jerry Lucas were starring for the Royals, though they never could go all the way with the Celtics dominating the era.

The Reds won the pennant in 1961 and 1970 and the Bengals came to town in the late 60s, winning their division in 1970.

 

Late 80s/early 90s were good for Cincinnati, too. The Bengals made a Super Bowl, the Icky Shuffle was a thing, the Reds win the World Series and Cincinnati made a Final Four.
Then the city fell off a cliff for the next decade.

 

Don't forget Dave Parker.

 

I thought of him, but I was trying to stick to guys who are in the Hall of Fame. There are a few great players I left off my list for that reason.

 

Parker is probably not in the hall because of the cocaine issues. Dude was 1978 NL MVP, Gold Glover from 77-79, NL batting champ in 77-78.