Greatest Athlete of all time?

What, no love for Nanu?

 

Awesome!

 

Toe Nash.

 

Chamberlain has to be in the discussion. He was so dominant at his peak in basketball that he would amuse himself by just deciding to do things such as lead the league in assists. Somebody already mentioned some of his track achievements, but he was a great high jumper, ran the 440 and ran cross country in high school. Legend has it that one time in practice he picked up a shot put and out threw Al Oerter. It would have been incredible to see what he could have done in the decathlon. He also was a great volleyball player later in life.

 

I believe Reebok limited this question to two possible answers: Dan or Dave?

 

And played one of them well.

Speaking of players that had brief careers as Blue Jays, Dave Winfield being drafted by three pro leagues has to count for something. Especially because he was an NFL draftee despite never playing one down in college.

 

If Larry Walker could have played hockey professionally, he would have. The truth is, he wasn't good enough to make a major junior team, let alone the NHL.

 

Ruth, then The Horse.

 

Lionel Conacher. Nobody else is even close. Nobody. You can talk all you want about two- and three-sport athletes, but here's a guy who was a champion in four different team sports as well as two separate individual sports.

He was an Ontario amateur wrestling champion who was later undefeated as a professional, the Canadian light heavyweight boxing champion, briefly a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs AAA baseball team (won the Little World Series in 1926), a member of the Toronto Maitlands lacrosse team (Ontario champions, 1922), an NHL all-star defenceman (won two Stanley Cups and, as a junior, the Memorial Cup) and a football fullback and kicker without peer.

The 1921 Grey Cup contest, the first east/west game in Canadian football history (the league was named the Dominion Rugby Football League at the time) saw the west represented by the Edmonton Eskimos with the Argonauts representing the east. Toronto defeated Edmonton 23-0, with Lionel scoring 15 of the points -- two touchdowns, a field goal drop-kick and two single points. Incredibly, he left the championship game after the third quarter in order to help his Aura Lee senior hockey team defeat the Toronto Granites for the Sportsman's Athletic Association Trophy that same night.

His versatility was absolutely incredible:

On June 9, 1924, Lionel's aptitude for sports overlapped. In the baseball championship at Hampden Park between Conacher's Hillcrests and the Monarchs, Conacher was at bat in the bottom of the ninth inning with the bases loaded and his team down by one run. Lionel hit a double to centre field to win the game and the championship. He then scrambled into a taxi that took him from Toronto's downtown to the city's east end. He arrived at Scarborough Beach at half-time to discover his Maitlands' lacrosse team was down 2-1 to the Brampton Excelsiors for the Ontario Amateur Lacrosse championship. Lionel then proceeded to score two goals in the fourth quarter to lead his team to a 3-2 win, and his second championship of the day! Later that summer, Lionel actually faced heavyweight boxing champion Jack Dempsey in a four-round exhibition.

During the fall of 1924, Lionel played football for Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. His coach, Carl Snavely, was effusive in his praise, stating, "Conacher was probably the greatest athlete I ever coached in football or any other form of athletics." He continued, "I don't believe I ever had a fullback who was a better runner in an open field or who so fully possessed all of the qualities of speed, skill, dexterity, aggressiveness and self-control."

Also a top-notch rower who reportedly golfed in the 80s, he's a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame, the Canadian Football Hall of Fame and the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame. He became a provincial and federal politician after retiring from sports and it was while he was a member of the House of Commons that Conacher died, fittingly, after one final athletic achievement.

Then, on May 26, 1954, just two days after his 54th birthday, Lionel was scheduled to attend the graduation of his daughter Diane from the University of Toronto. Instead, he decided to stay in Ottawa to participate in the annual baseball game between the Members of Parliament and the press corps. "I promised the fellows I'd play in the game tomorrow," he told a couple of colleagues. "I don't feel so good and I really should go home." During the softball game taking place on the lawn of Parliament Hill, Lionel smacked a pitch into the outfield and then proceeded to stretch the double into a triple. He reached third base, then collapsed. Twenty minutes later, he was pronounced dead of a massive heart attack.

http://www.legendsofhockey.net/html/spot_oneononep199401.htm

 

Justin Morneau has a Memorial Cup ring (Portland, 1998), although he was the third-string goalie and I don't believe he actually ever played a regular season or playoff game in the WHL.

Kirk McCaskill, though, might well have made the NHL. He was a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award in 1982 and a Winnipeg Jets draft pick who spent the 1983-84 season with their farm team in the American Hockey League, scoring 10 goals and 22 points in 78 games.

But the team was in Sherbrooke, Que., and he hated it there, so he chucked hockey to concentrate on baseball.

I interviewed his dad, a longtime hockey pro who was a prominent extra in "Slap Shot." (shameless plug ;D)

 

I can't believe no one has mentioned this guy:

 

Yeah, but look at His competition. I'd like to think I could also dominate every sport if my opponents were all kids.

Also, that last picture - is Jesus handing off or taking the ball? If it's the latter, it's an illegal forward lateral.

And when it comes to hockey.....Jesus Saves, but Crosby scores on the rebound.