Who was your favorite athlete as a kid?

I mean, as a kid, not as a teenager. Who is the first player who really got you interested in a sport?

Here's the shell

Baseball:
Football:
Basketball:
Hockey:
Soccer:
Boxing:
Tennis:
Golf:

 

Baseball: George Brett
Football: Joe Montana
Basketball: Julius Erving
Hockey: Wayne Gretzky
Soccer: Pele
Boxing: Sugar Ray Leonard
Tennis: John McEnroe
Golf: Tom Watson

 

Rickey Henderson
Darrell Green/Art Monk
Magic Johnson
Mike Tyson

 

Baseball: Pops Stargell, Jim Bibby and Kent Tekulve
Football: Jack Lambert
Basketball: Dr. J
Hockey: The Pens in the 1970s? C'mon man.
Soccer: Please
Boxing: Ali
Tennis: Borg
Golf: I was a kid for Christ's sake.
and ... Jimmy Snuka and Ivan Putski

 

Baseball: Ron Hunt/Harmon Killebrew/Dave Concepcion
Football: Roman Gabriel
Basketball: Dave DeBusschere/Julius Erving/Pete Maravich
Hockey: Brad Park
Soccer: Pele (only one I knew of)
Boxing: Muhammad Ali
Tennis: Evonne Goolagong
Golf: Jack Nicklaus
Track: Kip Keino

 

Baseball: Jody Davis
Football: Deion Sanders
Basketball: still waiting
Hockey: Wayne Gretzky
Soccer: It was a game rather than a player (3-0 over Portugal at 2002 WC), so I'll say Brian McBride, who had the best play of the game
Boxing: Absolutely can't stand to watch it.
Tennis: N/A
Golf: Count me in the "I'll watch if it's Sunday and a major and Tiger might win" crowd.

 

My family knows Watson's family, that's the only reason I paid any attention to golf as a kid.

 

Baseball: Alvis Woods
Football: Terry Bradshaw/Jim Plunkett
Basketball: Larry Bird
Hockey: Rick Vaive
Soccer: Absolutely nobody
Boxing: Larry Holmes
Tennis: Bjorn Borg
Golf:

I was born in 1974 and grew up in a Toronto suburb.

 

Alvis Woods?

 

Baseball: George Brett
Football: Joe Montana
Basketball: Scott Wedman - hey, he was the most complete NBA player in the town I grew up in. Phil Ford a close second.
Hockey: Mike Liut
Tennis: John McEnroe
Soccer: Steve Zungul, the King of All Indoors!
Golf: Danny Noonan
Boxing:

 

this elder statesman's list:

baseball: "the mick"

football: tucker frederickson

basketball: bill bradley

hockey: bobby orr

 

Baseball: Gary Carter, after he very nicely posed for a picture with me at spring training when I was about 8
Football: Tim Green (graduated from my high school)
Basketball: Larry Bird
Hockey: n/a
Soccer: n/a
Boxing: n/a
Tennis: Andre Agassi
Golf: n/a