Who was your favorite athlete as a kid?

[Mizzougrad96]

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:

 

[Mizzougrad96]

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

 

[JackReacher]

Rickey Henderson
Darrell Green/Art Monk
Magic Johnson
Mike Tyson

 

[93Devil]

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

 

[cranberry]

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

 

[RickStain]

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.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

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

 

[Sea Bass]

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.

 

[Huggy]

Alvis Woods?

 

[exmediahack]

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:

 

[shockey]

this elder statesman's list:

baseball: "the mick"

football: tucker frederickson

basketball: bill bradley

hockey: bobby orr

 

[copperpot]

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

 

[bigpern23]

Baseball: Dave Winfield
Football: Lawrence Taylor
Basketball: Michael Jordan (him above all other athletes)
Hockey: Mark Messier (but not till I was a teenager)
Soccer: Um?
Boxing: Mike Tyson
Tennis: Andre Agassi
Golf: Fred Couples

 

[kingcreole]

Baseball: George Brett
Football: Joe Montana
Basketball: Michael Jordan
Hockey: Wayne Gretzky
Soccer: Diego Maradona. From the MISL, Jan "The Goose" Goosens.
Boxing: Mike Tyson.
Tennis: Monica Seles (had the hots for her big time. Never have understood why)
Golf: Tom Watson

 

[Boom_70]

Baseball: Bobby Richardson
Football: Joe Namath
Basketball: Willis Reed
Hockey: Rod Gilbert
Soccer: Ron Behagen
Boxing: George Foreman
Tennis: John Newcombe
Golf: Lee Trevino

In my adult life had the pleasure to meet them all sans Ron Behagen. A real thrill. Bobby Richardson is one of the classiest, nicest ex pro athlete I've ever met.

 

[Double J]

Baseball: Alvis Woods
Hockey: Rick Vaive

Awesome.

 

[proudpittsburgher]

Baseball: Johnny Ray and Dale Murphy. (and jose canseco in the dark, teenager years)
Football: Gary Anderson
:
Basketball: Not a fan
Hockey: Mario Lemieux and Jacques Calendar
Soccer: Uh, em, er, pele?
Boxing: Evander Holyfield, if for no other reason than he was the anti Tyson.
Tennis: Borris Becker. Still remember him diving belly first in wimbledon. Always liked the Michael Chang slide on clay.
Golf: none really

 

[Shoeless Joe]

Top of the list: Driver - Darrell Waltrip
Baseball - Dale Murphy
Football - Joe Montana (name's Joe, always made sure I wore 16)
Basketball - didn't/don't care
Soccer - George Best
Hockey - The Great One
Tennis - n/a
Golf - Jack
Boxing - I'll say Big John Tate just because I met him one during the two weeks or so he was champ

 

[Ilmago]

Not one of these threads ;-)

I'm 25 years old, and only started to care for players at eight years old, but started to watch when I was five.

Anyway, here's my list.

Hockey: Patrick Roy
Baseball: Joe Carter
NFL: Steve Young
Basketball: Michael Jordan
Boxing: Iron Mike
Golf: Tiger Woods
Soccer: Ronaldo
CFL: Doug Flutie

 

[Armchair_QB]

Football: Walter Payton

Baseball: Rick Monday (I was going to be the Cubs' center fielder when I grew up)