Harris Poll is telling us who the greatest are in sports
By T.G. SMITH
Something interesting was sent to me in my e-mail box on Wednesday. Since it caught my eye and gave me an idea for this week's Gap Shots and Whiffs, I thought I would share it with you.
Apparently there is a new Harris Poll out which asked a group of 2,293 adults who were surveyed between Oct. 5 and 12 of this year. 1,494 of these folks said that they followed at least one sport.
Anyway, what the Harris people wanted to know was who is the greatest sports stars of all time.
Essentially, what they have provided is a list which includes all sports, football, baseball, basketball, golf and tennis.
Here are the results as they have released them.
When polling people who are said to follow at least one sport, basketball player Michael Jordan comes in at No. 1, followed by golfer Tiger Woods and baseball player Babe Ruth. Boxing star Muhammed Ali is fourth and football player Brett Favre is fifth.
So far, it would be kind of hard to argue with these being the greatest sports stars of all time. I may not agree with this so far if it were the greatest athletes of all time, but so far the sampling is good. The top five spots represent people from five different sports.
Football is the first to double up as quarterbacks go back-to-back at 5 and 6 when Joe Montana is picked, but then another sport gets a mention when hockey player Wayne Gretzky comes in at No. 7.
Peyton Manning makes it a quarterback threesome by coming in at No. 8 and he was tied with baseball player Ted Williams. Baseball player Hank Aaron and basketball star LeBron James were tied for 10th place.
The question asked to the respondents was "Thinking about the sports you know, please indicate which two you think are the greatest sports stars of all time." The response is then said to be unaided.
The remaining breakdown of sports were compiled when Harris asked the question of adults who follow them specifically. Thus, the all-time greatest baseball player list was put together from baseball fans, the all-time greatest football player by the football fans ... etc.
Here's the Harris top five lists for baseball, football, basketball, golf and tennis.
Baseball: Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Ted Williams and Lou Gehrig.
Football: Brett Favre, Jim Brown, Joe Montana, Walter Payton and Jerry Rice.
Basketball: Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Wilt Chamberlin and Bill Russell.
Golf: Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Phil Mickelson and Bobby Jones.
Tennis: Roger Federer, Pete Sampras, Jimmy Connors, Andre Agassi and Arthur Ashe.
The director of this particular Harris Poll was Regina A. Corso and the data was compiled through an on-line survey.
This got me to thinking about the greatest athletes in the history of our area and wondered how everyone out there would vote. We'll call this a Smith Poll and if I get enough responses, I'll publish them at a later date.
Since I noticed that there were no females at all listed by the Harris people, I thought it would only be fair to include them in this Smith Poll. Instead of six categories, the Smith Poll will have just five categories.
They will include:
The greatest area athlete of all time.
The greatest female athlete of all time.
The greatest baseball player of all time.
The greatest football player of all time.
And the greatest basketball player of all time.
Feel free to include as many names as you want. You can respond to the Smith Poll by e-mail at tsmith@morrisdailyherald.com or by sending me a letter at 1804 N. Division St. here in Morris. If you are sending an e-mail, please put SMITH POLL AREA ATHLETES in the subject line.
Just a few on my list of greatest athletes would include: John Dergo, Scott Spiezio, Ed Brady, Kelly Dransfeldt, Russ Weil, and Garrett Callahan.
There have been many great athletes throughout the years and I'd hate to miss anyone. Mainly we're looking for people from Morris, Minooka, Coal City, Seneca and the Gardner-South Wilmington areas.
Anyone who responds and provides a return address will receive a prize out of the MDH Sports prize vaults.
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