OT: Best multi-sport male athlete ever?

[Bigpetunia]

No they don't.



Really? Do you mean in high school competitions? Lots of people were champions in all sorts of things in high school competitions.



Sort of. Bo's record is unofficial because it occurred before they started using electronic timers.

* * *

Look, Bo Jackson's actual achievements are plenty good enough. He was a Heisman trophy winner who went on to play well in two major pro sports at the same time. That sentence isn't true of anyone else in history. There's no need to make inflated, inaccurate claims about him. His case can be made very well with the truth.

I have made no inaccurate claims about Bo. But I'm glad you're around to play the role of lie detector and fact checker...

 

[Aluminny69]

Asked and answered!
Duke Kahanamoku – Surfing Hall of Fame, Swimming Hall of Fame, and U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame
Jim Thorpe - Pro Football Hall of Fame and United States Olympic Hall of Fame
Jim Brown - Pro Football Hall of Fame and National Lacrosse Hall of Fame
Bob Hayes - Pro Football Hall of Fame and United States Olympic Hall of Fame
Babe Didrikson Zaharias - World Golf Hall of Fame and United States Olympic Hall of Fame
Walter Ray Williams Jr. – Pro Bowling Hall of Fame and World Horseshoe Throwing Hall of Fame
Cumberland Posey –Baseball Hall of Fame and Basketball Hall of Fame
Cesare Rubini –Basketball Hall of Fame and International Swimming Hall of Fame

Well, I did specify PROFESSIONAL, so I'm not sure all or any of these qualify.

 

[Aluminny69]

And much to Jackie Robinson's credit, he had to deal with extreme overt racism, paving the way for those other athletes listed here... So, there's that.

 

[JB123]

I have made no inaccurate claims about Bo. But I'm glad you're around to play the role of lie detector and fact checker...

Those are totally fair things to say, and I apologize for being curt in my responses to your post. My early posts in this thread were more measured in tone, and then when the same strong statements (which I believe were misleading) kept being made, I decided to try a more terse approach. But the downside of that is impoliteness, which you had every right to call me out on.

As to the substance of this, here are a few points. First, I'm definitely not accusing anyone of lying. I just think that sometimes people get carried away with their image of an athlete, and then their image distorts the reality that's still impressive but more complicated and less exciting. Second, a fact-checker isn't so terrible, is it? Otherwise people may unintentionally say things that mislead others. Third, I don't think I'm off-base to say that your claims about Bo may well have been misleading. Winning a statewide decathlon competition in high school just isn't close to winning, say, a national competition in college -- much less winning at the truly highest level, which Jim Thorpe did, as discussed repeatedly in this thread. You didn't say what level of competition it was for Bo -- so you're right to note that your statement wasn't inaccurate -- but immediately after your decathlon statement you wrote that Bo's track and field accomplishments "defy credible analysis." I don't see why winning high-school decathlon competitions defies credible analysis.

If you're going to express strong opinions on a message board, people may point out facts that qualify, contextualize, or even contradict those opinions. I think that's a good thing, not a bad one, although I grant that it's easy to forget to do it nicely.

 

[SVCBeercats]

Well, I did specify PROFESSIONAL, so I'm not sure all or any of these qualify.

Pretty sure they all do qualify as professionals. You are just trying to slide out from under your lack of research and doing the usual fan thing of jumping to conclusions and assumptions. Not to mention refusing to admit to a serious lack of sports knowledge. Surely you know PRO is short for professional ... correct?! So you may question Babe Didrikson Zaharias who dominated the Women's Professional Golf Association and later the Ladies Professional Golf Association, of which she was a founding member. So what about Cumberland Willis Posey, Jr. who was an American baseball player, manager, and team owner in the Negro leagues, as well as a professional basketball player and team owner. So next point of ignorance is Cesare Rubini who was an Italian professional basketball player and coach, and a water polo player. He was considered to be one of the greatest European basketball coaches of all time.

You are welcome for me doing your research and educating you.

 

[meyers7]

Pretty sure they all do qualify as professionals. You are just trying to slide out from under your lack of research and doing the usual fan thing of jumping to conclusions and assumptions. Not to mention refusing to admit to a serious lack of sports knowledge. Surely you know PRO is short for professional ... correct?! So you may question Babe Didrikson Zaharias who dominated the Women's Professional Golf Association and later the Ladies Professional Golf Association, of which she was a founding member. So what about Cumberland Willis Posey, Jr. who was an American baseball player, manager, and team owner in the Negro leagues, as well as a professional basketball player and team owner. So next point of ignorance is Cesare Rubini who was an Italian professional basketball player and coach, and a water polo player. He was considered to be one of the greatest European basketball coaches of all time.

You are welcome for me doing your research and educating you.

Maybe you should do a little research yourself. Surely you know PRO is short for professional. Jim Thorpe was not inducted into the Olympic HOF for his Professional Track Career. I don't think he even had one. Same for Didrikson, Kahanamoku and Hayes. They were inducted as amateurs for competing in the Olympics. Jim Brown was inducted into the Lacrosse HOF for his time at Syracuse, again amateur.

Hope you don't mind me butting in and "educating" you.

 

[TitleTown]

Not even close.

Bo never scored more than 6 touchdowns in a season in the NFL, and there was only one season in which he accounted for even 800 yards from scrimmage.

In baseball, his greatest achievement was once finishing 10th in the AL MVP voting -- a feat from which he regressed the next year, which was all before his injury. He had low on-base percentages, missed dozens of games every year, and played a non-vital defensive position (i.e., not catcher, shortstop, second base, or center field). His best attribute was slugging, but only once did he crack the AL's top 10 in slugging percentage for a season.

Based on his pre-injury performance, there is no reason to believe he was going to be anything close to a Hall of Famer in either MLB or the NFL.

He played half the season because of baseball! Double his stats and then see what you get!

 

[JB123]

He played half the season because of baseball! Double his stats and then see what you get!

You said that Bo Jackson would have been a Hall of Famer in two different sports if he hadn't gotten injured. He actually would have been a Hall of Famer in neither pro football nor pro baseball.

He wouldn't have made it in baseball because he simply wasn't good enough. It had nothing to do with football: He didn't miss baseball games to play football.

It's conceivable that he could have made the Hall in pro football if he hadn't played baseball, but if he had done that, then we wouldn't be discussing him in this thread. In that scenario -- which is the only scenario that would have given him a shot at the NFL Hall of Fame -- he obviously couldn't have made the baseball Hall of Fame because he wouldn't have been playing baseball at all.