OT: Favorite Pro Athletes as a Kid

[Devland]

Smokin Joe Frazier

 

[Madmannsucks]

My 1st hero was Al Kaline. I liked the impossible Dream Red Sox. Bill Russell. Roman Gabriel(because it was such a cool name). Loved Dick McCauliffe's batting stance.

 

[ZenConn]

Baseball: Mattingly
Football: Lambert, Singletary, Tippet, Lawrence Taylor. I was enamored with hard hitting linebackers.
Baseball + Football: Bo Jackson, Deion Sanders
Basketball: Dr J, Magic, Andrew Toney

 

[Robertelamin]

Mo Vaughn, Rodney Hampton, El-Amin

 

[Dove]

Ron Guidry, Willie Randolph, Graig Nettles and Carlton Fisk

Blaine Stoughton and Gordie Howe

Larry Bird

Tony Dorsett, Roger Staubach, LT, John Riggins, Mercury Morris, Garo Yepremium and Brad Van Pelt.

 

[Husky68]

Willie Mays
Sam Huff
Richie Guerin

And I'll go one more. Favorite female in Sports:

Laraine Day. Huh you say! She was an actress who was married to NY Giants baseball manager Leo Durocher in the early 50's and did a 15 minute broadcast before each home game. I may have still been single digits in age but I knew a hot chick when I saw it!!!!

 

[JimHurley]

Derek Fisher, Donovan McNabb, Paul O’Neill, Chad Johnson

 

[HCCForever]

Yaz and Johnny Unitas with his high tops.

 

[Pgh2Storrs]

Baseball: Andy Van Slyke
Football: Greg Lloyd
Hockey: Darius Kasparaitis
Basketball: Jake Voskuhl

 

[uconnphil2016]

Manny Ramirez, Roger Clemens, Ray Lewis, Tom Brady, Paul Pierce.

Born in 1993

 

[Dogdeacon]

Seaver - youngest sons middle name. Young wrote a hit piece for GM Grant who was later run out of town for the terrible trade. I switched from a Mets to a Red Sox fan after the trade cuz I was so mad.
Dorsett
Mcadoo, Bernard King, Bird then Jordan

 

[WrenchFan69]

Ray Allen, Kevin Fault, Troy Brown, Trot Nixon

 

[Northbound]

Who were yours?

For context, I was born at the end of '76.

BASEBALL: Wade Boggs. Hit .368. Drew chai (חַי) in the dirt before every AB, which in my eyes basically made him Jewish. But I still haven't forgiven him for riding a frickin' horse in Yankee Stadium, as memorialized in the biopic/unintentional comedy film "Joe Torre: Curveballs Along the Way": ).
(Unfortunately, the scene depicting the rando they got to play Boggs riding a horse is not included in that clip.)

Obviously, there was another baseball player that I was a fan of, but I was in college when he came on the scene.

FOOTBALL: LT, the best defensive player in NFL history. Sure, he's had some personal problems. Still the best defensive player in NFL history. Lawrence Taylor: Top 10 career plays

As few people know, I've also been a Raiders fan since I was about 5, when I made my grandparents buy me a #46 black and silver jersey. Todd Christensen wasn't my guy, but Marcus Allen was. Then Tim Brown and Bo. This was on my wall for years:

BASKETBALL: Larry Bird. Obviously. Top 10 plays of Larry Bird's Hall of Fame NBA career | ESPN Archives

RIP my #2 guy, Reggie Lewis.

HOCKEY: For 4-5 years, peaking with their title, I was a gigantic Rangers fan. Then the lockout, then I went to college, and the Devils took over, and I basically haven't followed hockey since. Back then, Darren Turcotte was my man, until they traded him 7 months before they won the Stanley Cup (what they call in the sports world "getting Nomared"). That whole '94 team was great, but I guess I liked Leetch the most, since he was a CT guy.

TENNIS: Any kid that ever flung a tennis racket looked up to McEnroe. I also liked Goran Ivanisevic. Best serve.

Went to school and lived right down the hall from Reggie - he was a very good guy. Was at NU during thst great time with JC, Reggie, Andre, Wes, et al. They thumped UConn in the Connecticut Mutial Classic in 1986 and I was very conflicted.

My two - pretty easy Magic Johnson and John Elway. I was able to catch a pass from Elway and he signed that ball. I did a commercial with him And he was super nice - normal guy and he was a big dude. Montana on the other hand was a great dude but small.

 

[AZHuskiePop]

Jim Thorpe.

He was a corker.

Further evidence that you and Chief are one

 

[AdamaNation]

This is fun but any thoughts of some of you ladies hiding your ages has been thwarted.
MLB- Ricky Henderson. Strawberry. Doc. Schmidt. Gary carter.

NBA - MJ (obviously). Kareem. Human highlight film. The DR. Moses.

NHL - Pierre turgeon. The great one. Bret hull. Yzerman.

NFL- LT no doubt. Second best player to Rice ever. Barry. Bo. Gastineau. Marino.

NCAA- Ewing. Wingate. Willie glass. Pearl. Dream. Glen rice. Earl Kelly. Flutie. Herschel.

Soccer- georgio cinaglia. Steve zungle(?). Maradonna.

PGA- Norman. Kite. Watson. The walrus.

Tennis- Chang. Llendl. Bjorg. Sabattini. Fernandez.

Boxing- iron mike. Sugar ray. Duran.

Wrestling- bob backlund. Mil mascaras. Tommy rich. Superfly. Tiger mask. Good guys.

Captain Lou. Blackjack mulligan. Great kabuki. Magnificent muraco. Big John stud. Heels.

Strong bow brothers. Moondogs. Fabulous freebirds. Mr Fuji and mr saito. Tag teams.

 

[TheChamps990411]

Who were yours?

For context, I was born at the end of '76.

BASEBALL: Wade Boggs. Hit .368. Drew chai (חַי) in the dirt before every AB, which in my eyes basically made him Jewish. But I still haven't forgiven him for riding a frickin' horse in Yankee Stadium, as memorialized in the biopic/unintentional comedy film "Joe Torre: Curveballs Along the Way": ).
(Unfortunately, the scene depicting the rando they got to play Boggs riding a horse is not included in that clip.)

Obviously, there was another baseball player that I was a fan of, but I was in college when he came on the scene.

FOOTBALL: LT, the best defensive player in NFL history. Sure, he's had some personal problems. Still the best defensive player in NFL history. Lawrence Taylor: Top 10 career plays

As few people know, I've also been a Raiders fan since I was about 5, when I made my grandparents buy me a #46 black and silver jersey. Todd Christensen wasn't my guy, but Marcus Allen was. Then Tim Brown and Bo. This was on my wall for years:

BASKETBALL: Larry Bird. Obviously. Top 10 plays of Larry Bird's Hall of Fame NBA career | ESPN Archives

RIP my #2 guy, Reggie Lewis.

HOCKEY: For 4-5 years, peaking with their title, I was a gigantic Rangers fan. Then the lockout, then I went to college, and the Devils took over, and I basically haven't followed hockey since. Back then, Darren Turcotte was my man, until they traded him 7 months before they won the Stanley Cup (what they call in the sports world "getting Nomared"). That whole '94 team was great, but I guess I liked Leetch the most, since he was a CT guy.

TENNIS: Any kid that ever flung a tennis racket looked up to McEnroe. I also liked Goran Ivanisevic. Best serve.

MLB- Kevin Mcreynolds
NBA - Pippen and Jordan duh!
NFL - Mike Singletary
CBB- Donyell Marshall

 

[MTHusky]

Bill Russell
Mickey Mantle
Arnie Palmer

 

[Ewekon]

College B.B: laettner
NBA: laimbeer
NFL: Tie: OJ/ Greg hardy
MLB: Canseco
NHL: Eddie Johnston

On 2nd thought...
NBA: bird
NFL: LT/Gastineau
MLB: Jim rice
NHL: Ron Francis

Laettner?

Tom. Ban him.

 

[mauconnfan]

Football - Otis Taylor was a Giants fan but liked Otis and had his #89 Chief uniform

Baseball - Brooks Robinson obviously a Yanks fan but they weren’t really good as I was playing little league and such for some reason knew 3rd base was my future loved watching Brooks

Basketball - Bill Russell as a Cs fan he was my guy when real young then Dave Cowens as I turned to my teens. Jo Jo too...

Hockey - Ed Giacomin Rangers goalie had his stuff on when tending the street hockey goals in Meriden

 

[borninansonia]

I was a Brooklyn Dodger fan, and Duke Snyder was my hero when I was growing up in Ansonia.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

Baseball: Bernie Williams
Basketball: Patrick Ewing

It's funny/sad looking back how much I was into those 90's Knick teams (as someone mentioned above Ewing plus Starks and Oakley). Go figure 20 years of ineptitude just kind of ruins the fan experience.

 

[David 76]

Gale Sayers, Jim Brown, Broadway Joe
The Mick
Clyde

 

[djct1999]

Baseball: Don Mattingly
Basketball: Michael Jordan
Football: Wesley Walker

 

[len0322]

baseball: Freddie Lynn
Football: Stanley Morgan and Russ francis
Basketball: bird as an NBA player/Patrick Ewing as a NCAA player

 

[UC1995]

Baseball: Old Hoss Radbourn
Football: Hunk Anderson
Basketball: William R Chase