All Topics  
Sportsman of the Year

 
Sportsman of the Year

   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link






 

Sportsman of the Year



 
 
Since its inception in 1954, Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated

Sports Illustrated is an United States sports magazine owned by Mass media conglomerate Time Warner. It has over 3 million subscribers and is read by 23 million adults each week, including over 18 million men, 19% of the adult males in the United States....
 magazine has annually presented the "Sportsman of the Year" award to "the athlete or team whose performance that year most embodies the spirit of sportsmanship and achievement." An overwhelming majority of the winners have been American. (Though non-Americans are also eligible.) The award has not been given to an individual player in soccer or to any cricket player.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Sportsman of the Year'
Start a new discussion about 'Sportsman of the Year'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


Since its inception in 1954, Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated

Sports Illustrated is an United States sports magazine owned by Mass media conglomerate Time Warner. It has over 3 million subscribers and is read by 23 million adults each week, including over 18 million men, 19% of the adult males in the United States....
 magazine has annually presented the "Sportsman of the Year" award to "the athlete or team whose performance that year most embodies the spirit of sportsmanship and achievement." An overwhelming majority of the winners have been American. (Though non-Americans are also eligible.) The award has not been given to an individual player in soccer or to any cricket player. The award's trophy, a ceramic urn depicting Greek athletes, has been given to the following recipients:

Year Winner Sport Achievement
1954 Roger Bannister
Roger Bannister

Sir Roger Gilbert Bannister, Order of the British Empire is an England former athlete best known as the first man in history to run the mile in Four-minute mile....
 
Track and field First sub-four-minute mile
Four-minute mile

In athletics , the four-minute mile is the running of a mile in less than four minutes. It was first achieved in 1954 by Roger Bannister. The 'four minute barrier' has since been broken by many male athletes, and is now the standard of all professional Middle distance track event runners....
1955 Johnny Podres
Johnny Podres

John Joseph Podres was an United States left-handed starting pitcher in Major League Baseball who spent most of his career with the Los Angeles Dodgers....
 
Baseball
Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport of nine players each. The goal of baseball is to score run by hitting a thrown Baseball with a baseball bat and touching a series of four markers called base arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot square, or diamond. Players on one team take turns hitting against...
 
World Series
World Series

The World Series is the championship series of Major League Baseball, the culmination of the sport's playoff each October. Since the Series takes place in mid-autumn, sportswriters many years ago dubbed the event the Fall Classic, a usage reflected in the logo for the 2008 World Series; it is also sometimes known as the October Clas...
 MVP
World Series MVP Award

The World Series MVP Award is given to the player who most contributes to his team's success in the World Series - the Most Valuable Player....
1956 Bobby Joe Morrow
Bobby Joe Morrow

Bobby Joe Morrow is a former United States Athletics , winner of three Olympic Games gold medals in 1956....
 
Track and field Double Olympic
1956 Summer Olympics

The 1956 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XVI Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was held in Melbourne, Australia, in 1956, with the exception of the Equestrian at the 1956 Summer Olympics, which could not be held in Australia due to quarantine regulations....
 gold medalist
1957 Stan Musial
Stan Musial

Stanley Frank "Stan" Musial , originally Stanislaw Franciszek Musial, , is a retired American professional baseball player who was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in 1969....
 
Baseball National League
National League

The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, or simply the National League , is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball, and the world's oldest existent professional team sports league....
 batting
Batting average

Batting average is a statistic in both cricket and baseball measuring the performance of batsman and hitter, respectively. The two statistics are related, in that baseball averages are directly descended from the concept of cricket averages....
 champion
1958 Rafer Johnson
Rafer Johnson

Rafer Lewis Johnson is an United States former decathlon....
 
Track and field Decathlon
Decathlon

The decathlon is an athletic event consisting of ten track and field events. Events are held over two consecutive days and the winners are determined by the combined performance in all....
 world record
1959 Ingemar Johansson
Ingemar Johansson

Jens Ingemar Johansson was a Swedish people Boxing and former List of Heavyweight Champions. He defeated Floyd Patterson to win the World Heavyweight Championship....
 
Boxing
Boxing

Boxing is a combat sport where two participants, generally of similar human weight, fight each other with their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee and is typically engaged in during a series of one to three-minute intervals called rounds....
 
World heavyweight champion
1960 Arnold Palmer
Arnold Palmer

Arnold Daniel Palmer is an United States professional golfer who is generally regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of men's professional golfer....
 
Golf
Golf

Golf is a sport in which players using many types of Golf club including wood , iron , and putter , attempt to hit golf ball into each hole on a golf course in the lowest possible number of strokes....
 
PGA Player of the Year
PGA Tour

The PGA Tour is an organization that operates the main professional golf tours in the United States. It is headquarters in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, a suburb of Jacksonville, Florida....
1961 Jerry Lucas
Jerry Lucas

Jerry Ray Lucas was a basketball player from the 1950s to the 1970s, and is now a memory education expert. In 1996, the NBA's 50th anniversary, he was named one of the 50 greatest players in National Basketball Association history....
 
College basketball
Basketball

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five active players each try to score points against one another by propelling a basketball through a 10 feet  high hoop under organized rules....
 
Final Four
Final four

Final four is a sports term that is commonly applied to the last four teams remaining in a playoff tournament, most notably college basketball. Typically it refers to a tournament format where four teams play two rounds of single-elimination games, resulting in a single champion....
 MVP
NCAA Basketball Tournament Most Outstanding Player

At the conclusion of the National Collegiate Athletic Association NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship and NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship Division I basketball championships , the Associated Press selects a Most Outstanding Player....
1962 Terry Baker
Terry Baker

For the Canadian football player of the same name see Terry Baker .Terry Wayne Baker is a former quarterback for the Oregon State University football team....
 
College football
College football

College football is American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American University, colleges, and United States military academies....
 
Heisman Trophy
Heisman Trophy

The Heisman Memorial Trophy Award , was named after the former college football coach John Heisman, is awarded annually by the Heisman Trophy Trust to the most outstanding player in collegiate football....
 winner
1963 Pete Rozelle
Pete Rozelle

Alvin Ray "Pete" Rozelle was the commissioner of the National Football League from January 1960 to November 1989, when he retired from office....
 
Professional football
National Football League

The National Football League is the Major North American professional sports leagues American football Sports league in the United States. It is an unincorporated 501#501.28c.29.286.29 association controlled by its members....
 
NFL expansion
1964 Ken Venturi
Ken Venturi

Kenneth Venturi is an American former professional golfer and golf broadcaster.Venturi was born in San Francisco, California. Venturi first gained national attention in 1956 when, as an amateur, he finished second in that year's The Masters Tournament after leading from the first round....
 
Golf U.S. Open
U.S. Open (golf)

The United States Open Championship, commonly known as the U.S. Open, is the annual Open Golf Tournaments of the United States. It is the second of the four men's major golf championships in golf and is on the official schedule of both the PGA Tour and the PGA European Tour....
 Champion
1965 Sandy Koufax
Sandy Koufax

Sanford Koufax is an United States left-handed former pitcher in Major League Baseball who played his entire career for the Los Angeles Dodgers, from to ....
 
Baseball Cy Young Award
Cy Young Award

The Cy Young Award is an honor given annually in baseball to the best pitcher in Major League Baseball , one each for the American League and National League leagues....
, Strikeout record
1966 Jim Ryun
Jim Ryun

James Ronald Ryun is an United States former Athletics and politician, who was a Republican Party member of the United States House of Representatives from 1996 to 2007, representing the Kansas's 2nd congressional district in Kansas....
 
Track and field Mile world record
1967 Carl Yastrzemski
Carl Yastrzemski

Carl Michael Yastrzemski...
 
Baseball Triple Crown
Triple crown (baseball)

In baseball, the Triple Crown refers to:#A batter who leads the league in three major categories -- home runs, runs batted in, and batting average....
 winner
1968 Bill Russell
Bill Russell

William Felton Russell is a retired American professional basketball player who played center for the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association ....
 
Professional basketball
National Basketball Association

The National Basketball Association is North America's premier professional men's basketball league, composed of thirty teams: twenty-nine in the United States and one in Canada....
 
NBA champion player-coach
1969 Tom Seaver
Tom Seaver

George Thomas Seaver is a former right-handed Major League Baseball pitcher who broke into the major leagues in and retired in . He played for four different teams in his career, but is primarily associated with the New York Mets....
 
Baseball Cy Young Award
1970 Bobby Orr
Bobby Orr

Robert Gordon "Bobby" Orr, Order of Canada is a retired Canadian ice hockey defenceman and is considered to be one of the greatest hockey players of all time....
 
Hockey
Ice hockey

Ice hockey, often referred to simply as hockey, is a team sport played on ice. It is a fast paced and physical sport. Ice hockey is most popular in areas that are sufficiently cold for natural reliable seasonal ice cover such as Canada, the northern United States, Scandinavia and Russia, though with the advent of indoor artificial ice r...
 
NHL
National Hockey League

The National Hockey League is a professional ice hockey league composed of 30 teams in North America. It is considered to be the premier professional ice hockey league in the world, and one of the North American Major professional sports leagues of the United States and Canada....
 MVP
Hart Memorial Trophy

The Hart Memorial Trophy, originally known as the Hart Trophy, the "oldest and most prestigious individual award in hockey", is awarded annually to the Most Valuable Player in the National Hockey League....
, Art Ross
Art Ross Trophy

The Art Ross Trophy is awarded to the National Hockey League player who leads the league in Point at the end of the regular season. It was presented to the NHL by former player, general manager and head coach Art Ross....
, Conn Smythe
Conn Smythe Trophy

The Conn Smythe Trophy is awarded annually to the player judged Most Valuable Player during the National Hockey League's Stanley Cup playoffs. The Conn Smythe Trophy has been awarded 43 times to 37 players since the 1964-65 NHL season....
, Norris
1971 Lee Trevino
Lee Trevino

Lee Buck Trevino is an American professional golfer. He is an icon for Mexican Americans, and is often referred to as "The Merry Mex" and "Supermex"....
 
Golf PGA Player of the Year
1972 Billie Jean King
Billie Jean King

Billie Jean King is a retired tennis player from the United States. She won 12 Grand Slam singles titles, 16 Grand Slam women's doubles titles, and 11 Grand Slam mixed doubles titles....
 
Tennis
Tennis

Tennis is a sport played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a strung racquet to strike a hollow rubber Tennis ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's tennis court....
 
Three major titles
John Wooden
John Wooden

John Robert Wooden is a retired United States basketball coach. He is a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame as both a player and as a coach ....
 
College basketball NCAA champion
NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship

The NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship is a Single-elimination tournament tournament held each spring featuring 65 college basketball teams in the United States....
 coach
1973 Jackie Stewart
Jackie Stewart

Sir John Young "Jackie" Stewart, Order of the British Empire , better known as Jackie, and nicknamed The Flying Scot, is a Scotland former racing driver....
 
Auto racing
Auto racing

Auto racing is a motorsport involving racing cars. It is one of the world's most watched television sports....
 
Formula One
Formula One

Formula One, abbreviated to F1, and currently officially referred as the FIA Formula One World Championship is the highest class of auto racing sanctioned by the F?d?ration Internationale de l'Automobile ....
 World Champion
List of Formula One World Drivers' Champions

The Formula One World Drivers' Championship is awarded by the F?d?ration Internationale de l'Automobile to the most successful Formula One Auto racing over a season, as determined by a List of Formula One World Championship pointscoring systems based on Grand Prix results....
1974 Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali

Muhammad Ali is a retired United States boxing and former three-time List of heavyweight boxing champions.As an amateur, Ali won a gold medal at the Summer Olympic Games in the light heavyweight division gold medal....
 
Boxing World heavyweight champion
1975 Pete Rose
Pete Rose

Peter Edward "Pete" Rose, Sr. , nicknamed Charlie Hustle, is a former player and Manager in Major League Baseball. Rose played from to , best known for his many years with the Cincinnati Reds....
 
Baseball World Series MVP
1976 Chris Evert
Chris Evert

Christine Marie "Chris" Evert is a former List of ATP number 1 ranked players professional tennis player from the United States. She won 18 Grand Slam singles titles, including a record 7 at the French Open....
 
Tennis Two major titles
1977 Steve Cauthen
Steve Cauthen

Steve Cauthen is an American jockey.Cauthen, the son of a trainer and a farrier, grew up in Walton, Kentucky around horses, which made race-riding a logical career choice....
 
Horse racing
Thoroughbred horse race

Thoroughbred horse racing is a worldwide sport and industry involving the racing of thoroughbred horses. It is governed by different national bodies....
 
Eclipse Award
Eclipse Award

The Eclipse Award is an United States thoroughbred horse racing award named after the 18th century Great Britain racehorse and Father, Eclipse ....
 for Outstanding Jockey
Eclipse Award for Outstanding Jockey

The Eclipse Award for Outstanding Jockey is an United States thoroughbred horse racing honor for jockeys first awarded in 1971. Part of the Eclipse Awards program, it is awarded annually....
1978 Jack Nicklaus
Jack Nicklaus

Jack William Nicklaus , also known as "The Golden Bear", is one of the most successful professional golfers of all time. Nicklaus currently holds the record for the most victories in major championships....
 
Golf British Open
The Open Championship

The Open Championship, or simply The Open , is the oldest of the four men's major golf championships in men's golf. It is the only major held outside the USA and is administered by the R&A, which is the governing body of golf outside the USA and Mexico....
 champion
1979 Terry Bradshaw
Terry Bradshaw

Terry Paxton Bradshaw is a former American football quarterback with the Pittsburgh Steelers in the National Football League. He is currently a football analyst and co-host of FOX NFL Sunday....
 
Professional football Super Bowl
Super Bowl

In professional American football, the Super Bowl is the championship game of the National Football League . The game and its ancillary festivities constitute Super Bowl Sunday....
 MVP
Super Bowl MVP

File:Eli Manning Giants QB.jpgThe Super Bowl Most Valuable Player Award, or Super Bowl MVP, is an award presented annually to the most valuable player of the Super Bowl, the National Football League's championship game....
Willie Stargell
Willie Stargell

Wilver Dornell "Willie" Stargell , nicknamed "Pops" in the later years of his career, was a professional baseball player who played his entire Major League Baseball career with the Pittsburgh Pirates as an outfielder and first baseman....
 
Baseball World Series MVP
1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team
Miracle on Ice

The "Miracle on Ice" is the nickname given to a February 22 medal-round men's ice hockey game during the 1980 Winter Olympics, in which a team of amateur and collegiate players from the United States, led by coach Herb Brooks, defeated the Soviet Union team, who were considered to be the best international hockey team in the world, 4–3...
 
Hockey Olympic
1980 Winter Olympics

The 1980 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XIII Olympic Winter Games, were a winter multi-sport event which was celebrated in February 13 through February 24, 1980 in Lake Placid, New York, New York, United States....
 gold medalists
1981 Sugar Ray Leonard
Sugar Ray Leonard

Ray Charles Leonard is a retired American professional boxing. Named Fighter of the Decade for the 1980s, he is widely considered to be one of the best boxers of all time, winning world titles at multiple weights and engaging in contests with such celebrated opponents as Wilfred Benitez, Thomas Hearns, Roberto Duran and Marvin Hagler....
 
Boxing World welterweight champion
1982 Wayne Gretzky
Wayne Gretzky

Wayne Douglas Gretzky, Order of Canada is a retired Canada professional ice hockey player. He is the current part-owner, head of hockey operations, and coach of the Phoenix Coyotes of the National Hockey League ....
 
Hockey NHL
National Hockey League

The National Hockey League is a professional ice hockey league composed of 30 teams in North America. It is considered to be the premier professional ice hockey league in the world, and one of the North American Major professional sports leagues of the United States and Canada....
 MVP
Hart Memorial Trophy

The Hart Memorial Trophy, originally known as the Hart Trophy, the "oldest and most prestigious individual award in hockey", is awarded annually to the Most Valuable Player in the National Hockey League....
, Art Ross
Art Ross Trophy

The Art Ross Trophy is awarded to the National Hockey League player who leads the league in Point at the end of the regular season. It was presented to the NHL by former player, general manager and head coach Art Ross....
1983 Mary Decker
Mary Decker

Mary Slaney is an United States former track and field athlete, who holds seven American records in her sport. In 1981 she married marathon runner Ron Tabb....
 
Track and field Double world champion
1983 World Championships in Athletics

The inaugural IAAF World Championships in Athletics were run under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations and were held at the Olympic Stadium in Helsinki, Finland between August 7 and August 14....
1984 Edwin Moses
Edwin Moses

Edwin Corley Moses is an United States Athletics who won gold medals in the 400-meter Hurdling at the 1976 Summer Olympics and 1984 Summer Olympics....
 
Track and field Olympic
1984 Summer Olympics

The 1984 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIII Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event held in Los Angeles, California, United States in 1984....
 gold medalist
Mary Lou Retton
Mary Lou Retton

Mary Lou Retton is an American gymnastics. She was the first female gymnast from outside Eastern Europe to win the Olympic Games all-around title....
 
Gymnastics
Artistic gymnastics

Artistic gymnastics is a discipline of gymnastics. Competitive gymnasts perform short routines on different apparatus, with less time for vaulting ....
 
Olympic
Gymnastics at the 1984 Summer Olympics

Gymnastics at the 1984 Summer Olympics was represented by two different gymnastics disciplines: artistic gymnastics and rhythmic gymnastics, held at UCLA's Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles, California from July 29 to August 11....
 gold medalist
1985 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar , born Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor, Jr., then known as Lew Alcindor, is an American athlete and retired professional basketball player, widely considered one of the greatest National Basketball Association players of all time....
 
Professional basketball Playoff
NBA Playoffs

File:NBA 2007 Playoffs logo.pngThe National Basketball Association Playoffs is a Playoff format#Best-of-seven playoff tournament#Knockout tournaments between sixteen teams in the Eastern Conference and Western Conference , ultimately deciding the final four teams who will play in the NBA Conference Finals....
 MVP
1986 Joe Paterno
Joe Paterno

Joseph Vincent Paterno , nicknamed JoePa, is the head coach of Pennsylvania State University Penn State Nittany Lions team, a position he has held since 1966....
 
College football NCAA champion coach
1987 "Athletes Who Care"
Bob Bourne
Bob Bourne

Bob Bourne is a retired professional ice hockey left wing who played in the NHL between 1974 and 1988....
 
Hockey Helped handicapped children's school
Track and field Helped abused children
Kip Keino
Kipchoge Keino

Kipchoge Keino , chairman of the Kenyan Olympic Committee , is a retired Kenyan Athletics and two-time Olympic Games gold medalist. Kip Keino was among the first in a long line of successful Middle distance track event and Long-distance track event distance runners to come from the country and has helped and inspired many of his fellow coun...
 
Track and field Cared for orphaned children
Dale Murphy
Dale Murphy

Dale Bryan Murphy is a former outfielder and first baseman in Major League Baseball. He was twice the National League Most Valuable Player , playing for the Atlanta Braves, in 1982 and 1983, and he won the Silver Slugger award in the National League outfield four times....
 
Baseball Charity spokesman
College football Helped needy children
Patty Sheehan
Patty Sheehan

Patty Sheehan is an United States professional golfer. She became a member of the LPGA Tour in 1980 and won 6 women's major golf championships and thirty-five LPGA Tour victories in all....
 
Golf Helped abused girls
Rory Sparrow
Rory Sparrow

Rory Darnell Sparrow is a retired United States professional basketball player in the NBA.Sparrow played at Eastside High School in Paterson, New Jersey, and was an inaugual inductee into the school's Hall of Fame....
 
Professional basketball Helped school children
Reggie Williams
Reggie Williams (linebacker)

Reginald Williams is a former professional American football player.Williams graduated from Dartmouth College, where he starred as a linebacker....
 
Professional football Helped high school students
1988 Orel Hershiser
Orel Hershiser

Orel Leonard Hershiser IV is a former right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball. He is currently an analyst for Baseball Tonight and Wednesday Night Baseball on ESPN....
 
Baseball Cy Young Award, World Series MVP
1989 Greg LeMond
Greg LeMond

Gregory James "Greg" LeMond is a former professional road bicycle racer from the United States and a three-time winner of the Tour de France. He was born in Lakewood, California, California....
 
Cycling
Cycling

Cycling is the use of bicycles, or - less commonly - unicycles, tricycles, Quadracycle s and other similar wheeled human powered vehicles as a means of transport, a form of recreation or a sport....
 
Tour de France
Tour de France

The Tour de France is a bicycle racing over more than . It is held every year. It is held in France and visits a bordering country every year. It usually lasts 23 days....
 winner
1990 Joe Montana
Joe Montana

For the actor with a similarly pronounced name, see Joe Mantegna.Joseph Clifford Montana, Jr., , nicknamed Joe Cool and Comeback Joe, is a retired United States American football player whose professional career in the National Football League spanned the late 1970s through the mid-1990s....
 
Professional football Three-time Super Bowl MVP
1991 Michael Jordan
Michael Jordan

Michael Jeffrey Jordan is a retired United States professional basketball player and active businessman. His biography on the National Basketball Association website states, "By acclamation, Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time." Jordan was one of the most effectively marketed athletes of his generation and was instr...
 
Professional basketball NBA MVP
NBA Most Valuable Player Award

The National Basketball Association Most Valuable Player is an annual National Basketball Association award given since the 1955?56 NBA season....
, NBA Finals MVP, NBA Champion
1992 Arthur Ashe
Arthur Ashe

Arthur Robert Ashe, Jr. was a professional tennis player, born and raised in Richmond, Virginia, Virginia. During his career, he won three Grand Slam titles, putting him among the best ever from the United States of America Ashe, an African American, is also remembered for his efforts to further social causes....
 
Tennis Supported humanitarian causes
1993 Don Shula
Don Shula

Donald Francis Shula is a former professional American football coach for the National Football League. He is best known as coach of the Miami Dolphins, the team he led to two Super Bowl victories, and to the National Football League first and only post-AFL/NFL merger Perfect Season....
 
Professional football Winningest NFL coach
1994 Bonnie Blair
Bonnie Blair

Bonnie Kathleen Blair is a retired American speed skating. One of the top female skaters of her time, and one of the most decorated female athletes in Olympic Games history, Blair competed for the United States in four Olympics, and in her Olympic career won five gold medals and one bronze medal....
 
Speed skating
Speed skating

Speed skating or speedskating is a competition form of skating in which the competitors racing each other in travelling a certain distance on skating....
 
Double Olympic
1994 Winter Olympics

The 1994 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XVII Olympic Winter Games, were a winter multi-sport event which was celebrated in 1994 in Lillehammer, Norway....
 gold medalist
Johann Olav Koss
Johann Olav Koss

Johann Olav Koss is a former Speed skating, considered to be one of the best in history....
 
Speed skating Triple Olympic gold medalist
1995 Cal Ripken, Jr.
Cal Ripken, Jr.

Calvin Edwin "Cal" Ripken, Jr. , is a retired Major League Baseball player and National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum Class of 2007 inductee, where he was a first-time ballot inductee with the third highest voting percentage in Hall of Fame voting history behind Tom Seaver and Nolan Ryan....
 
Baseball Consecutive games record
1996 Tiger Woods
Tiger Woods

Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods is an American professional golfer whose achievements to date rank him among the most successful golfers of all time....
 
Golf U.S. Amateur, NCAA champion
NCAA Division I Men's Golf Championships

The National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I Men's Golf Championships, played in late May or early June, is the top annual competition in U.S....
1997 Dean Smith
Dean Smith

Dean Edwards Smith is a retired Coach of men?s college basketball. Originally from Emporia, Kansas, Kansas, Smith has been called a ?coaching legend? by the Basketball Hall of Fame....
 
College basketball Winningest college coach at the time of publication
1998 Mark McGwire
Mark McGwire

Mark David McGwire is a former Major League Baseball player who played the majority of his major league career with the Oakland Athletics before finishing his career with the St....
 
Baseball Single-season home run
Home run

In baseball, a home run is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batting is able to circle all the bases, ending at home plate and scoring run for himself and each baserunning who was already on base, with no error by the defensive team on the play....
 record
Sammy Sosa
Sammy Sosa

Samuel Peralta Sosa is a Major League Baseball right fielder who is currently a free agent.Sosa's Major League career began when he broke in with the Texas Rangers in ....
 
Baseball National League MVP
MLB Most Valuable Player Award

The Most Valuable Player Award is an annual award given to one outstanding player in each league of Major League Baseball. Since 1931, it has been awarded by the Baseball Writers Association of America....
1999 U.S. Women's Soccer Team
United States women's national soccer team

The United States Women's National Soccer Team is operated by the United States Soccer Federation. The team has won two FIFA Women's World Cups ; three Football at the Summer Olympics and six Algarve Cups ....
 
Soccer
Football (soccer)

Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of eleven players, and is widely considered to be the most popular sport in the world....
 
World Cup champions
2000 Golf Three major championships
Men's major golf championships

The men's major golf championships, often referred to simply as "the majors", are the four most prestigious annual tournaments in professional golf....
2001 Curt Schilling
Curt Schilling

Curtis Montague Schilling is an United States of America Major League Baseball right-handed starting pitcher who is currently a free agent. He helped lead the Philadelphia Phillies to the World Series in and has won World Series championships in with the Arizona Diamondbacks and in and with the Boston Red Sox....
 
Baseball World Series Co-MVP
Randy Johnson
Randy Johnson

For other people named Randy Johnson, see Randy Johnson 'Randall David Johnson' , nicknamed "'The Big Unit'," is a left-handed Major League Baseball pitcher....
 
Baseball World Series Co-MVP, Cy Young Award
2002 Lance Armstrong
Lance Armstrong

Lance Armstrong is an United States professional Road bicycle racing who rides for UCI ProTeam Team Astana. He won the Tour de France a record-breaking seven consecutive years, from 1999 Tour de France to 2005 Tour de France....
 
Cycling Four-time Tour de France winner
2003 David Robinson
David Robinson (basketball)

David Maurice Robinson is a retired United States National Basketball Association basketball player, who is often considered one of the greatest center to ever play the game....
 
Professional basketball Two-time NBA champion
Tim Duncan
Tim Duncan

Timothy "Tim" Theodore Duncan is a Virgin Islander American professional basketball player for the San Antonio Spurs of the National Basketball Association ....
 
Professional basketball NBA MVP, Playoff MVP
2004 Boston Red Sox
2004 Boston Red Sox season

The Boston Red Sox 2004 season is the 103rd Major League Baseball season for the Boston Red Sox Professional sports league organization. Managed under Terry Francona, the team finished with a 98-64 record ....
 
Professional Baseball Team 2004 World Series
2004 World Series

The 2004 World Series was the Major League Baseball championship series for the 2004 Major League Baseball season. It was the 100th World Series and featured the American League champion Boston Red Sox against the National League champion St....
 champions, winners for the first time in 86 years
2005 Tom Brady
Tom Brady

Thomas Edward "Tom" Brady, Jr. is an American football quarterback for the New England Patriots of the National Football League. After playing college football at University of Michigan, Brady was drafted by the Patriots in the sixth round of the 2000 NFL Draft....
 
Professional Football Two-time Super Bowl MVP
2006 Dwyane Wade
Dwyane Wade

Dwyane Tyrone Wade, Jr. is an United States professional basketball player who currently plays for the Miami Heat in the National Basketball Association ....
 
Professional Basketball NBA Champion, NBA Finals MVP
2007 Brett Favre
Brett Favre

Brett Lorenzo Favre is a retired American football quarterback of the National Football League . He was the starting quarterback for the Green Bay Packers between the 1992 Green Bay Packers season and 2007 Green Bay Packers season NFL seasons and the New York Jets in 2008....
 
Professional Football "for his perseverance and his passion"
2008 Michael Phelps
Michael Phelps

Michael Fred Phelps is an United States swimming. He has won 14 career Olympic Games gold medals, the most by any Olympian. As of 2008, Phelps holds seven List of world records in swimming....
 
Swimming Eight Gold Medals in 2008 Summer Olympics
2008 Summer Olympics

The 2008 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, was a major international multi-sport event that took place in Beijing, People's Republic of China, from August 8 to August 24, 2008....


External links

  • at SI.com