Who was your sports hero as a kid

[Indy_Dem_Defender]

Who was your sports hero as a kid? Just starting this cause I'm interested in who DU Members looked up to as children.

here are some of mine


Reggie Miller


Ryne Sandberg


Rick Sutcliffe - Pitched the first major league I ever went too.


Hulk Hogan - admit it you where a fan too!

[Awsi Dooger]

1. Ali

I was barely old enough to remember him pre-exile. But during the period he couldn't fight he was increasingly legendary and controversial. I couldn't believe how some of my friends' parents despised Ali, and that was passed down to the kids. In our house he was God.

March 8,1971 will always be the most anticipated sporting event in history. But what a letdown, listening to it on our old radio in the living room and sensing Frazier was going to win. That was my first feeling similar to the GOP winning the White House, that good doesn't always prevail.

[Captain Hilts]

2. Frank Howard. Sonny Jurgensen. Larry Brown. nt

[bigwillq]

3. Don Mattingly

Joe Morris
Spud Webb

[Captain Hilts]

12. Great trio bigwillq! Three great guys. nt

[HuskerDU]

4. My dad was a big sports fan, so I knew all the players names

when I was just 5 years old. At that time my heros were Walter Payton and Dave Kingman.

Payton, Michael Jordan, Ryne Sandberg, and Andre Dawson remain my all-time favorite players.

[T_i_B]

5. David Hirst

Striker for the magnificent Sheffield Wednesday!

[Jack Rabbit]

6. Willie Mays

I go back a ways.

Subtract two points for anybody who thought I'd say Alekhine.

[THUNDER HANDS]

7. Drazen Petrovic

Keith Hernandez



Ken O'Brien



Mick Vukota

http://www.legendsofhockey.net:8080/LegendsOfHockey/gallery/000074/0270.jpg

[two gun sid]

8. Ali and Riva Ridge.

If not for a rainy week in Maryland 1972....

[Captain Hilts]

11. Oh man, what a great horse Riva Ridge was. Penny Tweedy ...

was in the winner's circle five out of six Triple Crown races for a while!

[Awsi Dooger]

16. Bee Bee Bee

Gad I remember that day. I missed the race while playing basketball at our elementary school. My friend Bruce stayed home to watch the race and showed up late and told us the outcome. I was stunned and had never heard of Bee Bee Bee. Only when I got home and watched the replay did I see the sloppy track, and find out Riva Ridge didn't like the mud.

[MessiahRp]

9. Good topic

Here's mine:

Eric Davis


Bret Saberhagen


Paul Molitor


Clyde Drexler


James Brooks


Rp

[MrSlayer]

10. Wayne Gretzky, Mike Bossy, Jim Zorn, Steve Largent, Ricky Henderson.

Just to name a few. I hate Hulk Hogan, always have.

[devilgrrl]

13. These three...

[Ptah]

14. Mickey Mantle

and jan stenerud




http://brunvoll.nu/stenerud/

[aaronbees]

15. Some Cubs players...

like Andre Dawson, Lee Smith and Ivan DeJesus. Also, Michael Jordan (started following him at North Carolina and then he joined the Bulls!). Horse-wise it was John Henry and Swale.

[regularguy]

17. Joe Namath, Tom Seaver, OJ Simpson (Who knew?)

[meow2u3]

18. Tom Seaver

C'mon, Seava!!!!!

He wasn't just a great pitcher; he was a gentleman.

One thing about Seaver: you could always tell whether or not he was on by the presence or absence of dirt on his left knee. If he had his stuff, you saw dirt.

[Lefty48197]

19. Hank Aaron, Kareem A. Jabbar, John Brodie, Bart Starr, Aurelio Rodriguez

.

[Captain Hilts]

28. Aurelio Rodriguez - former Wash Senator! Cool! nt

[NJ Democrats]

20. Paul O' Neill

Shaq, Jordan, Gretzky, Messier, Clemens, Charles Way (These are all from when I was younger, Shaq is still active, hey I could included current players as I still a 'kid' in the eyes of US laws.)

[Drum]

21. As a kid?

For context, let's say that would be the decade straddling the 60s/70s:

1) Jack Nicklaus (still a fan)
2) Johhny Bench
3) Just about anybody in a Celtics uniform...in the Red Auerbach days.

[u4ic]

22. Man O'War

[two gun sid]

27. The mostest hoss that ever was...

[Midnight Rambler]

23. David Robinson, Nolan Ryan, Emmitt Smith

Showing my youth here

[H2O Man]

24. Charles "Sonny" Liston

was one of my favorites. But I think that Ali took over, especially when he became bigger than sports and out-pointed Uncle Sam.

[JohnKleeb]

25. Hmm

Csl Ripken Jr will always be on my list, Brady Anderson too I got my dog the year he hit 50 home runs, I guess Jerome Bettis too I always loved watching him play.

[TriSec]

26. Red Sox Nation...

Carl Yasztremski would be the one for me. And I loved Louis Tiant, too. Go figure, I married a Cuban, wonder if there was some subconscious influence from my youth?

But most of my heroes have been pilots....Jimmy Doolittle, Chares Yeager, Scott Crossfield, the Apollo astronauts...strangely, not so much the Wright Brothers.

Ok, not sports, but you did ask us about heroes. Those are mine.

[Bluzmann57]

29. Ernie Banks

who I have had the pleasure of meeting. Great player, great outlook on almost always crappy teams. A couple of others. Bart Starr and Vincent T. Lombardi. Coach Lombardi was quite right wing, but he was the greatest coach in the history of the NFL and he came from an era when people of Italian descent were looked down upon. He succeeded anyway. I have also had the pleasure of meeting Bart Starr. There are very few nicer men in this world. But maybe my all time sports hero when I was a kid (and now) was Jackie Robinson, even though I never saw him play, indeed, his playing career was over before I was born. But this man was a trailblazer in not only sports history, but American history.
I must say that I am a Cub fan and a Packer fan so that's why the choices, in part.
The man's name is Bart Starr, not Bat Starr. Gotta remember the "r" in Bat.

[JohnKleeb]

31. Where did you hear that Coach Lombardi was right wing?

There's a story that Richard Nixon wanted him as his running mate because of his popularity but was told by someone that he was a Kennedy Democrat.

[Captain Hilts]

36. Vince Lombardi was a Democrat, his wife, Marie, a Republican. nt

[Bluzmann57]

37. Heard from various people that Mr. Lombardi was sort of right wing

Some people I know who live in Green Bay have told me this, I don't know for sure that it's true. I have also read in various publications that he was somewhat right wing. Maybe the writers and the people I know were just wishing. And as far as the Nixon story, I'm not too sure Coach Lombardi would have made a very good politician, he seemingly couldn't lie and he may have wrung Tricky Dick's neck.

[Justpat]

30. Bold Ruler n/t

[two gun sid]

34. A great racehorse. Wicked fast and a great weight carrier....

Competed with and beat some of the best. Gen. Duke, Clem, Gallant Man, Round Table, Iron Liege.

[Justpat]

35. And a great sire. Sire of Secretariat.

[El Supremo]

32. Roger Maris when he was an A.

http://froogle.google.com/froogle_image?q=&size=4

I got his autograph at the grocery store. Boy, was I let down when he was sold to New York.

[Redneck Socialist]

33. Pete Rose

Which makes his fall from grace all that much more painful for me. I love the all out way he played the game.

Ali

Don't know that I really had a third as a kid. I had a brief flirtation with NASCAR and was a Richard Petty fan for a while, but I can't really say he was a hero to me. I did like Evil Knevil though. :) Can't say that's sports though.

I love 'bout all the '80's Celtics. Bird, Parish, McHale and yes even Danny Ainge. :evilgrin: Bill Walton, any man that blow off practice to catch a dead show is OK in my book.