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By Randy Williams and George Stahl NEW
YORK (AQB)--With the 20th century finally winding down, ESPN's SportsCentury
project heated up this weekend with four original programs, including
a pair of two-hour programs that aired on ABC. The
Most Influential: It's Not Always Best To Go Last Maybe it was overload from a weekend of SportsCentury material. Maybe the subject matter wasn't as interesting as the '60s or the greatest coaches. Maybe it was my Sixers getting knocked out of the playoffs. But whatever the reason, I just didn't enjoy The Most Influential People In Sports as much as I enjoyed SportsCentury's other programs this weekend. Don't get met wrong - the program was well-done and certainly up to the high level of standards that SportsCentury already has set for itself. The program did a solid job of profiling each person voted into the top 10 list, and it was great to see important nonathletes get the recognition they deserve. But yet, if I weren't watching the program for the site, I might have switched to another show. Call it "SportsCentury Overload." For the record, SportsCentury's 10 most influential people in 20th century North American sports are as follows: 10. Mark McCormack - "McCormick was the first guy to see the potential not only for an athlete making a lot of money on the court but also to make millions and millions of dollars off-the-court, off-the-field and off-the-course," Washington Post writer Leonard Shapiro said. 9. George Halas - "They called him 'Mr. Halas.' I don't care who it was," NFL Hall of Famer Gale Sayers said. "He earned that respect." 8. Walter O'Malley - "He took a struggling franchise out of an antiquated ballpark and brought baseball into the modern age," author George Will said. 7. Avery Brundage - "He was an authoritarian. He was abusive. And he saved the Olympic games twice," Olympic historian Bud Greenspan said. 6. David Stern - "David Stern is stronger than ever, more in control than ever and, now with Pete Rozelle gone, is the commissioner of commissioners," Star-Ledger columnist Jerry Izenberg said. 5. Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis - "Landis was too much respected in life and has been too much reviled in death," baseball historian Bill James said. "Kenesaw Mountain Landis saved baseball." 4. Marvin Miller - "As I tell you this now, I don't believe it myself any more," Miller said about baseball's old labor ways. "Anyway, we stopped all that." 3. Roone Arledge - "I think in almost any field of endeavor, human stories are what is most important," Arledge said. 2. Pete Rozelle - "The election of Pete Rozelle [as NFL commissioner] was the making of the National Football League. The only trouble was, at the time, nobody realized it but Rozelle," Izenberg said. 1. Branch Rickey - "In my judgment, he was a modern-day Abraham Lincoln," Baltimore Afro-American columnist Sam Lacy said. Voters were told not to vote for athletes and to focus only on off-the-field accomplishments. Those rules leave out plenty of others who have left an indelible mark in American sports history - Jackie Robinson, Babe Ruth, Tiger Woods, etc. However, the program appropriately spent some time honoring the off-the-court achievements of Billie Jean King. (Possibly because no woman made the top 10?) As New York Daily News columnist Mike Lupica said, "There would have been no women's tennis - there would have been no major women's sports - without her." The program also acknowledged other influential figures who didn't make the list, such as promoter Tex Rickard, baseball owner Bill Veeck and sportswriter Grantland Rice. But still, I thought there were a few others that should have been mentioned, even if briefly, such as Nike founder Phil Knight, 1984 Olympic coordinator Peter Ueberroth and boxing promoter Don King. Remember, it didn't have to be a good influence. Also, I was surprised that no one from the Robinson family - either his wife, Rachel, or children - was shown during the Rickey piece. I'm sure they could have offered an interesting perspective of the relationship between Rickey and Robinson. Overall, though, SportsCentury's Most Influential contained the same effort, quality and content that has come to characterize this outstanding series. But it might have been that much better next week, next month or in July. Because with six hours of special programs this past weekend, too much SportsCentury may not have been a good thing. For more SportsCentury reviews click below: |
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