Shane Cavanee

Sean M. George
English 1010D
Nov. 8 2015
The greatest athlete of all time
What makes certain athletes so good at what they do? Is it there build? Size, height,
weight, strength, or would it just be there natural ability that they were born with? I dont think
that any one thing makes an athlete great I think that all of them play a part but there is no
definitive factor. So how do you determine who the best is? With all sports being so different
how can you truly compare athletes who never even played the game of the athlete you are
putting them up against? For this essay I will choose five different athletes who could all easily
be justified as the greatest, and I will determine the toughness of the sport that they play, how
many sports they played, their achievements in there sports, and there overall statistics.
For the purpose of this essay I have chosen five players to evaluate, Jim Brown,
Muhammad Ali, Wayne Gretzky, Michael Jordan, and Bo Jackson. I am going to start with Jim
Brown, He was an NFL fullback. We will start in Syracuse where brown attended college, as a
sophomore brown was second on the team for rushing yards and as a junior he rushed an average
of 5.2 yards a carry. When he was a senior he was first-team all-American and he finished fifth in
the voting for the Heisman award. Perhaps what is more impressive than his college football
statistics was that he excelled in three other sports including basketball, where he was the leading
scorer as a sophomore, track and field, and lacrosse were he was also a first-team all-American.

In 1957 brown was drafted in the first round to the Cleveland browns where he had a
dominating career. In his first year he won the rookie of the year and the NFL MVP awards, he
won the MVP three more times after that. He was a nine time pro bowler and he was the pro
bowl MVP three times. He left the NFL after setting numerous records such as most single
season (1,863) and career (12,312) rushing yards, he was also the all-time leader in rushing
touchdowns with 106, total touchdowns with 126, and with all-purpose yards with 15,549. He is
now in the NFL Hall of fame as well as the College football Hall of fame and the lacrosse hall of
fame.
Cassius Clay, thats probably not a name the most people are familiar with most people
would only recognize him a Muhammad Ali. I chose to evaluate Ali next because he was one of
if not the greatest boxer in history. According to ESPN Boxing is the hardest sport in the world,
so I think the best of the hardest sport in the world is a great contender for the greatest athlete of
all time. Ali was a 6 foot three inch heavy weight boxer with a 78 inch reach, and he was as
cocky as they come, Ali was all about the trash talk at the press conference and in the ring, but he
had the skills to back it up. With 56 wins, 37 KOs and only 5 losses I think you can talk as much
trash as you want because no one can argue with a record like that. By winning the heavy weight
champion title against sonny Liston, Ali became the youngest to ever win the title at age 21.
The Great One as his admirers would call him, but most know him as Wayne Gretzky.
Gretzky was a Canadian hockey player in the NHL and he was by far the greatest hockey player
there ever was. Though not being an impressive size (Ht. 60 Wt. 170lb) and being criticized for
being too small and to slow Gretzky tied for first in scoring and won the Hart Trophy (NHL
MVP) in his first season, the next season he broke the scoring record while tallying 164 points.
Because Gretzky was below average size he had to be the smartest player on the ice and he

defiantly was and everyone knew it. He had a crazy ability to be able to read the ice and
anticipate where the play was going and where the puck was going to go and he used this skill so
that he was always in the right place at the right time. Players who were up against him said you
never knew what he was going to do, he was one of the most creative players they had ever seen.
You think that the greatest hockey player of all time would have a tremendous amount of
goals and he did but he had more than twice as many assists than he did goals. Hall of famer
Bobby Ore once said that he has never seen anyone pass as well as Gretzky. He had 894 career
goals and 1,963 career assists, with a grand total of 2,857 career points, still the most in the NHL
to this day. Gretzky won the Hart trophy a record 8 consecutive seasons and then one more time
after that, also the most in the NHL to this day. He is now in the NHL hall of fame and still holds
many records.
The next athlete Im going to evaluate is one that I am sure 90% of the US population has
heard of and that is Michael Jordan. Jordan was a 6 6 216 pound basketball player and yes he
was the best at basketball and he continues to hold records to this day which makes him a very
worthy candidate for this paper. Jordan was a first round draft pick and third overall to the
Chicago Bulls were he won 6 NBA championships and 5 MVPs. Throughout his basketball
career he averaged 30.1 points per game. You would think that being the greatest basketball
player of all time would be enough to be worthy to be the greatest athlete of all time and it is but
Michael is something special, he wasnt just a basketball player. After his dad died Michael
retired from basketball and wanted a shot to play baseball because thats what his dad always
wanted. So Michael joined the Chicago White Sox MLB teams minor league team on March 31
1994, where he had a first season batting average of .202, 3 homeruns, 51 runs batted in, and 30

stolen bases. Though Jordan never made it to the show he still played two professional sports and
he was the greatest of all time at one of them and he competed in the other.
Last but defiantly not least, Bo Jackson. Yes I did save the best for last, in my opinion, Bo
Jackson is not a name that most people would recognize. Jackson was a Professional football and
baseball player and he dominated in both sports. The reason why most people wouldnt know
who he is, is because he only played football for two seasons and baseball for about eight, but
lets start in college. In 1982 Jackson was drafted in the second round of the MLB draft to the
New York Yankees but because Jackson had promised his mother that he was going to be the first
to go to college in the family I chose to go to auburn on a football scholarship instead. During his
college career he had a total of 4,303 rushing yards averaging 6.6 yards per carry. He had 43
rushing touchdowns and also 3 receiving touchdowns. In Jacksons sophomore year he won the
MVP in the sugar bowl.
Bo also played baseball at Auburn where he played 90 games, had 284 at bats, scored 90 runs,
had 96 hits, 30 homeruns, 70 RBIs, and 66 walks. His batting average was an outstanding .338
and his on base percentage was .466 which is also amazing. Jackson had also competed in track
and field in his college career running the 50 meter in 5.79 seconds and the 10 meter in 10.39
seconds.
After his senior year at auburn Jackson was drafted to the Tampa bay buccaneers but he
chose to play baseball with the Kansas City royals because he thought that the buccaneers had
tried to sabotage his baseball career. Bo began to excel in the 1989 season when he was voted to
be a starter on the American league all-star team, and he was named the all-star games MVP for
both is offensive and defensive performance. Jackson played 694 games over nine seasons

accumulating 2,393 at bats, 341 runs, 598 hits, 141 homeruns, 415 RBIs, 82 stolen bases, 200
walks, and a .250 batting average.
In 1987 Jackson was in spring training with the royals and someone had informed him
that he could still play football if he wanted to and that he had been drafted in the 7th round to the
Los Angeles Raiders. At first Jackson just wanted to keep his focus on baseball but then raiders
owner told Jackson that he liked the idea of Jackson playing both sports, so then the contract was
negotiated where Jackson would play the entire season with the royals and then report to the
raiders when the baseball season was over. His first year at the NFL combine he ran a record 4.1
second 40, and that is still the record to this day. Jackson played with the raiders for three years
playing 38 games and rushing 2,782 yards with 18 touchdowns. Jackson was selected for the pro
bowl in 1990, Jackson is the only player in history to be in the all-star game of two different
major league sports.
The reason why Jacksons career was cut so short was just a freak accident in a football
game where he was tacked and because of the sheer power and strength Bo Jackson has while
running he ripped his hip out of place and had to have it replaced and could not play football
after that but continued to play baseball as long as he could with an artificial hip. They say that
Bo Jackson was the biggest what if story in history because without a doubt he would have
been a hall of famer in both sports and my may have even been the best at both.
Well there you have it my top five greatest athletes of all time, I laid them all out there for
you so that you can choose which your favorite candidate is. Oh and just another little fun fact
for you, ESPN Sports Science did a study on who is the greatest athlete of all time and there
conclusion was none other than Bo Jackson. You cant argue with science.