University of North Carolina Athletics
ESPN Selects Michael Jordan As Athlete Of The Century
December 27, 1999 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 27, 1999
The Associated Press
NEW YORK -- Michael Jordan was selected Sunday as ESPN's athlete of the century.
Rounding out the ESPN top 10 were Babe Ruth, Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown, Wayne Gretzky, Jesse Owens, Jim Thorpe, Willie Mays, Jack Nicklaus and Babe Didrikson Zaharias.
Twenty-five of the 48 people on the panel selecting the top athletes were employees of or contributors to ESPN, ABC or affiliated businesses of the TV networks or their parent, The Walt Disney Co. The list was limited to North Americans.
The top 10 in The Associated Press 100 Athletes of the Century poll were Ruth, Jordan, Thorpe, Ali, Gretzky, Brown, Joe Louis, Owens, Zaharias and Wilt Chamberlain.
They were chosen by 16 experts, including athletes, writers and historians.
The full SportsCentury series profiling the top 50 athletes will run consecutively on ESPN2 on Thursday and Friday.
ESPN's second 10 had Louis, Carl Lewis, Chamberlain, Hank Aaron, Jackie Robinson, Ted Williams, Magic Johnson, Bill Russell, Martina Navratilova and Ty Cobb.
Gordie Howe was 21st, followed by Joe DiMaggio, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Sugar Ray Robinson, Joe Montana, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Jerry Rice, Red Grange, Arnold Palmer and Larry Bird.
Next was Bobby Orr at 31, followed by Johnny Unitas, Mark Spitz, Lou Gehrig, Secretariat, Oscar Robertson, Mickey Mantle, Ben Hogan, Walter Payton, and Lawrence Taylor.
Wilma Rudolph was 41st, followed by Sandy Koufax, Julius Erving, Bobby Jones, Bill Tilden, Eric Heiden, Edwin Moses, Pete Sampras, O.J. Simpson and Chris Evert.
