Who was your favorite athlete growing up as a kid?

PRL1JAM

I am talking about all sports. Did you have a favorite athlete growing up, and if so who was it? Was it one favorite in one sport, or multiple favorites in multiple sports. As a kid I had a favorite athlete in baseball, football, and basketball. I love the Dodgers, but as a kid I actually was a big Canseco fan. This was when I was a kid in the late 80's early 90's, so I think I was just cheering for who was the best player at that time. In football I remember being a huge Bo Jackson fan.

I know he would always arrive late for the Raiders, but that didn't stop me considering him my favorite football player at that time. I collected all of his Raiders football cards. My favorite was his 88 Topps rookie, as well as the Score card that showed him in football shoulder pads, as he held a baseball bat behind his neck.

In basketball I was a big Michael Jordan fan. As I got older (late teens 1992), I started becoming a fan of Charlotte's Larry Johnson and Alonzo Mourning.

Now a days, as I have gotten older, I don't really cheer for individual players. It's more about the love on the front of the jersey, not the back.

LloydXmas

Baseball - Will Clark
Football - Brent Jones
basketball - Reggie Lewis (RIP)

BinFrog

Of my era - Dwight Gooden

Of all time - Tom Seaver

Porchsitter

When I was growing up, all of my friends loved Jordan but baseball was my love. To this day, Greg Maddux was and will always be my favorite athlete.

PRL1JAM

LloydXmas wrote:

Baseball - Will Clark
Football - Brent Jones
basketball - Reggie Lewis (RIP)

During the time I followed the Hornets, I would always record their games on TV. I had a collection of VHS tapes from most of their games. I still have the actual playoff game recorded on VHS of the late Reggie Lewis' last game (Celtics v Hornets). I recall watching it multiple times, and feeling extremely sad to realize it would be the last time he would ever take the court. He was such an amazing player, and have heard many times that he was an even greater person off the court.

andyzoffhegoes

Jordan overall was and still is.
Baseball canseco/ dave stewart
Football warren moon

eeriepadave

I had a few from each sport that i liked:

baseball- Michael Jack Schmidt, George Brett, Roger Clemens ( :oops: )
basketball- David Robinson, Shaq, Jordan
football: Joe Montana, Bo Jackson
hockey- Alexander Moglny, Wayne Gretzsky, Ron Hextall

oysterjar

Was and always will be Bo Jackson. I wore out the buttons on my Nintendo running the football with Bo Jackson on Tecmo SuperBowl. I too got caught up in who ever was the better players and had no loyalties to teams. I also liked MJ and everyone else on the dream team, Jose Canseco, Randall Cunningham, Warren Moon, Barry Sanders, Emmit Smith, Jerry Rice, Chris Carter, Herschel Walker, Wade Boggs, Frank Thomas, Dieon Sanders.

Go Beavers

darwinstheory

Porchsitter wrote:

When I was growing up, all of my friends loved Jordan but baseball was my love. To this day, Greg Maddux was and will always be my favorite athlete.

+1
At the time, they were equal to me, but even when Maddux was a Brave, I still loved him. Did what he did with class, excellence, professionalism, respect and love of the game. The David Robinson of baseball.

Mark Grace and Ryne Sandburg were up there as well.

I always liked Tom Waddle for football.

Vitalogensia

Le Magnifique!

mfc2006

Bo Jackson
Craig Biggio
Hakeem Olajuwon

SVRDhand13

I was born in 86. No one will ever compare to Jordan.

mookeywrench

Don Mattingly & Andre Dawson
Emmitt Smith & Michael Irvin
Chris Webber & Muggsy Bogues

The Waiting Trophy Man

I liked Wayne Gretzky

Empty Glass

Eric Dickerson
Walter Payton

F Me In The Brain

Football - Joe Montana
Hockey - Ray Bourque
Baseball - Eric Davis

norm

BinauralJam

norm wrote:

Universally Loved!

for me, Donny baseball, Oak tree and L.T.

peacefrompaul

Andrew Brunette

PRL1JAM

norm wrote:

Big fan of the Magic man as well. I was at Dodger Stadium a couple of weeks ago for Magic's bobblehead night. They showed a highlight reel tribute to him as he watched on. Even though I had seen many of those highlights before over the years, it was as I was watching them for the first time that night. I got chills watching the highlight video on the big screen because the audience would react to each great play. Just an amazing player

Spankey's Popp

Go Beavers wrote:

This.

Even named my son after him. Payton Robert Smith.

Growing up in Chicago, Jordan was high up there too.

adam42381

Roger Clemens. Can I have a do-over of my childhood?

PureandEasy

I'm a baseball and hockey fan the most so, there were a lot of them over the years

Pete Rose
Dwight Evans
Fred Lynn

Cam Neely
Craig Janney
Phil Esposito

I go way back, I was raised a Red Sox/Bruins fan, went to my first baseball game at Fenway when I was 7, and I was hooked

cubBEE_girl

i love the packers.

he.who.forgets

Baseball: Don Mattingly, Dale Murphy, Bo Jackson, Ricky Henderson, Mark Grace, Tom Glavine
Football: Emmett Smith, Dan Marino
Basketball: Jordan, Magic, Drexler

polaris_x

stefan edberg ...

loved his serve and volley game but most of all - the man was all class ...

Jason P

Mr. T

JK_Livin

Carl Yastremski and Oris Kindrachuk were my early favorites because my dad liked how I butchered their names.

Pete Rose, Mike Schmidt, Juan Samuel, Wade Boggs. Mickey Rivers
Dr. J, Patrick Ewing
Reggie White, Randal Cunningham
Bobby Clarke, Guy Lafleur

Bronx Bombers

I was 9 years old when he died, never forget watching tv when the news broke.

PillowPants

Larry Bird
Michael Jordan
Roger Clemens (ugh)
Dwight Dewey Evans
Ray Bourque
Steve Grogan (was he an athlete?)