SportsCentury
SportsCentury
0. Casey Stengel
1. 1900-49
2. No. 50 -- Chris Evert
3. No. 49 -- O.J. Simpson
4. No. 48 -- Pete Sampras
5. No. 47 -- Edwin Moses
6. No. 46 -- Eric Heiden
7. No. 45 -- Bill Tilden
8. SportsCenter of the Decade: 1950s
9. No. 44 -- Bobby Jones
10. No. 43 -- Julius Erving
11. No. 42 -- Sandy Koufax
12. No. 41 -- Wilma Rudolph
13. No. 40 -- Lawrence Taylor
14. No. 39 -- Walter Payton
15. No. 38 -- Ben Hogan
16. No. 37 -- Mickey Mantle
17. SportsCenter of the Decade: 1960s
18. No. 36 -- Oscar Robertson
19. The Greatest Coaches of the Century
20. No. 35 -- Secretariat
21. Most Influential People in Sports
22. Greatest Dynasties
23. No. 34 -- Lou Gehrig
24. No. 33 -- Mark Spitz
25. Greatest Games
26. No. 32 -- Johnny Unitas
27. No. 31 -- Bobby Orr
28. No. 30 -- Larry Bird
29. SportsCenter of the Decade: 1970s
30. No. 29 -- Arnold Palmer
31. No. 28 -- Red Grange
32. No. 27 -- Jerry Rice
33. No. 26 -- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
34. No. 25 -- Joe Montana
35. No. 24 -- Sugar Ray Robinson
36. No. 23 -- Jackie Joyner-Kersee
37. No. 22 -- Joe DiMaggio
38. SportsCenter of the Decade: 1980s
39. No. 21 -- Gordie Howe
40. No. 20 -- Ty Cobb
41. No. 19 -- Martina Navratilova
42. No. 18 -- Bill Russell
43. No. 17 -- Magic Johnson
44. No. 16 -- Ted Williams
45. No. 15 -- Jackie Robinson
46. No. 14 -- Hank Aaron
47. No. 13 -- Wilt Chamberlain
48. No. 12 -- Carl Lewis
49. No. 11 -- Joe Louis
50. No. 10 -- Babe Didrikson
51. No. 9 -- Jack Nicklaus
52. No. 8 -- Willie Mays
53. No. 7 -- Jim Thorpe
54. No. 6 -- Jesse Owens
55. No. 5 -- Wayne Gretzky
56. No. 4 -- Jim Brown
57. No. 3 -- Muhammad Ali
58. No. 2 -- Babe Ruth
59. No. 1 -- Michael Jordan
60. SportsCenter of the Decade: 1990s
61. Yogi Berra
62. Derek Jeter
63. Brian Piccolo
64. Brian Piccolo
102. No. 50 - Chris Evert
103. Joe DiMaggio
104. Willie Mays
105. Billy Martin
106. Don Larsen
نظرة عامة
SportsCentury is an ESPN biography program that reviews the people and athletic events that defined sports in North America throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. In 1999, ESPN counted down the Top 50 Athletes of the 20th Century, selected from North American athletes and voted on by a panel of sports journalists and observers, premiering a new biography highlighting each top athlete every week throughout the year. The episodes for the top two athletes, Michael Jordan and Babe Ruth, appeared on a special combined edition broadcast on Christmas Day on ABC. The top two names were announced in no particular order, and the final positioning was announced at the conclusion of the two episodes. An additional list of numbers 51-100 were announced on the ESPN SportsCentury website. Themed specials such as Greatest Games, Greatest Coaches, Greatest Dynasties, and Most Influential Individuals were premiered throughout the year, as well as six SportsCenter of the Decade programs. After the initial run was complete, the episodes were rerun at various times on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN Classic. The original plan for the series was to expand to include #51-#100. Ultimately, the series featured nearly every athlete from #51-#100, and numerous other personalities, especially those who were recently deceased, or notable for more recent accomplishments.
