The 100 Greatest Athletes of All Time: A Sports Editor's Personal Ranking

Sporting News, The, Nov 6, 1995 by Steve Gietschier

This is a silly book, woeful in its conception, derivative in its research and lame in its execution. Listing the 100 greatest athletes of all time might have made a half-descent magazine article or provided the grist for a good debate, but in no way should nearly 450 pages have been put to such a purpose.

That this book falls short of the mark should surprise no one who gives it even a cursory glance. Sugar, publisher of a boxing magazine, can neither come up with anything more than an amorphous, circular definition of greatness, nor can he be bothered with doing any new research on his elect. Greatness he writes vaguely, is "a combination of things, an equation that includes dominance, perceived greatness, consistent performance, accomplishments transcending time, and overall excellence." As for refusing to cull fact from the fiction, he quotes an inane line from the movie "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance": "When the legend becomes more beloved than the facts, print the legend."

With this uncertain standards in place, it is no wonder that the text of the book consists solely of warmed-over biographical sketches. There is no argument, no comparison, no attempt to justify each selection against the others. To save you the trouble, Sugar's top 10 are as follows: "Jim Brown, Jim Thorpe, Babe Didrikson Zaharias, Jackie Robinson, Babe Ruth, Jesse Owens, Wilt Chamberlain, Pele, Ernie Nevers and Michael Jordan.

Sugar bills himself as an editor, and yet his last chapter, a simple list of those who didn't make the cut, includes the following errors: "Hobe Baker, Mike Bossi, John Brody, George Cannaiglia, Yvonne Cornyeau, Bustger Crabbe, Steve Cramm, Herv Filon, Dan Garlitz, Pancho Gonzalez, Johnny Longdon, Pet Maravich, Cal Ripkin, ROger Staurbach and Dav Winfield." One wonders what this chapter looked like before the editor got his hands on it.