Top 10 Pittsburgh athletes all time

[Steeldrama]

Soooo many worthy choices

Difficult task putting them in the correct order

1.) Mario Lemieux- The definition of a SUPERSTAR. The Michael Jordan of hockey. Literally saved the sport in Pittsburgh. By all accounts the model citizen on and off the ice.

2.) Roberto Clemente- Dude has a freaking bridge named after him. Baseball was king in Pittsburgh before the Steelers 70's dynasty.

3.) Willie Stargell- City of Champions? We are Family? Dude. You're free to disagree but Pops was my childhood idol. Much to the chagrin of my dad, I mimicked his hyperactive bat twirls during each at bat during my illustrious little league career.

4.) Terry Bradshaw- The Blonde Bomber was arguably Pittsburgh's first ever celebrity sports star. Movies, commercials, drama with coach and fans.

5.) Ben Roethlisberger- The long awaited franchise QB after Bradshaw's retirement didn't endear himself to fans off the field, but he helped get one for the thumb +1. A fantastic football player that may never fully get his due.

6.) Sidney Crosby- I wouldn't argue if he landed in the top 5. Sadly, I missed out on the Sid era moving down here to Georgia.

7.) Mean Joe Greene- Obviously with all the HOFers the Steelers have it's hard to choose the most impactful. Hard to argue the selection of Mean Joe in 1969 to being the most important draft pick to a city this side of Mario Lemieux.

8.) Dan Marino- Another idol of mine growing up. Walked up Cardiac Hill to see him play many times thanks to the free tickets from my aunt who was a life long Pitt faculty member. I'm upset just typing this that the Steelers passed on him in the '83 draft.

8.) Tony Dorsett- Pitt will never have a Heisman Trophy winner and National Title again IN THE SAME SEASON again in my lifetime. YOU SUCK, Narduzzi!

9.) Franco Harris- The Immaculate Reception alone gets him on the list.

10.) Honus Wagner- Just too far before my time but obviously a top 3 name in Pirates baseball history


Really needs to be a top 25 list:

11._ Jerome Bettis- This one may very well fall under a top ten fan favorite list, but "The Bus" was the engine that powered those great Cowher teams.

12.) Arnold Palmer- Golf icon. Can argue he's in top ten for sure.

13.) Jack Lambert- Just start rattling off HOF members of the Steeler Curtain defense.

14.) Troy Polamalu- Tasmanian Devil was so fun to watch play football. Stayed out of the spotlight, but no doubt a SUPERSTAR for the Steelers and the NFL.

15.) Mel Blount- They literally had to make a rule change because of him

16) Barry Bonds- BIggest dick in the history of Pittsburgh sports. I know this first hand. Roids tarnish his legacy, but no denying he was a SUPERSTAR during his time in Pittsburgh.

17) Dave Parker- The Cobra. Google his throw in the All-Star game. Another one of my idols as a Pirates fan first in the 1970s.

18) Jaromir Jagr- Did some shots with him dahn at Marios in the South Side way back when Good dude. Unreal those Pens team only won two cups.

19) Doug Drabek- Oh hell yeah this Cy Young winner was freaking genius acquisition by Syd Thrift for those great Leyland teams (fuck that asshole too)

20.) Geno Malkin- 1B to Sid but would've been a much bigger star had he been a 1A on another team.

21.) Curt Angle- Gotta get a PSAC stud on the list.

22.) Mike Ditka - Iron Mike a Pitt and Aliquippa legend and iconic NFL figure. Can just start rattling off Western PA legends like Johnny Unitas, Joe Montana, Joe Namath etc. The great Stan Musial was from Pittsburgh area too.

23.) Larry Fitzgerald- Why he chose to go to Pitt I'll never know, but just an unreal player for what otherwise was a forgettable era of Walt Harris football.

24.) Aaron Donald- Undersized Penn Hills kid made it BIG in the NFL.

25.) Mike Webster- I'll end with yet another legendary Steelers' HOFer. We were behind Mike and his family at the Jackrabbit. My dad looked at him and said, "Wow you're a big man. Do you play football?" My mom of course embarrassed my dad was clueless about all things sports, Mike just smiled and said, "My name is Mike Webster. I'm the center for the Steelers." My dad replied, "My name is John. Pleasure to meet you, Mike." "The pleasure is mine, John." I couldn't have been more than ten years old and I still remember that exchange like it was yesterday.

* Shout out to Maz. Greatest moment in the history of Pittsburgh Sports. RIP

[bradshaw2ben]

Sorry, @Steeldrama injuet can’t see leaving off the greatest HR hitter and one of the best defenders ever at his position off the list.

[Steeldrama]

Sorry, @Steeldrama injuet can’t see leaving off the greatest HR hitter and one of the best defenders ever at his position off the list.

But how many Pittsburghers actually saw Josh Gibson play?

You’re of course correct he fits the criteria of top ten athlete statistically speaking but I went more with famous and Star quality

[Dan Smith--BYU]

how do you put Marino on the list and leave Montana off?

[Mick]

how do you put Marino on the list and leave Montana off?

marino played for pitt, which might make him count for this by some people’s arbitrary accounting.

[Who Dee Knee]

Just an off-season poll...here's mine, what yinz got??

-Clemente
-Willie the Starg
-Bill Maz
-Mario
-Sid
-Connie Hawkins
-TB
-Franco
-Mean Joe
-Ben

Good list, but doesn’t Honus Wagner need to be on there? I know he played a long time ago and none of us saw him play, but he’s generally listed as the #1 shortstop in baseball history. Here’s the list:

https://www.baseball-reference.com/lead ... s_SS.shtml

Honus won eight batting titles, and had a lifetime.328 batting average.

Hi hit 101 homers in the dead ball era, and stole 723 bases.

He had 252 triples.

[Steeldrama]

how do you put Marino on the list and leave Montana off?

Notre Same is in South Bend Indiana

San Francisco is in California

[Steeldrama]

how do you put Marino on the list and leave Montana off?

marino played for pitt, which might make him count for this by some people’s arbitrary accounting.

Explain to me how the university of PITTSBURGH is arbitrary

Pitt is part of my PITTSBURGH sports fandom

I attended as many Pitt games as Steelers, Pirates, and Penguins.

Pitt games are televised both locally and nationally

Pitt’s history of football players (athletes) takes a back seat to nobody

Hell, the University of PITTSBURGH shares a stadium and training facility with the PITTSBURGH Steelers

Arbitrary???

Subjective at best since the thread title didn’t specify college or pro (or athletes simply born in Pittsburgh as would be the case for Joe Montana and countless others).

[langer]

[SteelerDayTrader]

In no particular order


- Greb absolutely has to be on every list. He’s the only guy who can say hed kick everyone else’s ass

- Mario has to be there. No Mario no Penguins

- Terry and Ben have to be there. Without them the Steelers are nothing

- Josh Gibson and Arnold Palmer have to be on the list

- Honus Wagner has to be on the list


Where does that leave us ??


Greb Terry Ben Mario Josh Arnold Honus


You guys can argue over the remaining 7 spots


Good lists


Solid thread

[Mick]

how do you put Marino on the list and leave Montana off?

marino played for pitt, which might make him count for this by some people’s arbitrary accounting.

Explain to me how the university of PITTSBURGH is arbitrary

Pitt is part of my PITTSBURGH sports fandom

I attended as many Pitt games as Steelers, Pirates, and Penguins.

Pitt games are televised both locally and nationally

Pitt’s history of football players (athletes) takes a back seat to nobody

Hell, the University of PITTSBURGH shares a stadium and training facility with the PITTSBURGH Steelers

Arbitrary???

Subjective at best since the thread title didn’t specify college or pro (or athletes simply born in Pittsburgh as would be the case for Joe Montana and countless others).

i’m not disagreeing, just saying the OP didn’t have a clear rules for who counts as a pittsburgh athlete so people have to make up their own rules,

And i could see how by some reasonable rules Marino’s 4 years at Pitt would put him in a different category than Montana for this. Which i think is what you are saying as well.

[Mick]

Appearing like sid is actually pretty underrated on here…more or less the best player in his sport for a decade and brought in three championships. What else does he have to do?

[Dan Smith--BYU]

But Arnie played for Wake Forest and he is certainly on the list. And Greb played for no one.

There should probably be two top ten lists, one for natives and one for people who played in Pittsburgh laundry.

[swissvale72]

My intention in starting this OP was for it to include individuals who made their mark locally, playing for Pittsburgh teams. I really haven't considered individual sports like boxing or wrestling. And certainly didn't mean to include those who were born in Western Pennsylvania like Johnny Units, but forged their trade elsewhere. Having said all that one guy I included who has not been mentioned by any of you was Connie Hawkins. I wouldn't be surprised if many of you aren't familiar with his greatness at all. I'll post a link about him. I attended a number of Pittsburgh Piper games as an eighth grader in their inaugural season including the seventh game of the finals against the New Orleans Bucs, which was in truth the last time a Pittsburgh team won a championship at home. As a 13-year-old I rushed the floor and was slapping Connie Hawkins arms as he was being carried off. And I was heartbroken when the Pipers moved to Minnesota following that season Connie Hawkins was freaking unbelievable though

https://www.espn.com/classic/000707hawkins.html

[zeke5123]

Appearing like sid is actually pretty underrated on here…more or less the best player in his sport for a decade and brought in three championships. What else does he have to do?

He spent two decades in the Burgh dominating. He is probably a top five player all time in the NHL. Won three championships for Pittsburgh.

And the response seems to be “‘yeah but there was this baseball player who was pretty good—not inner hall of famer but still’ or “there was a steeler who was a pro bowler a few times.’”

It’s just nuts to me.

[Northside50]

Every time some one puts together a list like this, I feel blessed to have seen many of the greats, Clemente, Stargell, Mean Joe, Mario, Sid etc. but regret the fact that I never had a chance to see Josh Gibson, the Waners and many others. At the very top of my regret list is Honus Wagner. My grandfather was born in 1894 and died in 1965. He grew up on Voskamp Street in Old Allegheny and when he was a kid, he and his brothers would walk to Exposition Park and sneak in after the 7th inning stretch. Not too long before he died I asked him if he ever saw Honus Wagner play. He told me that he had and that he always thought that Wagner was as good a fielder as he was a hitter. As Who Dee Knee has pointed out, however, he was one hell of a hitter.
There is a story that late in Christy Mathewson's career, some reporter asked him who he liked to pitch to most. He told that reporter that the guy he liked to pitch to most was Honus Wagner. The reporter was surprised since Honus Wagner had something like a 310 lifetime batting average against Mathewson. Yea, Christy supposedly said, he was my favorite because I didn't have to worry about what I threw to him because he was going to hit it hard no matter what is was.

[bradshaw2ben]

Sorry, @Steeldrama injuet can’t see leaving off the greatest HR hitter and one of the best defenders ever at his position off the list.

But how many Pittsburghers actually saw Josh Gibson play?

You’re of course correct he fits the criteria of top ten athlete statistically speaking but I went more with famous and Star quality

I mean, how many saw Honus Wagner play?

I am a big fan of the local Negro League teams and their history... Pittsburgh had THREE teams, and the Crawfords, in particular, had a lineup of almost all future HOFers.

[Steeldrama]

Sorry, @Steeldrama injuet can’t see leaving off the greatest HR hitter and one of the best defenders ever at his position off the list.

But how many Pittsburghers actually saw Josh Gibson play?

You’re of course correct he fits the criteria of top ten athlete statistically speaking but I went more with famous and Star quality

I mean, how many saw Honus Wagner play?

I am a big fan of the local Negro League teams and their history... Pittsburgh had THREE teams, and the Crawfords, in particular, had a lineup of almost all future HOFers.

I mean, a lot of people saw Honus Wagner play.

Baseball was king in Pittsburgh long before TV

The Pirates were basically Pittsburgh’s ONLY professional sports team.

The Steelers were non existent during that era of Pittsburgh sports history

Pirates had the rapidly growing town of Pittsburgh all to themselves

They were a part of Major League Baseball

No offense to Homestead or the Negro leagues but i can’t imagine Joe family man was bringing his family there to catch a ballgame

I apologize for omitting Josh Gibson. No intent to upset anyone. His stats are beyond impressive. It’s a shame he didn’t get to show his skills in the Major Leagues

[Dan Smith--BYU]

Yeah I admit Sid should be in there even over great Steelers who only played about a decade

[zeke5123]

Sorry, @Steeldrama injuet can’t see leaving off the greatest HR hitter and one of the best defenders ever at his position off the list.

But how many Pittsburghers actually saw Josh Gibson play?

You’re of course correct he fits the criteria of top ten athlete statistically speaking but I went more with famous and Star quality

I mean, how many saw Honus Wagner play?

I am a big fan of the local Negro League teams and their history... Pittsburgh had THREE teams, and the Crawfords, in particular, had a lineup of almost all future HOFers.

There is a lot of projection required with Gibson. He generates 44.5 fWAR in just under 600 games. As a rate stat, that is pretty impressive. But he only played about 60 games a year. Would that rate continue if he was play 120 games a year?

Compare that to Honus Wagner 138.1 fWAR. Technically, a lower amount of WAR per game. But there is zero questions about Wagner's ability to play day-in and day-out.

Moreover, Wagner's WAR per game is brough down in part to his final few seasons playing as a 40+ year old (and even then he was pretty good). In fact, he was essentially a league average hitter as a 43 year old which is insane.

There just isn't a credible case to say that Gibson was comparable to Wagner. Gibson was great, but basically played about 4 seasons worth of pro-ball. At a certain point, doing it over a lot of games counts for something.

[Dan Smith--BYU]

Those are all great points, however Gibson should not be downgraded because of the limitations of the league he was forced to work in.

The success of players like Satch Paige well into his forties showed the NL players were just as good often better and MLB a hundred years ago tended to avoid friendlies that would expose the deficiencies of their white only league.

People who claim the '27 Yankees as the best ever are ignoring the fact that some of the best players of that era weren't even on the field. The '71 Pirates would have made them look like a AA team.

[zeke5123]

Those are all great points, however Gibson should not be downgraded because of the limitations of the league he was forced to work in.

The success of players like Satch Paige well into his forties showed the NL players were just as good often better and MLB a hundred years ago tended to avoid friendlies that would expose the deficiencies of their white only league.

People who claim the '27 Yankees as the best ever are ignoring the fact that some of the best players of that era weren't even on the field. The '71 Pirates would have made them look like a AA team.

Life isn't fair. Maybe Gibson would've proved himself to be better than Wagner if given the chance. But he wasn't given the chance and therefore at best we can speculate. We know what Wagner actually did.

[swissvale72]

Was having this Convo with my friend Charlie yesterday, lifelong pats fan, who has been to the Tuck Rule, game a number of AFC championship games and at least one Super Bowl... without my mentioning his name, Charlie said that the number one sporting event he has ever been to was a steel cage match at Boston Garden in 1969, where Bruno Sammartino beat The Shiek!!! Said that it was unfuckin believable!!

[JackLambert58]

Those are all great points, however Gibson should not be downgraded because of the limitations of the league he was forced to work in.

The success of players like Satch Paige well into his forties showed the NL players were just as good often better and MLB a hundred years ago tended to avoid friendlies that would expose the deficiencies of their white only league.

People who claim the '27 Yankees as the best ever are ignoring the fact that some of the best players of that era weren't even on the field. The '71 Pirates would have made them look like a AA team.

If you're going to compare eras, you have to make all things equal. You have to give the '27 Yankees all the advantages the '71 Pirates enjoyed - modern facilities, better travel accommodations, better nutrition and exercise equipment, heck better baseball equipment. Else, you send the '71 Pirates back to 1927 and let them deal with train travel day and night, baseball gloves that were basically a piece of leather, rudimentary locker rooms and training facilities.

And while I hear you about the shortcomings of a segregated league, it was well known that Ruth and Gehrig still excelled when playing Negro League teams in barnstorming.

[JackLambert58]

My list

Roberto Clemente
Joe Greene
Mario Lemieux
Harry Greb
Honus Wagner
Josh Gibson
Sidney Crosby
Franco Harris
Connie Hawkins
Arnold Palmer

[swissvale72]

My list

Roberto Clemente
Joe Greene
Mario Lemieux
Harry Greb
Honus Wagner
Josh Gibson
Sidney Crosby
Franco Harris
Connie Hawkins
Arnold Palmer

Glad to see someone old enough, and informed enough, to include Connie Hawkins!

Story Ill shore, though most of you asshats won't give a fuck/

I was 13 years old and lied to my mom telling her I was going to the game with a friend whereas I actually went by myself, taking the 61B streetcar from swissvale to the lower hill.

Mind you this was mere weeks past the MLK assassination, rioting in Pittsburgh, still tanks located in gas stations, etc. seated by me was a 30-something black man, who says to me, "you better walk with me," and proceeded to walk with me to the arena, making sure I got there safely.

[SteelerDayTrader]

In no particular order


- Greb absolutely has to be on every list. He’s the only guy who can say hed kick everyone else’s ass

- Mario has to be there. No Mario no Penguins

- Terry and Ben have to be there. Without them the Steelers are nothing

- Josh Gibson and Arnold Palmer have to be on the list

- Honus Wagner has to be on the list


Where does that leave us ??


Greb Terry Ben Mario Josh Arnold Honus


You guys can argue over the remaining 7 spots


Good lists


Solid thread

[SteelerDayTrader]

After reading some other thoughts I will update my list to include Crosby

Greb Terry Ben Josh Mario Sid Arnie Honus

That’s 8 no one can reasonably argue with

2 spots left. Convince me

[RemoAZ]

Another would be Barry Bonds. Don’t kid yourself.

Definitely. Arguably the best player in MLB history that was a threat with his legs and bat deserves to be near the top imo. Although the 10 hopper that didn't get gimpy Bream at the plate is a stain.

[swissvale72]

Another would be Barry Bonds. Don’t kid yourself.

Definitely. Arguably the best player in MLB history that was a threat with his legs and bat deserves to be near the top imo. Although the 10 hopper that didn't get gimpy Bream at the plate is a stain.

What about Bonds' playoff performance with Bucs though?