Athletes Back then were Built Different
Taking a look at four elite athletes you may have or have not heard of.....
Since the first modern Olympics in 1896, the world has witnessed some incredible athletes. These are both Olympians and non-Olympians. In the world of hockey, we all know of the ‘Great One’, otherwise known as Wayne Gretzky. Now, we have Connor McDavid tearing up the ice and dropping jock straps, as well as panties, in Edmonton. In basketball, there was MJ, who was a savage on and off the court. Now, we have Lebron James, an absolute specimen. Regarding football, the NFL has seen the likes of Bo Jackson, Jerry Rice, Lawrence Taylor, Tom Brady, and many, many more absolute monsters. Baseball, you got Mickey Mantle, Jackie Robinson, Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, and the walking steroid, Barry Bonds. In women’s sport, athletes like Hailey Wickenheiser, Serena Williams, Sue Bird, Lisa Leslie, and Billie Jean King, absolutely dominate with accolades after accolades, achievement after achievement. These athletes are the ones we as North Americans can cite easily. There are exceptional athletes that are before our time and generations and outside of North America that can be labelled ‘fucking GOAT’. An important factor behind many of these athletes’ success is the fact that they at least one other sport growing up.
Tom Brady was drafted to the Montreal Expos. Wayne Gretzky is a well-known laxer. McDavid dabbled in sports outside of hockey prior to specializing. MJ played baseball. LeBron played football. While this is the case for a large majority of professional athletes (playing multiple sports growing up), there are some athletes that are simply on another level in terms of athletic ability. Many are dead or old as fuck. In this entry, we will look at those ones (The dead ones). (the picture is photoshopped, obviously, but it’s still cool)
Babe Didrikson Zaharias, otherwise known as BDZ, was a babe, for the early part of the 1900’s. An American athlete who excelled at every sport she tried from boxing, golf, track and field, swimming, diving, volleyball, cycling, basketball, and baseball (I probably missed a few). Too bad you just don’t become great at every sport. Mr. Didrikson made a barbell out of a broomstick and his kids went to town on the apparatus. Young Babe was always interested in sports and wanted to keep up with her brothers. BDZ’s weightlifting coupled with her competitive attitude and drive was a deadly combination. After hitting dinger after dinger in a baseball game, people knew the kid was an athlete. BDZ tore up the court in high school and then trained track and field in the off season. 1932, LA, Babe competed in the summer Olympics for Team USA’s track and field program, notching gold in the 80m hurdles, javelin, and then taking silver in the high jump (which should have been gold). Already have dabbled in golf and looking for a new challenge, Babe took up golf, absolutely striping the ball. Straight fucking winner, Didrikson won 82 golf tournaments. Turning amateur in the 40’s she continuously won tournaments and was the first American to win British Women’s Amateur golf tournament. With opportunities being limited for pro women’s golfer, Babe and Patty Berg co-founded the Ladies Professional Golf Association. 1950, Didrikson held the title of president until the day she died.
An entire paper can be dedicated to the greatness of BDZ. She broke through major barriers of discrimination as a woman in sport. An icon for female athletes everywhere. Babe showed that a woman can be an absolute stud of an athlete and might very well be the greatest female athlete of all time, one of the greatest multi-sport athletes of all time. While there is not much information on the other sports she played (outside of golf, basketball, and track), they all definitely had a hand in her successes. Babe had a few brothers, who probably liked sport and playing outside, as did she. All those unstructured hours of play, whatever it may have been contributed to her insane athleticism. The coordination, strength, balance, jumping, power, all associated with sport and playing multiple sports formed the perfect concoction of a killer on the track and the golf course (looking at the adult life). They don’t make them like they used to, just ask Jim Thorpe.
BDZ is regarded as the greatest female athlete of the first half of the century 20th century. Likewise, Jim Thorpe is regarded as the greatest male athlete of the first half of the century 20th century. Some view hunting as a sport, others a way of life. Regardless, hunting is physically and mentally taxing. As soon as Thorpe learned to walk, he was trapping, catching, and hunting, in unfavourable conditions. Already this gives him a leg up in conditioning and mental will. While Thorpe was on the smaller side, that did not stop him from hitting bombs on the baseball field. This aligns with Babe’s first well known athletic experience. While at school, as student of Carlisle, Thorpe sped along the track and leaped over hurdles. This resulted in the famous Pop Warner noticing the superb athletic abilities of Thorpe. Under Warner, Thorpe tore up the gridiron at Carlisle as a halfback, punter, kicker, and defender. Barely taking a breath from a stellar football career, Thorpe was named to the US Olympic team in 1912. There, he claimed the gold medal in the pentathlon, and then overwhelming the decathlon events. However, it was later discovered that Thorpe played semi-professional baseball, deeming him a pro athlete, losing his amateur status and Olympic status. Thorpe then leaned into being a pro athlete, playing six years in big league baseball for the Giants, Braves, and Reds. His baseball career overlapped with his pro football career playing and coaching several teams during 1916-1928. Thorpe played in the American Professional Football Association, later the National football league, for a team called the Oorang Indians, the Cleveland Indians, Rock Island Independents, New York Giants, and Chicago Cardinals. In addition, Thorpe excelled at hockey, lacrosse, and ball room dancing. Essentially, whatever he touched, he succeeded at.
Heading over across the pond, we examine Charlotte Dod, also known as Lottie. Dod was from a wealthy family and had multiple resources. At the age of nine, two tennis courts were built near her family’s property, and she went frequently. Excelling at the sport and winning tournament after tournament, she was deemed a first-class player after being paired with Ernest Renshaw, a seven time winner of Wimbledon doubles. Lottie could holder her own. At the grand age of 15, she became the youngest winner of the singles championship ladies division at Wimbledon in 1887. Being a tennis star was not good enough, so Lottie picked up some golf clubs. Helping establish a ladies’ golf club at Moreton, Dod paved the way for female golfers to play the sport. Juggling tennis, then continuously improving in golf, Lottie Dod would later become the British Golf champion. That is two sports Dod competed in and won a British Championship, and the only athlete to do so, thus far. Juggling another sport, Lottie, who was not afraid to try new things, took up field hockey, which at the time (late 1800’s) was new for women. Lottie Dod captained her county team and played for the country. Unfortunately, sciatica got the best of her, and would anyone else, and she had to hang up the field hockey stick. However, after moving, she found archery, which was probably easier on her back.
Jackie motherfucking Robinson is the final athlete we will be looking into. A four-star, four sport athlete in college and an All-Star in the big leagues, Jackie Robinson just oozed athleticism. As a young boy, he would shag fly balls and came to the realization that he was much faster than his peers, plus he was good at catching. Taking every opportunity he could to play, Jackie Robinson was always picked first at recess. While he was a kid and loved to be an athlete, he still had responsibilities. Robinson shined shoes, ran errands, sold newspapers, and hot dogs at the game to help at home. Once it was time to apply to college, Jackie started his collegiate career at community college, excelling in baseball, basketball, football, and track and field. Tearing up competition at community college for two years, Robinson made the move to UCLA, where he continued playing the same four sports. According to statistics, Robinson’s best sport was football, then track and field. If it were not for the Nazis in the 40’s, Jackie Robinson would likely have competed for Team USA’s track and field team in 1940 or 1944 or both. Despite what we know of Robinson’s MLB endeavours, his worst sport was baseball in college. Funny how things work, but it was the sport he loved most since he as a little boy. Playing in the Negro leagues around America, Branch Rickey, the President, and the GM of the Brooklyn Dodgers took notice. Rickey, wanting to integrate the league wanted Jackie Robinson to be the first black player in the league.
These men and women mentioned were not only athletic phenoms but broke barriers, altered perceptions, and trailblazed the future of sports. Never taking no for an answer, going left when told to go right, these men and women were fearless human beings. Not one of us can put ourselves in the shoes of Jackie Robinson being the first black baseball player in a white man’s world, in the most literal sense. Babe Didrikson and Lottie Dod were raised in a time where women playing sports was considered unnatural, that physically exerting yourself as a woman would risk your chances of having kids, upon other myths and lies the medical field told to curb female sport. Jim Thorpe faced racial prejudice as a Native American in the 1900’s. While competing in the Olympics someone stole his good shoes, so Thorpe found another pair of shoes in the trash, that were different sizes and destroyed competition in the pentathlon and decathlon. It took special human beings to make the world of sports what it is today, however, it looks like we still have some work.