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Big Ten Icons on BTN

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Ramzy at Bucknuts nails it.

On the morning of the 1935 Big Ten championships in Ann Arbor, Owens' injured tailbone was bothering him so much that he could not bend over far enough to touch his knees with his hands. A few hours later he broke three world records and tied a fourth in the same amount of time that it takes to play one half of football. He did not do this as a member of the Los Angeles Lakers or the Chicago Bears. He did it as an Ohio State University student while on the Buckeye track team.

It was an impossible accomplishment so absurd that it has been called the greatest 45 minutes in the history of sports. Owens' afternoon - as a college amateur - has been called the single greatest achievement in sports during the 20th century. In all, Owens left Ohio State having won eight individual NCAA titles. Had ESPN existed back then, it might have given Owens the same kind of promotional handling it currently gives the UConn women?s basketball team. Note: Might.

James Cleveland Owens (yes, he was more Ohio than you will ever be) competed in Hitler's Olympics in Berlin in 1936 just weeks after collecting that eighth NCAA title, where he took home four gold medals and received the greatest ovation of his career as the Fuhrer watched him beat the Reich's best in person. The only conceivable knock against Owens is that he never won USA Track & Field's highest honor, which is only because it wasn't created until 1981 following his death and is named after him.

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Good article, but wasn't Jack listed at #18 on BTN's list?


It definitely looks as though Illinois? Red Grange and Michigan State?s Magic Johnson are the two athletes ranked higher by BTN than Owens. Back during ESPN?s excellent Sports Century series, Owens was ranked the fifth best North American athlete of the 1900s out of a pool that included Grange, Magic, Nicklaus and everyone else, Big Ten or otherwise. Nicklaus, who is sixth on the Big Ten Icons list, was ninth with ESPN; Magic was 17th and Grange was 28th. It always feels unclean to side with ESPN on issues of subjectivity, but the Worldwide Leader was clearly able to figure out the obvious.
 
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stkoran;1874021; said:
http://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/spoiler-alert-big-ten-icons-top-4

Grange #1, Magic #2.
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Some pretty reasonable discussions on that forum, actually. But then there are these:

Owens and Grange, definitely top 5 material. Magic and Archie? Not so much. Definitely top 20, and maybe top 10, but at the very least Harmon should be ahead of those two.
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But I'm a little upset Woodson wasn't in the top 10. I don't think people truly understand that he is the ONLY player in college football history to win the heisman trophy on the defensive side of the ball.
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How is Fielding Yost not in the top 10? Was he even included in the countdown? The guy was humble and that is why no one outside of Michigan really knows about him.
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Oh well, I guess each fan base has its own perspective, ours included.
 
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I think it can be difficult to rank athletes from different sports on the same list. However, when getting to the very top of the list, I believe that each of the top 3 athletes should at least be in the argument for the greatest ever in his own collegiate sport, remembering the BTN's premise that supposedly "no consideration was given" to accomplishments after each athlete left college.

Can Red Grange be considered to be the greatest college football player of all time? Perhaps he could be (ESPN named him that a couple of years ago). So at least Red Grange is in the discussion in his sport.

Can Archie Griffin be considered to be the greatest college football player of all time? His unique accomplishment of being the only 2-time Heisman winner at least places him in the discussion.

Can Jesse Owens be considered to be the greatest collegiate track-and-field athlete? The one day in Ann Arbor setting 3 world records and tying a fourth may be the most impressive performance an athlete has ever had in a single day - it included a long jump world record that lasted over 25 years. And the record 8 NCAA individual track-and-field championships, including a world record in the 100 meters which stood for over 20 years, should probably clinch it.

But can Magic Johnson be seriously considered in the discussion of who is the greatest collegiate basketball player ever? He never won the Naismith or the Wooden Award, and he was a consensus first-team All-American for only 1 year. His teams won the title once, had 11 losses over two seasons, and made the Final Four once. His individual accomplishments as a Michigan State basketball player were very good, but virtually the same as what Isiah Thomas did at Indiana (2 years, 2 Big Ten Titles, 1 Final Four MOP, 1 NCAA Title), although Magic won 1 Big Ten POY while Isiah didn't win that award.

But serious followers of basketball don't consider Magic a contender for the greatest college basketball player of all time. He's not in the same ballpark as Lew Alcindor (now Kareem Abdul-Jabaar), Bill Russell, Oscar Robertson, and Bill Walton in terms of their collegiate careers.

And the list of 5 players that SI named in November, 1999 as their all-century college basketball team? They were Lew Alcindor, Oscar Robertson, Bill Bradley, David Thompson, and Jerry Lucas.

Magic should not be considered to be the greatest icon in Big Ten basketball history. Here's a comparison of Magic Johnson and Jerry Lucas during their college careers:

Category....Jerry Lucas...Magic Johnson
NCAA Titles......1.............1
Final Fours......3.............1
Final Four MOP...2.............1
National POY.....2.*...........0
Olympic Golds....1.#...........0 (during college)
Big Ten POY......3.............1
First Team AA....3.............1

* - It should be noted that the Associated Press POY award started in 1961. And the Wooden and Naismith Awards both started after 1962, but before 1977, when Magic's career began.

# - Lucas was tied with Oscar Robertson as the USA's leading scorer during the 8 games at the 1960 Rome Olympics

So by naming Magic Johnson as the #2 icon in the league's athletic history, the BTN has done a disservice to itself, to the Big Ten Conference, and to Jerry Lucas. It really needs to be more aware of history when deciding to present something like this.
 
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Silverman's blames the ages of the guys on the committee in a call with Mr. Ed from the O-Zone

The panel that voted on the "Icons" was a panel of 12 people who work at the Big Ten Network. Silverman, who is probably in his 50s, was on the panel and on his ballot he had Owens the top icon.

When I asked him what the average age of the rest of the panelist was, he said most were in their 30s, which probably explains a lot. They have no perspective on how important Track and Field was in the 30s. It was the premier sport at that time, and Jesse Owens was the most important figure in the most important sport. I think younger people have a tough time relating to that. In their living memory, it is basketball and football, with baseball third. Back then it was Track and Field, with baseball second.

Bottom line, the problem is probably with how their voting panel was assembled. I don't believe there was any agenda in the voting (pro one school or anti another) or anything like that, but there was a lack of historical perspective due to the youth of the panel.
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I find it very hard to believe that a person in their 30s or early 40s would not know the accomplishments of Owens, Griffin, Red Grange, Johnson, and most of the other athletes who were in the top 10. If they did not know the accomplishments, they should not have been on the committee who voted for these guys.
 
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LitlBuck;1874529; said:
I find it very hard to believe that a person in their 30s or early 40s would not know the accomplishments of Owens, Griffin, Red Grange, Johnson, and most of the other athletes who were in the top 10. If they did not know the accomplishments, they should not have been on the committee who voted for these guys.
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agree...this is a lame excuse...admitting that the committee was a collection of idiots would of been way better
 
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An explanation of how the voting was done.

Ozone

Big Ten Icons Riles Buckeye State
By John Porentas
...

"We used a lot of input to get the twenty," said Silverman.

"When we got down to final group (of 20), we had a group of 12 to 14 people who are our production and programming people, and some key execs at the network who voted on the ranking.

"We literally did a balloting with a 5-4-3-2-1 point system and we just kind of totaled it up," Silverman said.

It's not likely that anyone would have a problem with the method, so why did the result end up creating such a flap? The answer probably lies in something the television industry loves to talk about, the demographics of the group. In this case, the demographics of the voting group that are probably the most important are age and education.

The voting group consisted not of sports historians, long-time sports journalists, or successful people from the world of sport, but rather television people, and they have their own slant, their own way of seeing things.

Further, it was a pretty young group as well.

"We had a nice cross-section in there. There were a couple of guys in their 20s, a bunch in their 30s, and a few us in the 40s," said Silverman.

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LitlBuck;1874529; said:
Silverman's blames the ages of the guys on the committee in a call with Mr. Ed from the O-Zone



I find it very hard to believe that a person in their 30s or early 40s would not know the accomplishments of Owens, Griffin, Red Grange, Johnson, and most of the other athletes who were in the top 10. If they did not know the accomplishments, they should not have been on the committee who voted for these guys.
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y0yoyoin;1874538; said:
agree...this is a lame excuse...admitting that the committee was a collection of idiots would of been way better
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And if they don't, sorry to ask the obvious question...but why in the blue fuck are these historically-challenged fucktards allowed to even vote in the fucking thing? Put these bonelickers out there to vote on an all-college football team of all time, and every player would be from Miami, because you know football started in 1983 :shake:
 
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