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CURT FLOOD He was more successful on the field than he was in court, but when outfielder Curt Flood sued baseball in 1970 to win the right to sell his services to the highest bidder, he initiated a process that would destroy the feudal structure of pro sports. Flood lost his battle; his fellow players, in time, won the war. Those who do not thank him daily in their prayers should be ashamed of themselves.
JOHNNY UNITAS You could justify celebrating John Unitas for leading his Baltimore Colts to the 23-17 overtime victory over the New York Giants in the 1958 championship game, the one that turned out to be the NFL's coming-out party. Or you could cite the three MVP awards, the 10 Pro Bowl games, the unfathomable record of touchdown passes in 47 straight games (people come closer to Joe DiMaggio's streak than to this one: next best after Unitas is Dan Marino, with 30). But Unitas' influence--vast and beyond challenge--is this: he was the first modern quarterback in a sport that the quarterbacks have owned ever since.
BILLIE JEAN KING There were certainly better female athletes. In tennis alone, Martina Navratilova was her clear superior, and even at her peak she had a pretty hard time with Chris Evert and Margaret Court. Sheryl Swoopes is more dazzling, and Mia Hamm combines finesse and power in what may be a palimpsest for the New Athletic Woman. But before any of them, there was Billie Jean Moffitt King, 20 times a champion at Wimbledon, who changed the way we look at female athletes--and, more important, changed the way they look at one another. "She was a crusader fighting a battle for all of us," said Navratilova. "She was carrying the flag; it was all right to be a jock."
SECRETARIAT How can a horse be influential? If in 1973 you saw the big chestnut colt win the first Triple Crown in 25 years by 31 incomprehensible lengths, and if you realized that in appearance, style and disposition he was the Platonic ideal of the athlete, you wouldn't argue the point. His influence is this: Secretariat is the standard against which every other Thoroughbred must be measured.
MICHAEL JORDAN Will the gentlemen of the jury rise and state their verdict? Magic Johnson: "When you talk about beautiful basketball, the way Mr. Naismith drew it up to be played, you're talking about Michael Jordan." Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: "F. Scott Fitzgerald said the rich are not like the rest of us. Well, Michael's athletic skills are not like the rest of us." Charles Barkley: "The one player I'll accept losing to if I have to lose." Shaquille O'Neal: "I'll tell my grandchildren I got to play against him." Phil Jackson: "He represented our personal flight of fantasy about what great things an individual can do." Dominique Wilkins: "Can't nobody have done better."
THE MOST MEMORABLE MOMENTS IN SPORTS
1903 Boston beats Pittsburgh in first World Series, 5-3
1913 Jim Thorpe, winner of pentathlon and decathlon in 1912 Olympics, stripped of medals for having accepted $25 a week to play baseball
1919 Chicago White Sox throw the World Series
1924 Knute Rockne, Four Horseman lead 10-0-0 Notre Dame
1927 Sonja Henie of Norway wins the first of her 10 consecutive world figure-skating titles
1929 Bill Tilden wins the last of his seven U.S. Open tennis championships