The Greatest Athletes of the 20th Century - Part I Quiz

Answer: Harlem Globetrotters

Wilt Chamberlain played with the Harlem Globetrotters for a season after leaving the University of Kansas. He then joined the Philadelphia Warriors in 1959. He stayed with the Warriors when they moved to San Francisco in 1962, but he went back home to Philadelphia to play for the 76ers before being traded to Los Angeles in 1968. Arguably his greatest record of the many he holds occurred on March 21,1962 when he scored 100 points against the New York Knicks.

Answer: Wa-Tho-Huk

Jim Thorpe was a Native American member of the Sac and Fox Nation. His name was Wa-Tho-Huk, meaning Bright Path. Thorpe won the pentathlon and decathlon at the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden but was stripped of his gold medals because he had been paid to play semi-professional baseball in the Eastern Carolina League in 1909-10. Thorpe was an All-American football player.

He also played professionally for the Canton Bulldogs. He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a charter member in 1963. His Olympic medals were restored 70 years later, when replicas were presented by the IOC to two of his children (his original disqualification was invalid as it occurred outside the 30 day rule operating at that time).

Answer: Skeeter

She overcame having to wear a brace on her left leg and being told by her doctor that she'd never walk again, to become the first U.S. woman track and field athlete to win three gold medals at the same Olympics, 1960 in Rome. Wilma died of brain cancer in 1994.

Answer: One Night in Miami

"One Night in Miami" (2020) is a movie about the night of the heavyweight championship bout in Miami in 1964 when Mohammad Ali, Sam Cooke, Jim Brown and Malcolm X got together to celebrate Ali's title. They sat in Malcolm X's hotel room and ate ice cream.

Jim Brown has been called the greatest football player of all time, both professional and college. He led the NFL in rushing 6 out of 7 years from 1958 to 1965. He retired from football at age 30 to pursue an acting career. He appeared in over 30 films.

Answer: Bart Conner

Nadia Comaneci competed in the 1976 and 1980 Olympics as a member of the Romanian Gymnastics Team. She defected to the USA in 1989 and married gymnast Bart Conner in 1996. At the 1976 Olympics in Montreal Comaneci won 3 individual Gold Medals. Her routine on the uneven bars lasted only 19 seconds, but resulted in a perfect score of 10 (the scoreboard was not designed to reflect a perfect 10 so her score was displayed as 1.0).

At age 14 she became the first-ever Olympian to achieve a perfect score.

Answer: Gomer

Michael Phelps became the most-decorated Olympian ever. He won 28 medals, 23 of them were gold, in swimming events. He was the first U.S. male swimmer to be named to 5 Olympic teams. Phelps failed to win a medal at his first Olympics in 2000 at age 15. His teammates called him "Gomer". His other nickname is the "Baltimore Bullet".

Answer: Space Jam

Michael Jordan was arguably THE greatest basketball player of all time. He appeared in the movie "Space Jam" in 1996. He retired from the NBA three times; once after the murder of his father, once to pursue a career in baseball (his coach was Terry Franconia), and finally in 2003. There will never be another.

Answer: Torch Bearer

No list such as this would be complete without Ali, perhaps the greatest athlete of all time. He had the honor of bearing the torch to open the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. He retired from boxing in 1981.

He was born Cassius Clay in the segregated South. He converted to Islam in 1964. After being drafted, he refused to serve and was convicted of violating the Selective Service laws and sentenced to five years in prison. He remained free while appealing the conviction, but he was ineligible to fight until the U.S. Supreme Court overturned his conviction. But he lost five prime years of his boxing career. Still, he won 3 heavyweight championships.

Answer: Buckeye Bullet

Jesse Owens won 4 gold medals in track and field at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. Owens attended Ohio State University, was captain of the track team, was nicknamed the "Buckeye Bullet", but was unable to live in on-campus dorms because of his race. President Roosevelt never acknowledged his Olympic accomplishments.

Answer: The Great One

While a nickname like "The Great One" could apply to many tremendous athletes, it was how Gretzky is known. During his NHL career he broke more than 60 records. He began his NHL career with the Edmonton Oilers in 1979. He led them to Stanley Cups in 1984,1985,1987, and 1988. In the fall of 1988 he was inexplicably traded to the Los Angeles Kings. He retired in 1999.