Who Are the Greatest Athletes?

Twenty Famous American Sport Writers Contribute to a Novel Athletic Symposium

GRANTLAND RICE

IT is easy enough to walk into a stately laurel grove and clip sprigs enough to make an inexhaustible supply of laurel wreaths. But when it comes to segregating and selecting the noble brows that deserve these wreaths, the assignment becomes an extremely difficult one. You can take any sport you care to name and, in less than three minutes, start an argument that will lift the lid off high heaven with a flow of burning and contradictory words. The confusion at times becomes overpowering, for printed records frequently come rushing forward in order to drive mere opinions into the background.

For example, it is the writer's belief that Bobby Jones is the best amateur golfer this country has ever produced. Bobby Jones is now Open Champion. Yet Jerome D. Travers won four amateur championships and one open title. What other American amateur can match that mark?

Vanity Fair has persuaded a list of twenty American sport writers, all keen observers and on top of their job, to render their verdicts as to those athletes who will rest upon the Seats of the Mightiest: the men who have achieved the greatest skill and glory in their chosen sports.

The list of sport-writers who have contributed to this composite box-score includes Hugh Fullerton, Ring Lardner, Christy Mathewson, Linde Fowler, Lawrence Perry, George Daley, Walter Trumbull, Patterson McNutt, Fred Hawthorne, Frank Blunk, of the Associated Press; Henry Farrell, sporting editor of the United Press; Thomas Cummiskey, sporting editor of Universal Service; Grantland Rice, Davis Walsh, the major domo of sports for the International News Service; W. O. McGeehan, Bozeman Bulger, Wood Cowan, sport cartoonist; Hype Igoe, O'Neill Sevier, and O. B. Keeler.

Here Are the Leaders

HE differences in the views of these twenty sport writers are often marked, for the simple reason that, in many instances, there is practically no difference in skill to be found among the five or six leading candidates in the sport.

Take the backfield stars of football, for instance. Here we have Jim Thorpe, Ned Mahan, Willie Heston, Ted Coy, and George Gipp, so well matched in brilliancy that one might easily meet any of the others on equal terms. In naming the great football ends, the list of marvels must include Frank Hinkey, Tom Shevlin, Tack Hardwick, Johnny Kilpatrick, Campbell of Harvard, and Snow of Michigan. A perfect registering machine would find so little difference between them all that any two might serve as well as any other pair.

The verdicts of the symposium judges are not only interesting, but extremely fair. They have made, in every sport, the strongest sort of case for all the really deserving candidates.

Suppose we consider only the leaders who have received an almost unanimous approval from the judges; only those men who were voted so many votes that there seems to be no doubt as to their supreme leadership.

Here is an interesting summary of votes for the greatest athletes of our time.

Bear in mind that this selection of the great ones is the result of a vote by twenty of the best informed authorities in America. No English or European judges were asked to compete in this symposium. As a matter of fact, every fair minded judge, whether American, English, or European, would probably award the supreme laurel to Mile. Lenglen, in tennis.

FOOTBALL, Jim Thorpe

BASEBALL

Christy Mathewson, pitcher; Hans Wagner, infielder; Tris Speaker, outfielder; Babe Ruth, home run batter; Ty Cobb, batter; George Sisler, college baseball.

GOLF

Bobby Jones and Chick Evans, amateurs; Walter Hagen and GeneSarazen, professionals; Glenna Collett and Alexa Stirling, women stars.

RACING, Man o' War

TENNIS

William T. Tilden, II; Suzanne Lenglen.

COURT TENNIS, Jay Gould

POLO, Devereux Milburn

HOCKEY, Hobey Baker

BOXING

Jack Dempsey, heavyweight; Stanley Ketchell, middleweight; Joe Gans, lightweight.

ALL-AROUND ATHLETE, Jim Thorpe

SPRINTER, Charles Paddock

SWIMMING

Johnny Weismuller, for the men; Gertrude Ederle, for the women.

MARATHON RUNNER, Hannes Kohlemainen

Every name on this list is known from one end of the land to the other, and most of them are known ground the world.

They are either super-stars in competitions, with victorious careers to show upon the chart, or they are record holders of proven worth where figures stand unchallenged.

The All-Around Star

WHY, for example, some one might ask, should Jim Thorpe be named as the greatest all-around athlete this country has ever produced ?

Thorpe, as a football player, was a great running back, a line breaker, and a broken field star. He was a great kicker in every department, a fine passer and receiver, a fine interferer and a star tackier. There was nothing in football that Thorpe could not do brilliantly, and with all this he was as durable as steel.

In track and field athletics, Thorpe was a sprinter, a jumper, a weight thrower, a javelin tosser; in fact, he was great enough to win the all-around championship in the Olympic games.

In baseball, Thorpe was good enough to make the big leagues, being a member of the Giants for several seasons. He was a great basketball player and a fine shot—one of those rare types who can become proficient at almost any game on short notice. Thorpe was wonderfully built, lean, powerful, fast of foot, mentally and physically alert. His reactions were instantaneous. Thought and deed traveled together. Around six feet in height, weighing 190 pounds, he might have been carved out of steel.

His selection as the greatest of all-around stars should be made unanimous.

In baseball, a greater doubt arises. Among the pitchers, one might name Christy Mathewson or Walter Johnson, as most of the judges did. What, then, about Cy Young, who, through twenty-two years of big league service, won over 500 games, a hundred or so more victories than Mathewson or Johnson ever reached?

Mathewson, one of the greatest figures baseball has ever known, still had the advantage over Walter Johnson of being most of the time with a winning team, while his rival was serving with second division outfits which often forced him to pitch shut-outs in order to win. Mathewson came to his greatest fame in 1905, when he shut out the Philadelphia Athletics in three World Series'starts. Johnson, still pitching fine ball after sixteen years in service, has never drawn the chance for World Series fame. The great pitching names of history must include Cy Young, Hoss Radbourne, Amos Rusie, Rube Waddell, Christy Mathewson, Walter Johnson, and Ed Walsh. Theirs is the glory that will endure.

Wagner, Ruth, Cobb, and Others

NAMING the greatest all-time infielder is much simpler. Hans Wagner knew twenty one years of brilliant service, when he was not only a hustling, sensational short-stop but, in addition, one of the greatest batsmen in the game. His big hands were like buckets waiting for fly or ground balls, and any blow that got by him was a real hit, leaving a trail of smoke behind. He led his league at bat eight seasons, four of these being in consecutive years.

Eddie Collins, Napoleon Lajoie, Johnny Evers, and others all reached lofty heights, but none ever quite came up to the dizzy pinnacle held by the Flying Dutchman from Pittsburgh. He was the ultimate word of all infielders, the zenith entry of the super-men.

Almost the same glory belongs to Tris Speaker among the outfielders. But the batting argument assumes a more baffling complexion.

Who is the greatest hitter? The late Pop Anson batted over .300 for the greater part of twenty-two years. He was a marvel.

The brilliant and scientific Willie Keeler finished with a grand average around .368.

Napoleon Lajoie batted over .340 for twenty-one years, a marvelous showing. But the main debate comes down to Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb.

And here there should be a distinct division. Ruth is supreme among the sluggers, among the range finders, among the extra base leaders. But Cobb leads the parade for straightaway hitting, for establishing figures that may never be challenged. Cobb led his league nine years in succession. He led his league twelve out of thirteen consecutive years. He has averaged over .370 for eighteen seasons, and these are all records that no other ball player has even approached, and may never approach in time to come.

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Ruth and Cobb lead, but in different fields of batting glory. Ruth is the home-run king for all time; Cobb has already made more base hits than any other ball player in history, and lie is still on his way to another crop.

Golfing Prodigies

Y^THEN it comes to electing the * greatest golfer, form collides with records, as it so often does. Bobby Jones has no amateur equal when it comes to the art of hitting the ball with every club. He is the United States Open Golf champion, though an amateur, and is beyond doubt one of the greatest golfers living. As evidence witness the records for the last four open championships—all that he hns played in. Against the world's best golfers, both amateur and professional, he led all competitors by a margin of fourteen strokes, his total being 1187 for 288 holes against 1201 for Jim Barnes and Walter Hagen, 1208 for Jock Hutchison, and 1220 for Gene Sarazen. Jones qualified for the National amateur championship at the age of fourteen and won his first two matches at that time. This was at the Merion Cricket Club of Philadelphia, in 1916. Chick Evans isn't far away. Yet Jerome D. Travers, with four amateur championships and one open, represents the stark outline of results, as opposed to opinions. Travers, Evans, and Ouimet have won both amateur and open championships. Travers has won four amateur titles, Travis has won three, Evans two, and Ouimet one. Travers was not the master of wood and iron that Jones is, or that Evans is. But he had, beyond all rivalry, a greater combination of concentration and determination and putting skill.

Hagen and Sarazen are the great golfing professionals of the day, but neither has yet equalled J. J. McDermott's record of tying for an Open championship of 1910 and then winning in 1911 and 1912. That three year march remains the top mark of American play.

About Jay Gould at court tennis and Devereux Milburn at polo, there can be but little argument. Their greatness was not conspicuous only in one or two seasons, for both of them are still among the elect after twelve or fifteen years of stardom.

"Hobey" Baker was one of Princeton's athletic heroes, along with Johnny Poe, Big Bill Edwards, Snake Ames, and many others. He was a star halfback on the football team, and was rated the greatest hockey player ever developed in this country. As a lieutenant in the American Air Forces, he lost his life while flying in France during the World war.

The tennis argument might bring on additional oratory. Tilden is the greatest of the day; probably of all time. But who can pick from Norman Brookes, Lawrence Doherty, Tony Wilding, Maurice McLoughlin, W. A. Larned, or William M. Johnston any one man, and place him above the others? Fred Alexander, one of the keenest of the veteran students, once named Laurie Doherty as the greatest of all time. Possibly he was. But we have never seen any one quite up to Tilden at liis best.

Suzanne Lenglen is the ranking woman tennis player of the world. She has won the world's championship at Wimbledon for the past four years, and also the doubles title. Her onlyreversal in a singles match since the revival of the game following the war was when she defaulted to Mrs. Molla Mallory at Forest Hills, in 1922, in the U. S. championship. She first began to attract attention in Europe, as far back as 1912.

Dempsey is proclaimed the greatest heavyweight. That is natural. The present champion is always greatest. Yet it is also fair. No other heavyweight champion has combined so much of speed, power, and durability, so much of the aggressive attacking instinct. Dempsey is the marvel of the game—not only a powerful hitter, but also a boxer w-ho is lightning fast of hand and foot; a boxer who is almost immune to punishment. He should be rated the greatest, when the list is summed up.

All Johnny Weismuller has to do is to point to the records when swimming is mentioned, and the same is true of Gertrude Ederle. They hold the crowns and the records. What is there more to demand?

Their records are interesting:

Weismuller, the world's greatest swimmer at distances from 100 to 880 yards, holds the following records:

100 yards; 100 meters; 150 yards; 200 meters; 220 yards; 300 yards;

300 meters; 400 meters; 440 yards; 500 yards; 500 meters. He also holds the backstroke records for 100 and 150 yards, and has tied the 100 meter record at this style of swrimming.

Miss Ederle holds the following records:

100 yards; 100 meters; 150 yards; 200 meters; 220 yards; 300 yards;

400 meters; 440 yards; 500 yards;

500 meters; 880 yards.

She first began to attract attention about three years ago, and is rated the best woman swdmmer of all time by most critics. '

Yorke and Crockett

1Y/TEMORIES of more than one war are revived when it is seen that Alvin Yorke and Davy Crockett are, respectively, the first and second choice for the best rifle shot. Another rather unexpected choice is that of one "Casey" Jones as the best of the army flyers. On the new-s received here during the war, Eddie Rickenbacker would seem to be the logical choice, but investigation reveals that Jones, once a fighting member of the Guynemer squadron, was considered to be the crack airman of the A. E. F. He w-as so valuable an aviator, in fact, that the army authorities decided in time he was too precious to risk over the battle lines. Much against his will, he w-as forced to spend most of his time in France, as an instructor of cadets at Issoudun.

In some cases, there were ties for first place .position. "Pudge" Heffelfinger and "Big Bill' Edwards received seven votes each for the greatest line men of all time; "Tack" Hardwick and Tom Shevlin w-ere tied with six votes each as the second best ends. Helen Wills and Mrs. Molla Mallory received five votes each as runners up to Mile. Lenglen

The selection of college outfielders reveals .that Dave Fultz is the only selection. There w-as no second choice by any of the critics.

There is only one sportsman who runs the gamut of this critical opinion without receiving a single antagonistic blow. That one is Jay Gould, the brilliant star of court tennis. Sixteen of the twenty voting nominate Gould for first place, the others not voting. There is a suspicion, however, that this unanimity of opinion may be due to the fact that court tennis is not one of the most popular public sports, a sport the chief exponents of which are not generally known even to men whose business is to follow every line of sport. Fred Hawthorne, tennis writer for the New York Tribune, is quite frank in confessing his ignorance in the matter, when, after selecting Gould for first place, he writes in the space reserved for the second choice: "Didn't know there was another." Thomas Cummiskey is the only one to give a second choice. Mr. Cummiskey selects Frank Kinsella as the runner-up to Gould, and so Mr. Kinsella wins second place.

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Tilden and Weismuller

THERE are only two other overwhelming favourites, William T. Tilden and Johnny Weismuller. Tilden registers almost a perfect score, with 19 of the 20 critics voting him the greatest of all tennis players. Walter Trumbull, of the New York Herald, is mean enough and sufficiently opinionated to spoil Tilden's bid for a perfect average by selecting Norman Brookes, the Australian, for first place.

If 10 votes constitute a par figure, then only 17 of the 44 selections go above par in the voting. These athletes include Jim Thorpe, Christy Mathewson, Tris Speaker, "Babe" Ruth, George Sisler, Honus Wagner, Walter Hagen, William T. Tilden, Jay Gould, Devereux Milburn, Hobey Baker, Joe Cans, Frank Gotch, Johnny Weismuller, Gertrude Ederle. Charles Paddock, and Hannes Kohlemainen.

No sport writer contributing to the symposium caused more trouble, to the managers of it than Ring W. Lardner. The candidates on his original list were as follows:

The greatest football back, Schumann-Heink; greatest line man, Willie Collier; football captain, Captain Kidd; pitcher, The Birth of a Nation; infielder, Red Mike Hylan; outfielder, Emile Coue; batter, A. G. Spalding & Bros.; golfer, Jack Hazzard; woman golfer, Marie Dressier; race horse, Bud Fisher; race horse (over six furlongs), Old Dobbin; tennis phver, Franklin P. Adams; woman tennis player, Peggy Plopkins; polo player, Heywood Broun; hockey player, Herbert Swope; rifle shot, Gyp the Blood; heavyweight fighter, Ernest Trucx; billiard player, Paul Whiteman's Band; automobile driver, Gimbel Brothers; oarsman, Irvin S. Cobb; army flyer, Grover Bcrgdoll; all-round athlete, Ed Wynn; sprinter, Bill Edwards; hurdler Fontaine Fox; marathon runner, W. J. Bryan.

Mr. Lardner was, however, finally persuaded to give more profound attention to the controversy, and sent us a serious, illuminating, and most helpful list of candidates.

The Editors are grateful to Mr. Patterson McNutt for his invaluable assistance in comparing lists, compiling averages, and in otherwise collaborating in the editorial supervision of this interesting feature.