OT Best Athlete to come out of Western PA?

[recruitsreadtheseboards]

Re: Brian Davis

Originally posted by daminals76:

Originally posted by daminals76:
Brian Davis going away... Nobody else is even close.

Brian Davis over Dick Groat? Are you stupid?

Davis was the best ever to come out of PA.

Its not even close.

Really? What major league sports did he play? We are not talking "potential" here. We are talking "best". You are getting this confused. Brian Davis did NOTHING with those talents.

Lol all your little rules are ridiculous... Davis easily was the best ever to come out of PA.
Its not even an argument...

You are not putting up any defense or argument for Brian Davis. How was he "easily" the best ever? How is it even not an argument?

Well? You can't. So you are wrong.

 

[TempleBAPittMPA]

Re: Brian Davis


I didn't immediately think of Groat, but once he was mentioned, I was convinced. However, I just remembered having read that Olympic decathlon gold medalist Bob Mathias attended Kiski Prep for a year between graduating high school and enrolling at Stanford. At Stanford, he also played football and basketball. Does he meet the "out of Western Pennsylvania" qualification? (How he ended up at Kiski I have no idea, given that he was a California native and returned to that state for college.)

 

[briano25]

The answer is Groat and it's not even close. Excelled at both sports.

 

[vietvet1]

Willy Joe Namath. Had an offer of 50 grand out of high school with the Cubs. He batted over 600 at Beaver Falls he led his high School team to basketball championships. Was QB of a national title team at Bama. QB'd the famous NFL Championship game against the Baltimore Colts who were Quaterbacked by the great Pittburgher Johny Unitis, his idol. I think he deserves respect and consideration.

 

[Drax1975]

Joe Willy would be a good choice for sure. But I'll put my money on the Legend, Dave Alston of Midland. Not too many people have been mentioned in the same breath as Jim Thorpe as was Mr. Alston, A pre season soph All American before his untimely death.

 

[SteelManiac55]

Arnold Palmer definitely deserves more consideration. He was transcendent in his sport, an all-time legend.

 

[ameoba defense]

Groat is the most accomplished athlete in more than one sport.
If you go national, Jim Brown has to be a candidate for the top spot. He is on the short list for greatest football player ever, and is also on the short list for the greatest ever in lacrosse.

 

[Las Panteras]

Originally posted by ameoba defense:
Groat is the most accomplished athlete in more than one sport.
If you go national, Jim Brown has to be a candidate for the top spot. He is on the short list for greatest football player ever, and is also on the short list for the greatest ever in lacrosse.

Bo Jackson

 

[Pghfan]

Originally posted by Las Panteras:

Originally posted by ameoba defense:
Groat is the most accomplished athlete in more than one sport.
If you go national, Jim Brown has to be a candidate for the top spot. He is on the short list for greatest football player ever, and is also on the short list for the greatest ever in lacrosse.

Bo Jackson

Not sure when this went from Western PA to global but yeah, if we are talking about anywhere then Bo hands down..

 

[HonestPitt]

So there is Bo Jackson and WPA has Dick Groat....lol. Are you guys aying Dick Groat with a bulge in your throat?

This post was edited on 4/5 6:59 PM by HonestPitt

 

[mike412]

No one has mentioned Mike Ditka. I believe he lettered in four sports at Aliquippa and starred in three of them -- football, basketball and baseball. Not only was he an All-American football player at PITT, but he also played basketball. I am not sure of this, but he might have played baseball too for one year. Groat certainly wins for the best athlete who played two sports professionally. I never saw him play basketball but I did see him play baseball. I guess it is hard to think of him as a great athlete because he already was balding when he came up to the Pirates. But he proved himself by what he actually accomplished and not by unfulfilled potential which is what some of the athletes mentioned here had. BrianDavis might have had great potential but a knee injury ended any chance for him to prove it. You can say Major Harris could have been a great college basketball player, but he wasn't.

I saw Cary Kolat wrestle, and he was a great one. But I don't think he starred in any other sport. With the exception of Hasselrig, I can't think of another college wrestler who excelled at another sport at the college and pro level.

The specialization of sports today would make it impossible for a lot of today's athletes to do what Ditka did. He couldn't have played baseball at Pitt and competed in Spring practice for the football team, not to mention the offseason workout regimen. And the length of college football and basketball seasons makes it hard to play both sports except for the kind of token appearances Donovan McNabb made at Syracuse. In the 1950s when Ditka attended PITT and when I went to Pitt in the 1960s, it was still possible to play two or three sports. I can remember a number of guys who played both football and basketball or basketball and baseball. Then there was George "Doc" Medich, who managed to play all three: a starting TE in FB, a reserve forward in basketball and a star pitcher in baseball who ended up having a very successful 11-year career in MLB, which he combined with attending medical school. Like Ditka, Doc was from Aliquippa, although he attended Hopewell I believe. I think he has to be in the mix as one of the best all-around athletes from the WPIAL, notwithstanding the fact that his image was tarnished when he was accused of unlawfully dispensing prescription drugs and lost his medical license.