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Mike Reynolds
Mario Lemieux (No. 55) didn't make it. Neither did Rocky Marciano (51), Pete Rose (56) or Dan Marino (75). But Chris Evert did.
Tennis' "Ice Princess" was tabbed as the 50th of ESPN SportsCentury's 50 Greatest Athletes series, which will count down the best and brightest in North American sports over the past 100 years as voted by a distinguished panel of 48 journalists, historians and administrators. This group was asked to gauge the players solely on their athletic ability.
In addition to the Greatest Athletes component, SportsCentury, the multi-million dollar effort that represents ESPN's most extensive documentary initiative in its history, will examine the greatest games, coaches, dynasties and most influential people in sports during the 1900s. The project actually kicked off last September with Classic Moments, multiple daily vignettes on "This Day in Sports" that have been interspersed throughout SportsCenter and other ESPN news programming.
All told, more than 1,000 in-depth interviews were taped, 50,000 photos collected and more than 100,000 headlines and artifacts scanned in producing the more than 60 hours of SportsCentury programming.
Needless to say, the compilation of lists of this nature are bound to provoke great debate among sports enthusiasts. "For those who enjoy sports, some of the most enjoyable elements are the discussion and camaraderie surrounding the debates about who is the best," said ESPN president George Bodenheimer at a press conference in New York last week, formally introducing SportsCentury.
Earlier, SportsCenter anchor Dan Patrick, who will host all of the 50 Greatest Athlete segments, said this project enabled "all of us to not only relive our childhoods, but our fathers' childhoods in trying to answer the question of who's better? Jim Brown or Barry Sanders. Muhammad Ali or Joe Louis."
The series of half-hour features on the top athletes starts Jan. 22 at 10:30 p.m. with a look at Evert's life, accomplishments and cultural impact, and will continue each Friday through the end of November. Members of the list will be announced the previous Sunday night on SportsCenter. ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN Classic will repeat the shows regularly. Each segment will contain excerpts from interviews with more than 30 different individuals about the featured athlete.
Come December, ESPN will reach the top 10 athletes at which point it will present two original shows per week, culminating in a final program-on Nos. 1 and 2-that will air on ABC Dec. 26, before being repeated on the total sports network.
Among those included among the top 50 are football's Jim Brown, Olympians Mark Spitz and Carl Lewis and hockey's Gordie Howe, all of whom attended the press conference heralding the rollout of SportsCentury. Evert joined the confab via satellite and conversation with Patrick, who will host all top 50 greatest athlete programs. (It says here Muhammad Ali, Babe Ruth and that recent retiree, one Michael Jordan, will be the top three.)
There will also be a celebrity element to the project as actor Danny Glover (1900-49), author David Halberstam (Fifties), actor Peter Fonda (Sixties), music and TV impressario Dick Clark (Seventies) and actor/comedian Billy Crystal (Nineties) will serve as special guest commentators for the respective SportsCenter of the Decade shows. (The Eighties guest commentator had not been announced at press time.)
These two-hour programs, bowing Jan. 22 at 8:30 p.m., will air every two months and be presented as if SportsCenter were covering the events as they unfolded during those periods. To that end, the 1900-49 show features notable broadcasters Dick Schaap, Jim McKay, Curt Gowdy and Jack Whitaker and New York Times columnist Dave Anderson discussing the sports of the day in an old newsroom setting, framed in black and white footage. SportsCenter anchors will be paired on these shows, sporting the garb and coif of the decade.
As for themed shows, broadcast brethren ABC will get first crack at the programs before they migrate to ESPN. The Greatest Games of The Century, hosted by Al Michaels, will look at the top 10 games as voted on by the panel, on April 14 at 4-6 p.m.(ET), while The Greatest Coaches of the Century examines the "magnificent seven" leaders from 2-4 p.m. (ET) May 15. The other themed shows, The Most Influential Individuals in Sports (10 will be described) and The Greatest Dynasties, will premiere for 90 minutes on ABC May 23 and June 5, respectively.
ESPN will also take SportsCentury into quarterly newspaper supplements in the top 10 markets, into a special ESPN Magazine commemorative issue, onto ESPN Radio and ESPN. com. Hyperion Books will release a SportsCentury coffee table later this year, featuring photos and essays. In addition, there will be a 30-city SportsCentury mall tour, starting in Miami near the Super Bowl later this month.
Not surprisingly, there is no shortage of marketing activities with links to this project. General Motors is the presenting sponsor of SportsCentury, while Nike, Burger King, Anheuser-Busch, Wheaties and MasterCard, are among the others tying into its various components.
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