Each year millions of children take to America’s athletic fields and gyms with visions of becoming the next Michael Phelps, Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods or Serena Williams.

By the time they reach their teens, many are still good enough to compete interscholastically. Fewer advance to compete at the collegiate level, and even less survive to play at a professional level, even if only in the minor leagues. Those athletes who get to put on a uniform at Yankee Stadium, Lambeau Field, Boston Garden or an Olympic venue are a gifted few indeed. Yet, every decade or two, an anomaly comes along, an athlete good enough to play more than one sport at the highest level.

Here’s a list of the Greatest Multi-Sport Athletes of all time.
Ed. Note: The author, Frank Pace, ranks the first three athletes. The subsequent nine are in alphabetical order.

#1 Jim Thorpe: Voted the Top Athlete of the First 50 years of the 20th century by the Associated Press in 1950, Thorpe may be the greatest athlete in American history. Consider the facts. In the 1912 Olympics, Thorpe won two Gold Medals, finished fourth in the high jump and seventh in the long jump. As a college football player and two-time All-American, he played offense, defense, and was the place kicker and punter for the Carlisle Indians, while leading the team to an 11-1 record and a National Championship in the same year he won his twin Olympic Golds. Thorpe went on to play eight years in the NFL, and was named All-Pro in 1923 as a member on the Green Bay Packers. In his spare time, Thorpe played major league baseball for six seasons, with his finest year in 1927 when he hit .327 for the Boston Braves. Jim Thorpe is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame, The Pro Football Hall of Fame and the Track & Field Hall of Fame.

#2 Bo Jackson: Vincent “Bo” Jackson was the first athlete to make an All-Star Team in two professional sports. A 1985 Heisman Trophy winner and two sport star at Auburn, the Tampa Bay Buccaneer’s told Bo he couldn’t play two sports and insisted that he had to make a choice – baseball or football. The Buc’s gamble failed when Jackson chose baseball and signed with the Kansas City Royals. Once there, Bo made his MLB debut on September 2, 1986, eventually earning MVP honors in the 1989 All Star game. One year later, with Jackson no longer the property of Tampa Bay, Al Davis (still of sound mind) signed Jackson to a part-time contract, which allowed the running back to join the Raiders during the mid-season after he had concluded his baseball obligations. Jackson’s 1986 Brian Bosworth bowling over performance, against the Seattle Seahawks – when he rushed for 221 yards – became one of the seminal games in Monday Night Football history. Jackson was on his way to a Hall of Fame football career when a hip injury and subsequent hip replacement surgery brought a premature end to both his baseball and football careers. His famous “Bo Knows” commercials for Nike further established Jackson as a cultural icon.

#3 Jim Brown: Football legend is widely considered the Greatest Running Back of All Time. This past April, Brown was named the # 1 Player in NFL history by The Sporting News. Named All Pro in each of the nine seasons he played, Brown retired holding just about every NFL offensive record, some of which still stand. He finished his career with 12,312 rushing yards, 126 touchdowns and an average 5.2 yards per carry. He is the only player in NFL history to finish his career averaging more than100 yards gained per game played. Brown was an All-American at Syracuse in football and lacrosse. He is considered by many to be the Greatest Lacrosse player the US has ever produced. Jim Brown is a member of The Lacrosse Hall of Fame, and both the College and Professional Football Halls of Fame.

THE HONOR ROLL:

Danny Ainge: In 1981, Ainge won the John R. Wooden Award as top player in NCAA basketball while at BYU. He made it to the big leagues as a member of the Toronto Blue Jays, where a .220 batting average in 665 at bats during three years convinced him he should rethink his original decision not to play in the NBA. The Celtics wily GM Red Auerbach – who had drafted him # 1 – bought out his Blue Jay contract from a willing seller. Ainge joined the Celts the next fall and became a stalwart on Celtic teams, which would win the NBA championship in 1984 and 1986. Perhaps Ainge’s greatest accomplishment as a Celtic would come some 20 years later, when as Executive Director of Basketball Operations for the Celtics, he engineered the trade that brought Kevin Garnett to Boston, where Garnett would lead the Celtics to the 2008 NBA Championship.

Gene Conley: At 6’8” Long Gene was an imposing figure both on the mound and on the basketball court. Conley is the only man to win a World Championship in two different sports – as a pitcher for the Milwaukee Braves in 1957, and a reserve forward for the Boston Celtics in 1959 to 1961. His teammates included Ted Williams and Bill Russell. A four-time American League All Star, and the winning pitcher in the 1955 All Star Game, Conley’s basketball talents were brought to the attention of Celtics Coach Red Auerbach by Bill Sharman, who had seen him play for Washington State in a game against UCLA. Conley finished his pitching career with 91 wins and 888 strikeouts. His NBA totals included 2,069 points and 2,212 rebounds.

Dave DeBusschure: A member of the Basketball Hall of Fame and an eight time All-Star, DeBusschure averaged 16 points and 11 rebounds during his 12 year career while winning two NBA titles as a member of the NY Knicks. DeBusschure also spent two years as a pitcher for the Chicago White Sox, making his debut in 1962. That season he pitched a six hit complete game shut out against the Cleveland Indians. A two sport star at the University of Detroit, DeBusschure gave up his promising baseball career after the 1963 season to concentrate on basketball. The wisdom of that decision was borne out in 1997 when DeBusschure was named one of the Top 50 NBA players of All Time.

Babe Didrickson: She dominated women’s sports like no other in the 20th Century. Babe was voted the Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year six times, the first for her heroics in track and field, the last five for her dominance of golf. While Babe excelled in all sports, her versatility made her a track and field team unto herself. In fact, Babe won the 1932 Olympic qualifying AAU championships by herself as the only member of the Employer’s Casualty team, while scoring 30 points and competing in eight of the ten events, winning six. That summer in the Olympics – and limited to three events – she took two golds and a silver. A founding member of the LPGA, Didrickson dominated golf in the 40s and 50s while winning 82 tournaments in all, including five majors. In 2000, ESPN named Babe Didrickson the 10th greatest athlete of all time. Look for a major biography of Didrickson by the New York Times Pulitzer Prize winning writer Don Van Natta, Jr. in 2009.

Willie Gault: Gold Medalist in the World Championships and world record holding sprinter, Gault was the # 1 draft choice of the Chicago Bears in 1983 after an All American career at Tennessee. Gault played 11 seasons in the NFL where he scored 44 touchdowns and pulled down 333 passes from his position as a wide receiver. Gault had one of his most memorable performances in the 1985 Super Bowl when he caught four passes for 120 yards and returned four kick offs for 49 yards helping “Da Bears” to their only SuperBowl victory. He capped his Olympic career in 1988 when he was selected to the US Winter Olympic Bobsled team as an alternate.

Bob Hayes: Bullet Bob from Florida A&M via Jacksonville Raines High School won two Olympic Gold Medals and held virtually every World Record in the sprints during the early 1960s. Hayes, who was the first man to run the 60 in fewer than six seconds, became the first Olympic sprint star to reach greatness in the NFL. As a member of the San Francisco 49ers and the Dallas Cowboys, Hayes scored 71 touchdowns during his remarkable career, earning four All Pro nods and a SuperBowl ring. A member of the Track and Field Hall of Fame and a member of the Dallas Cowboy Ring of Honor, Hayes’s absence from the Football HOF is a glaring omission. The Hall announced last month that Hayes is one of two “senior” players eligible for induction in the class of 2009. The honor is long overdue.

Brian Jordan: The number one selection of the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1988 Major League baseball draft from the University of Virginia, Jordan signed a free agent contract with the NFL Falcons, squeezing in NFL games while sharpening his baseball skills in the Cardinals organization. Jordan led all NFL cornerbacks in tackles during the 1990 season with 193. Seemingly on his way to a long NFL career, Jordan decided his true calling was baseball. He made his Major League debut in 1992 and went on to play 15 seasons and finishing with a .282 batting average, 824 rbi and 184 home runs. Jordan was selected to the 1999 National League All Star Team. His finest year was 1998 when he batted .319 with 25 homeruns and 95 RBI as a member of Cardinals. The following winter he signed with the Atlanta Braves where he drove in 115 runs and helped the Braves reach the World Series.

Deion Sanders: “Neon Deion” is the only man in history to play in the World Series (Atlanta 1992) and the Super Bowl (49ers and Cowboys). Considered possibly the greatest cornerback in NFL history, Deion was as electric returning kicks as he was patrolling the defensive backfield. The 1994 NFL Defensive Player of the Year and a nine time All-Pro, Sanders finished his career with 53 interceptions. His 19 touchdowns on returns and interceptions are an NFL record. Remarkably, for more than a decade, Sanders was also playing Major League Baseball. He broke in with the Yankees in 1989, playing in 641 big league games before retiring as a member of the Cincinnati Reds in 2001. He led the National League in triples with 14 in 1992. One year later, he hit .304. His 57 stolen bases were second most in the National League during the 1997 season.

Bill Sharman: A member of the NBA Hall of Fame and an 11-time All Star during his stellar career with the Boston Celtics, Sharman played baseball in the Brooklyn Dodgers organization for five seasons. Called up to the big club for the 1951 September pennant run, Sharman made history when the entire Dodgers bench was ejected from a game during the last week of the season. Since Sharman made no appearances in his only call up to the big league, he holds the distinction of being the only Major League player with more ejections (1) than games played (0). Signed out of USC, Sharman was one of the greatest shooters of his era. He made an incredible 342 of 367 free throws during the 1957 season. For his career, Sharman attempted 3,559 free throws making an amazing 3,143. Shaq missed more free throws in the 2000-01 season than Sharman did in his entire career.

Honorable Mention:
Dave Winfield: Drafted to play professional football, basketball and baseball out of the University of Minnesota. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2001.

Dishonorable Mention:
Michael Jordan…You remember.