SportsCentury

1999•30m

SportsCentury is an ESPN biography program that reviews the people and athletic events that defined sports in North America throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. In 1999, ESPN counted down the Top 50 Athletes of the 20th Century, selected from North American athletes and voted on by a panel of sports journalists and observers, premiering a new biography highlighting each top athlete every week throughout the year. The episodes for the top two athletes, Michael Jordan and Babe Ruth, appeared on a special combined edition broadcast on Christmas Day on ABC. The top two names were announced in no particular order, and the final positioning was announced at the conclusion of the two episodes. An additional list of numbers 51-100 were announced on the ESPN SportsCentury website. Themed specials such as Greatest Games, Greatest Coaches, Greatest Dynasties, and Most Influential Individuals were premiered throughout the year, as well as six SportsCenter of the Decade programs. After the initial run was complete, the episodes were rerun at various times on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN Classic. The original plan for the series was to expand to include #51-#100. Ultimately, the series featured nearly every athlete from #51-#100, and numerous other personalities, especially those who were recently deceased, or notable for more recent accomplishments.

Seasons

70 Episodes • Premiered 1999

0. Casey Stengel

1. 1900-49

The SportsCentury begins with this two-hour reflection of the major sports events that endeared themselves to the American conscience in the first half of the 20th Century. Dave Anderson, Dick Schaap, and Curt Gowdy sit around newspaper offices as the ""hosts"" in this newsreel-type retrospective.

2. No. 50 -- Chris Evert

3. No. 49 -- O.J. Simpson

4. No. 48 -- Pete Sampras

5. No. 47 -- Edwin Moses

6. No. 46 -- Eric Heiden

7. No. 45 -- Bill Tilden

8. SportsCenter of the Decade: 1950s

9. No. 44 -- Bobby Jones

10. No. 43 -- Julius Erving

11. No. 42 -- Sandy Koufax

12. No. 41 -- Wilma Rudolph

13. No. 40 -- Lawrence Taylor

14. No. 39 -- Walter Payton

15. No. 38 -- Ben Hogan

16. No. 37 -- Mickey Mantle

17. SportsCenter of the Decade: 1960s

18. No. 36 -- Oscar Robertson

19. The Greatest Coaches of the Century

20. No. 35 -- Secretariat

21. Most Influential People in Sports

Counts down the ten non-athletes who left the greatest impact on the sports world in the 20th Century. Profiles include: Walter O'Malley, Branch Rickey, Pette Rozelle, David Stern, Roone Arledge, and Marvin Miller.

22. Greatest Dynasties

The teams that dominated their sportâ€“the New York Yankees, Boston Celtics, MontrÃ©al Canadiens, UCLA Bruins, Notre Dame Fighting Irishâ€“are profiled. So are the Dallas Cowboys, Atlanta Braves, Chicago Bulls, and San Francisco 49ers.

23. No. 34 -- Lou Gehrig

24. No. 33 -- Mark Spitz

25. Greatest Games

26. No. 32 -- Johnny Unitas

27. No. 31 -- Bobby Orr

28. No. 30 -- Larry Bird

29. SportsCenter of the Decade: 1970s

30. No. 29 -- Arnold Palmer

31. No. 28 -- Red Grange

32. No. 27 -- Jerry Rice

33. No. 26 -- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

34. No. 25 -- Joe Montana

35. No. 24 -- Sugar Ray Robinson

36. No. 23 -- Jackie Joyner-Kersee

37. No. 22 -- Joe DiMaggio

38. SportsCenter of the Decade: 1980s

39. No. 21 -- Gordie Howe

40. No. 20 -- Ty Cobb

41. No. 19 -- Martina Navratilova

42. No. 18 -- Bill Russell

43. No. 17 -- Magic Johnson

44. No. 16 -- Ted Williams

45. No. 15 -- Jackie Robinson

46. No. 14 -- Hank Aaron

47. No. 13 -- Wilt Chamberlain

48. No. 12 -- Carl Lewis

49. No. 11 -- Joe Louis

50. No. 10 -- Babe Didrikson

51. No. 9 -- Jack Nicklaus

52. No. 8 -- Willie Mays

53. No. 7 -- Jim Thorpe

54. No. 6 -- Jesse Owens

55. No. 5 -- Wayne Gretzky

56. No. 4 -- Jim Brown

57. No. 3 -- Muhammad Ali

58. No. 2 -- Babe Ruth

59. No. 1 -- Michael Jordan

60. SportsCenter of the Decade: 1990s

61. Yogi Berra

62. Derek Jeter

63. Brian Piccolo

A profile of the late Brian Piccolo, the 1964 ACC Player of the Year at Wake Forest and later a member of the Chicago Bears, where he formed a friendship with Gale Sayers that was depicted in the 1971 film “Brian's Song.” Piccolo died of cancer in 1970.

64. Brian Piccolo

102. No. 50 - Chris Evert

103. Joe DiMaggio

104. Willie Mays

105. Billy Martin

106. Don Larsen

Cast

Reviews

No reviews available yet.