Bloops: Former Track Stars Turned Pro in Other Sports
Posted by Neil Paine on September 22, 2010
Although it's barely pertinent from a baseball perspective (Jim Thorpe, Carroll Hardy, Herb Washington, & Deion Sanders are the only MLB names to appear), Heimo Elonen has compiled a neat list of pro football, basketball, and baseball players who were track and field stars before pursuing a career in a different sport (as you might expect, lots of NFL players turn up here). All in all, it's an interesting piece of research if you're a sports fan.
September 22nd, 2010 at 12:24 pm
Not a track star himself, but Bobby Tolan, a '70s era outfielder, was either the brother or cousin of Olympic track star Eddie Tolan.
September 22nd, 2010 at 2:58 pm
At UCLA in the 1930s there was a student named Jackie Robinson who was the first athlete to letter in four sports, one of them being Track&Field.
Anybody know what happened to that guy?
September 22nd, 2010 at 3:11 pm
How about Bo Jackson? He stopped running track after his sophomore year at Auburn and is reportedly to have been good enough to join, or at least tryout for, the US Olympic team.
September 22nd, 2010 at 3:18 pm
For some reason, I thought Rickey Henderson was involved with track at one point. I guess he wasn't.
September 22nd, 2010 at 3:21 pm
Upon further research, Rickey was involved with track in high school.
September 22nd, 2010 at 3:40 pm
The one that jumps out at me is Renaldo Nehemiah. I remember the 49ers signing him to play. As far as I know, I don't think he ever played college football - setting him apart from about all other football players on the list.
September 23rd, 2010 at 12:30 am
Bo Jackson's first appearance in Sports Illustrated was a "Faces in the Crowd" selection as he was one of the top high school triple jumpers in the nation (Listed as Vincent, lol). I don't know if he continued jumping in college.
AND, if someone can teach Usain Bolt how to catch a football. . .
September 23rd, 2010 at 12:33 am
On the back of one of Rickey's baseball cards (don't have it and can't remember but I am sure there might be one or two of you out there. . .)mentions that he rushed for 1500 yards his senior year on the HS football team.
September 23rd, 2010 at 12:35 am
An interesting poll or list would be guys who legitimately could've been 3 sport pros.
September 23rd, 2010 at 10:08 am
To Joe {Post #2}:
Robinson...Robinson...didn't Simon and Garfunkel do a song about his Mama once?
September 23rd, 2010 at 10:23 am
Usain Bolt said he does plan to play football, but the one where you don't use your hands.
September 23rd, 2010 at 10:30 am
I am thinking that Dave DeBusschere and John Havlicek both did track in college as well. And I might be mistaken, but I believe that Cal Hubbard also tried a hand at boxing before his football and baseball careers. Granted, he was an umpire rather than a player, but I thought he might also be included.
September 23rd, 2010 at 4:00 pm
Frank - so that's what the song was about? I thought it was something to do with Frank Robbie's wife praying that he be traded to the Yankees now that DiMaggio was gone. Go figure...
September 23rd, 2010 at 5:42 pm
And a personal favorite of mine, Frank Howard {there's just something about that first name that I like, for some reason} who was a pretty fair-to-middlin' basketball and football player at Ohio State in the late 1950's.
September 24th, 2010 at 10:20 pm
I'm surprised that Allan Lewis or Larry Lintz weren't track stars
Let's see if I can do below correctly
Ernie Banks
Glenn Burke
Cy Williams
Evar Swanson
Hector Lopez
September 25th, 2010 at 6:20 pm
* Jackie Robinson: LJ 778 (1938); 3rd AAU 1938, 1st NCAA 1940
MLB 1947-56 (HOF)