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Off Topic SPORTING HEROES

Discussion in 'Tottenham Hotspur' started by littleDinosaurLuke, Jun 29, 2017.

  1. littleDinosaurLuke

    littleDinosaurLuke Well-Known Member

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    With little to chat about in the depths of the close season, I thought it might be interesting to discuss our sporting heroes from all sports and why we hold these performers in high esteem.
    We all need heroes to lift us from the ordinary and mundane, even for a moment or two.
    I've named nine (three footballers) - not ranked in any particular order - please feel free to comment.
    Please post about as few or as many of your own as you like.

    GEORGE BEST:
    Before my time , but his presence and influence lingered for a long time after his heyday. Who could resist falling in love with his skill, style and glory as well as foolhardiness and vulnerability.
    A legend.

    IAN BOTHAM:
    Some of my best sporting memories involve Beefy turning into a comic book hero v The Aussies.
    It was great as a kid, when England were being thrashed, to have been able to say "It'll be OK because Botham will come in and smash a hundred and then take five wickets" - and it not turn out to be fanciful, childlike wishful thinking.

    USAIN BOLT:
    I still can't believe than an ungainly 6'5" man, who struggles to get up out of the blocks at more than a snail's pace can catch up and overtake the world's best sprinters before running away from them like they're standing still whilst performing a dance for the last 20 metres of a race!
    Awesome.

    JASON ROBINSON:
    Of course a small, 5'8" winger from Rugby League with a questionable attitude in the past would never make it in Union. It was obvious. He wouldn't get enough of the ball, he wouldn't get enough space, nobody in the game would ever fall for his mid-air side step.....
    There was no more electrifying buzz in any sport than the one felt when he was just about to receive the ball.

    STEPHEN HENDRY:
    I always admire the best in any sport - especially when the best, at their very best, are pretty much flawless.
    When snooker was in its heyday, the World Championships at The Crucible were a major event. In the early 1990s the sport was graced by so many great players. Hendry combined the flair of Higgins with the grit and steel of Davis. He had all bases covered. And he played better and better, the greater the pressure. He trailed Jimmy White in one World Final 8-14 before winning the last 10 frames with five century breaks. Stunning.

    ERIC CANTONA:
    The upturned collar typified the egotism, the swagger, the strut, the superiority.....But he also had sublime skills and was a great talisman. He is the one person above all - even SAF- who was most responsible for putting Utd back on top of English football in the '90s and giving the club the arrogance of champions for the next 20 years. He was special.

    MOHAMMED ALI:
    Mostly before my time, but a man who was still unmissable and unmistakable long after his peak as a boxer.
    And that was some peak he reached as a boxer.
    But he transcended sport.
    It's impossible not to admire a man who gave up nearly four years of his career, at his peak, because of his principles. And was as eloquent and articulate outside the ring as he was brilliant and courageous inside - and what he had to say was worth saying.

    PAUL SCHOLES:
    Everyone else on this list is extraordinary in some way or other - and most were stars who shone in the limelight. Scholesy is the opposite. He's an everyman. An ordinary 5'7" bloke with asthma, who lives a typically average life with few of the trappings of wealth and fame. It helps that I've met him a few times (his kids and mine went to the same school for a number of years) and I can testify that he is a very ordinary bloke like us. Very quiet, very unassuming, shy, no ego.
    His own footballing hero is Frankie Bunn.
    So it's very satisfying to know that this little ordinary bloke was the best English footballer of his generation.
    Frankie Bunn still holds the record for most goals in a League Cup game - six (Oldham v Scarborough, 1989).

    BRADLEY WIGGINS:
    To become the first British winner of the TdF and be a great track and time trial/road race cyclist is a phenomenal achievement. To do it all with a deadpan expression and an apparent couldn't care less attitude, as if there was always something else he should really have been doing, is engaging.
    An enigma.
     
    #1
    Last edited: Jul 1, 2017
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  2. The RDBD

    The RDBD Well-Known Member

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    Marino Lejarreta.
    He rode all three grand Tours (Vuelta, Giro, TdF) in one year on
    several occasions in a period over the 1980s - 1990s :

    1. when the calendar was Vuelta followed by Giro followed by TdF,
    and only a few days between the end of one and the start of the
    next.

    2. when the races were longer in terms of km, and had fewer rest
    days

    3. was actually competitive on GC in most of them (top 5/10 placings)


    I have always hoped he was drug-free during his career, but who can say. :(
     
    #2
  3. The RDBD

    The RDBD Well-Known Member

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    Gary Mabbutt.
    For playing top-flight football while suffering diabetes, and
    not letting serious injuries inflicted by nasty thugs ruin his career.
     
    #3
  4. Rocky blue army

    Rocky blue army Well-Known Member

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    Ledley king.
    Fantastic servant of our club .one of our most talented defenders ever even with one leg .and most of all very loyal unlike some judas ***** I could mention.
    <laugh>
     
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  5. Billy The Spur

    Billy The Spur Well-Known Member

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    Ayrton Senna - Fearless driver, particularly in the rain, when he was several seconds quicker than everybody else.

    Ronnie O`Sullivan - Not the most successful (yet) but the greatest snooker player ever to pick up a cue, he makes a very difficult game look ridiculously easy with either hand, and unbeatable when on top form.

    Viv Richards - Wonderful batsman, faced up to some of the fastest bowlers ever without ever wearing a helmet.
     
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  6. NSIS

    NSIS Well-Known Member

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    Muhammad Ali: Simply the greatest. Never even anyone like hm. Doubt I'll ever see another in my lifetime.

    Andy Ripley: A guy I knew from playing at the same club for 2 yrs and from the City. A giant of a man in more ways than one. Sadly dead.

    Jimmy Greaves: What's not already been said?

    Georgie Best: The Muhammad Ali of football. Frighteningly good. Genuinely ambidextrous. One of the most naturally gifted footballers I've ever seen.


    Could probably think of many more, but those are the ones that spring to mind.
     
    #6
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  7. Alfie Conn

    Alfie Conn Well-Known Member

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    Barry Sheene: Cockney kid who made good, loved by his hoards of fans for his finger up attitude to the duffers in his sport
    Loved a fag and beer with the fans after a race(sometimes before) he was the George Best or James Hunt of motor cycling and still our last world champion.
     
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  8. SpursDisciple

    SpursDisciple Booking: Mod abuse - overturned on appeal
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    Got anyone in mind <whistle>
     
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  9. SpursDisciple

    SpursDisciple Booking: Mod abuse - overturned on appeal
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    Pat Jennings. Serene but commanding. Could catch the ball with one hand. Keith you Burke!
     
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  10. "Thanks for that Brian"

    "Thanks for that Brian" Well-Known Member

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    First by some distance, The England Rugby Team that won the World Cup in 2003. The only northern hemisphere team to do it and they did it in the southern hemisphere.

    After 1991, I doubted that I would ever see us win the World Cup. I won't pick out individuals because it was the very pinnacle of a team effort and everyone was superb. It's the only sporting event that I have pictures of on display in my house.

    Secondly, and a surprise even to me is Andy Murray. Growing up in the 60's and 70's I didn't believe that I'd ever see a Brit win Wimbledon or The Davis Cup. I didn't think it was possible. I still don't quite believe it. I don't follow tennis at all.

    Third, Alan Wells, another scot. Again, I couldn't believe that a Brit could be Olympic 100 metres champion. We were so goddamn awful at athletics back then, like tennis that it was like Britain achieving a landing on Mars next year.
     
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  11. SpursDisciple

    SpursDisciple Booking: Mod abuse - overturned on appeal
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    Agree on Murray - good call. Someone who gets a very undeserved bad press. Wells' reputation is tarnished by drug allegations and the fact that he won his gold when the Americans weren't there.
     
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  12. The Changing Man

    The Changing Man Well-Known Member

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    Glenn Hoddle – Simply the finest player it has been my pleasure to watch in a Spurs shirt and a player who typifies ‘The Spurs way’ possibly the best passer of a ball that England has ever produced unable to hold down a regular place in the England team because he didn’t work hard enough.

    Ian Botham and David Gower – 2 great English cricketers who made the game look easy. Great characters too - although we weren’t always successful this was my favourite era of English cricket.

    Daley Thompson – A phenomenal athlete, the decathlon is just such an amazing event and he was our greatest decathlete.

    Brian Jacks – Just for ‘Superstars’

    Severiano Ballesteros – Tiger may have been more consistent but Seve was a legend and was the first golfer that actually made the sport interesting to me.

    Alex Higgins – The Ronnie O’Sullivan of his era, a tortured soul but the most naturally gifted player of snookers hayday.

    Alan Knott – The great Kent and England wicket keeper, I spent a lot of my youth watching cricket at Canterbury and Knotty was the best wicket keeper I have seen and a very good lower order batsman, one of the first genuine Wicket keeper batsman.

    Paul Gascoigne – Tortured genius gives Glenn a run for his money just loved watching him play.
     
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  13. Dier Hard

    Dier Hard G'day mate!

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    Nick and Nate Diaz.

    Always portrayed as the bad guys of MMA because they throw a few middle fingers up at their opponents but it's never documented how they still teach children's classes and help with their local community. They're also ****ing brilliant fighters to watch, never a dull fight.
     
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  14. "Thanks for that Brian"

    "Thanks for that Brian" Well-Known Member

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    For a fair bit of his career we were second best to the West Indies and Australia. I remember him batting in a cap or sun hat facing the most hostile of bowling. Never afraid or cowed, even when others who were supposedly his betters had failed, he'd came out and hit 50 and give us something to play for.

    Probably the best man behind the stumps that I've ever seen.

    A very good call.
     
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  15. littleDinosaurLuke

    littleDinosaurLuke Well-Known Member

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    I should add Valentino Rossi too
     
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  16. O.Spurcat

    O.Spurcat Well-Known Member

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    Football - Jimmy Greaves
    Cricket - Ian Botham, Tom Graveney
    Tennis - The Legend that is Jimmy Connors
    Motor Racing - Jackie Stewart
    Boxing - Mohammed Ali, Nigel Benn
    Horse Racing - Frankie Dettori
    Athletics - David Hemery
     
    #16
  17. lennypops

    lennypops Well-Known Member

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    Though I know very little about the sport I have to mention Babe Ruth. Started as a pitcher (arguably the best left-hander in baseball at the time) but was so much better at hitting that he stopped pitching. And proceeded to break every record there was. And then break them again. And again. Continued to do so for years after gaining loads of weight and fame and a taste for the high life. Then played for an absolutely useless team who, once he left, had the worst stats in modern history. But while he was there (fat and old) he was still hitting home runs all over the place. In the last game that he'd agreed to play (though he was convinced to play a couple more afterwards) he hit THREE home runs. One of them was literally out of the park - something that had not happened before then. He was 40 and fat at the time.

    After watching the Ken Burns series on baseball and having been introduced to many of the all-time greats of the game I was left with the obvious conclusion "Yeah - Babe Ruth was definitely the best. Definitely." Also he looked like a cartoon character.

    babe.jpg
     
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  18. The Changing Man

    The Changing Man Well-Known Member

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    Its a bit remiss of me to not include the man in my avatar!!!

    Martin Chivers by first true sporting hero, at a time when we were shown very little televised football it seemed that every time I saw him he did something special - he is the reason that I am a Spurs fan and nearly 50 years later I am still showing some signs of hero worship by using his photo here.
     
    #18
  19. NSIS

    NSIS Well-Known Member

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    So many Spurs heroes from those days. I was but a kid and before Greavesie came along, my hero was Johh 'The Ghost' White. Now there was a player ahead of his time!

    Still remember the shock and disbelief when he was tragically killed at just 27.
     
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  20. The RDBD

    The RDBD Well-Known Member

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    Dele Alli has shades of his play (drifting in from nowhere
    unnoticed to strike the killer blow) . A rare and difficult skill
    for attacking players to have.
     
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