Sporting News GOAT Mountains: See the iconic athletes from 9 cities

Bill Trocchi

Sporting News GOAT Mountains: See the iconic athletes from 9 cities image

The Sporting News GOAT Mountain project named four pro athletes from the nine cities that have had three of the following four leagues represented for at least 20 years – NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL. Last summer, we looked at 13 four-sport cities. There were no hard-and-fast rules pertaining to the athletes selected. Our panels of experts considered individual resumes, team success and legacy within the sports landscape of each city. Not every franchise within a city needed to be represented. All sports fans have an opinion on this topic. These are ours.

We cut this project off at four-team cities last year, leaving out some of America's most sports-crazed cities like Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Atlanta. This project accounted for those places and more and include all-time greats that live in the upper crust of various Halls of Fame.

MORE: The sports Mount Rushmore of 13 American cities with teams in 4 leagues

Like we did last summer, we formed committees to research and discuss the candidates in each city, often consulting with local experts on how athletes influenced their particular cities. Each city has four essays on the athletes, plus some highlights and pull quotes from archived Sporting News content pulled from these players were in action. If you want to start a spirited debate the next time you are in a sports bar, have your own discussion on the four iconic figures of a particular sports city. We're here to help.

PITTSBURGH: Essays, highlights of Clemente, Lemieux, Greene, Harris

Pittsburgh
(Sporting News)

ATLANTA: Essays, highlights of Aaron, Glavine, Jones, Wilkins

Atlanta
(SN/Getty Images)

TAMPA: Essays, highlights of Selmon, Brooks, Stamkos, St. Louis

Tampa
(SN/Getty Images)

 CLEVELAND: Essays, highlights of James, Brown, Feller, Thomas

Cleveland
(SN/Getty Images)

 

MILWAUKEE/GREEN BAY: Essays, highlights of Rodgers, Favre, Antetokounmpo, Aaron

Milwaukee/Green Bay
(SN/Getty Images)

SEATTLE: Essays, highlights of Griffey Jr., Ichiro, Wilson, Bird

Seattle
(SN/Getty Images)

ST. LOUIS: Essays, highlights of Musial, Gibson, Hull, Pujols

St. Louis GOAT Mountain
(The Sporting News)

HOUSTON: Essays, highlights of Watt, Olajuwon, Altuve, Campbell

Houston
(SN/Getty Images)

TORONTO: Essays, highlights of Steib, Sundin, Sittler, Lowry

Toronto
(SN/Getty Images)

 

 

 

Bill Trocchi

Bill Trocchi Photo

Bill Trocchi grew up reading media Hall of Famers Bob Ryan, Peter Gammons, Will McDonough and others in the Boston Globe every day and wound up taking the sports journalism path after graduating from Vanderbilt. An Alumnus of Sports Illustrated, Athlon Sports and Yahoo Sports/Rivals, Bill focuses on college sports coverage and plays way too much tennis.