Jesse Owens: Won four gold medals in track and field at the 1936 Olympics
Jackie Robinson: Broke baseball's color barrier in 1947 with the Brooklyn Dodgers
Babe Ruth: Baseball slugger and pitcher, a New York Yankees star of the 1920s
Lou Gehrig: Yankees first baseman known as the Iron Horse
Roberto Clemente: Pirates outfielder, 3,000 hits, and a great humanitarian
Hank Aaron: Baseball home run king for decades, with 755 career homers
Willie Mays: Baseball star known for amazing catches
Muhammad Ali: Heavyweight boxing champion who called himself the Greatest
Wilma Rudolph: Won three gold medals in running at the 1960 Olympics
Jim Thorpe: Olympic gold medalist in 1912 and football and baseball star
Althea Gibson: First Black player to win a Grand Slam tennis title (1956)
Arthur Ashe: Tennis star who won Wimbledon in 1975
Bill Russell: Boston Celtics center who won 11 NBA titles
Wilt Chamberlain: Basketball center who once scored 100 points in an NBA game
Kobe Bryant: Los Angeles Lakers star with five NBA titles
Pele: Brazilian soccer star who won three World Cups
Diego Maradona: Argentine soccer star of the 1980s
Johan Cruyff: Dutch soccer star and thinker of 'total football'
Walter Payton: Chicago Bears running back nicknamed Sweetness
Jim Brown: Football running back and star of the 1950s-60s
Vince Lombardi: Green Bay Packers coach; the Super Bowl trophy bears his name
Gordie Howe: Hockey star known as Mr. Hockey
Joe DiMaggio: Yankees outfielder with a 56-game hitting streak in 1941
Ty Cobb: Early baseball star with a high batting average
Cy Young: Pitcher with 511 wins; the best pitcher award is named for him
Satchel Paige: Pitcher in the Negro leagues and later the majors
Josh Gibson: Negro leagues catcher called the Black Babe Ruth
Honus Wagner: Early baseball shortstop; his card is one of the most famous
Joe Louis: Heavyweight boxing champion from 1937 to 1949
Jack Johnson: First Black heavyweight boxing champion (1908)
Bobby Jones: Golfer who won the Grand Slam in 1930
Seabiscuit: A racehorse who became a Depression-era hero
Secretariat: Racehorse who won the 1973 Triple Crown
Man o' War: Famous racehorse of the 1920s
Bill Walsh: NFL coach known for the West Coast offense
Babe Didrikson Zaharias: Won Olympic golds in track in 1932 and became a champion golfer
Sonja Henie: Norwegian figure skater with three Olympic golds
Paavo Nurmi: Finnish distance runner, a star of the 1920s
Emil Zatopek: Czech runner who won three golds in 1952
Abebe Bikila: Ethiopian runner who won the 1960 Olympic marathon barefoot
Johnny Weissmuller: Olympic swimmer who later played Tarzan
Duke Kahanamoku: Hawaiian swimmer and the father of modern surfing
Gertrude Ederle: First woman to swim the English Channel (1926)
Pat Summitt: Tennessee women's basketball coach with many wins
Lou Brock: Baseball base-stealing star
Mickey Mantle: Yankees slugger of the 1950s and 60s
Ted Williams: Red Sox hitter, the last to hit .400 in a season (1941)
Roger Bannister: First person to run a mile in under four minutes (1954)

Free flashcards from Peabody at peabody.kids/flashcards/fun-athletes-historical