Earvin "Magic" Johnson became the Los Angeles Lakers' face during their "showtime" years, which considering the number of other personalities, was no small accomplishment.

"He can run, but he can't hide."

Joe Louis said this about Billy Conn, one of the many who challenged him for the heavyweight title and failed.

One of the purest hitters in Baseball, Ted Williams, was the template by which thousands of batters followed.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar won everywhere he went.

• Bill Russell is not always in the conversation when basketball fans talk about the greatest player ever, but there are many reasons why they should.
  

• The Boston Celtics had a legacy of winning long before Larry Bird got there, but when you won as many the championships as they had, the bar is set pretty high. Bird not only cleared it, but he also set a new level for Celtics fans.
  

• Babe Ruth was not the first star in Baseball, but he was the first man of the game who transcended the sport. "The Sultan of Swat" began his career as a Pitcher with the Boston Red Sox, but as the 1910s closed, he transitioned into the game's first great power hitter, though for the New York Yankees, who purchased his contract from Boston.
  

After World War II, many within Major League Baseball knew that it was time to re-integrate (there had been black players in the Majors in the 1880s), and it was the Brooklyn Dodgers who took that first step with Jackie Robinson, a second baseman with the Kansas City Monarchs.