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Lesley Visser is one of 13 HOFMAG.com Senior Staff to contribute a list of the Top Ten Most Influential People in Sports History. How does it compare with your own choices or the lists of the other HOFMAG.com writers in the box to the right? Find out all the results, from Who's #1 to "also ran" in HOFMAG.com's Top 10 Most Influential People in Sports History. 10. Pete Rozelle – created the business model for all professional sports, a shrewd promoter who sold the rights to the Super Bowl, making networks pay for the privilege of seeing the game. The commissioner who counted, he got the teams to share the revenue so all would benefit, thereby making the NFL far more profitable than any other sport. 9. Babe Didrikson-Zaharia – my other babe, a college basketball All-American who led a team to a national title in 1931, won 2 gold medals and a silver at the 1932 Olympics (in events as different as the 80-meter hurdles and the javelin), then took up golf and won every major title, including the US and British Opens, plus 17 straight tournaments. 8. Roone Arledge – he dreamed of things never done, had a visionary approach to sports (and more than 30 Emmys to prove it). He had an unequaled sense of story, site and sound. He created Monday Night Football, gave a forum to Howard Cosell and was there for the massacre in Munich. He later took command of news. 7. Bill Russell – the greatest winner in the history of team sports (led by the great Red Auerbach, or, possibly, the other way around). No single athlete has led more teams to triumph. His unheralded, little known University of San Francisco won back-to-back NCAA championships. Russell took a gold medal on the Olympic team in Melbourne, then 11 titles in 13 years with the Boston Celtics. 6. Arnold Palmer – when you're called "The King" in your own sport, that's enough of an indication of your impact. Before Palmer, the PGA was quiet, controlled and played in semi-obscurity, for very little money...after Arnie's Army, golf was never the same. 5. Jesse Owens – 1936... the Olympics in Berlin...Adolph Hitler was on hand to root for his "Aryan Race," but the race went to Jesse Owens. In fact he took four gold medals that day, a triumph of decency and humility against hatred and bigotry. 4. Billie Jean King – sports were forever changed by her courage and determination. Beating Bobby Riggs in 1973 was a seminal moment in the women's movement. The US Tennis Center is now named, not for a corporation, but for one woman's impact on the history of American sports...39 Grand Slams are pretty good, too. 3. Jackie Robinson – April 22nd will mark the 60th anniversary of his historic first game with the Brooklyn dodgers, a fact we now take for granted...an African American playing baseball was a forbidden reality until he ended the racism (with a tip of the cap to Branch Rickey). 2. Muhammad Ali – the most revered athlete in the world, the most well-known in the history of sports...from an Olympic medal in Rome to the stunning knockout of Sonny Liston, to his epic battles with Joe Frazier to godlike status after he retired. 1. Babe Ruth – the most famous athlete, created American sports and the spectacle we enjoy today...an icon, great skill, great personality, defined an era and was a great pitcher before becoming the home run king. Lesley Visser has been a pioneer and standard-bearer for her more than 30 years covering sports. She has spent half of her career at CBS Sports where she currently is a member of the network's lead broadcast team for NFL football. Lesley was inducted into the Pro Football HOF in 2006. She can be reached
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