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Juan Williams 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. Ty Cobb – The Georgia Peach was a bad boy but a great athlete. His behavior was reprehensible but the high level of competition he set is celebrated in characters like Vince Lombardi can be seen in American sports to this day. 9. The Fabulous Moolah – The pro wrestler (Lillian Ellison) broke the mold by putting mean, competitive women on American television. Great women golfers and tennis players preceded her. Those women were all ladylike and reserved. She was not. 8. Sandy Koufax – By celebrating his Jewish faith he put sports in perspective and inspired confidence in every outsider. 7. Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson – As one they not only saved pro basketball but took it to worldwide popularity and cemented it as a major American professional sport. Jordan, especially, took sports to new heights in marketing. 6. Hank Aaron – The real (read: steroid-free) home run king. His successful chase of Babe Ruth helped the nation come to terms with a black legend. 5. Jackie Robinson – A pioneer in U.S. civil rights, with his ally Branch Rickey, in demonstrating to all of America the power of allowing all of the nation's talent into the workforce. 4. Muhammad Ali – Beauty, speed, grace and wit. Even more, his principled stand against the Vietnam War made him a social and political force. 3. Curt Flood – His stand against the reserve clause in baseball, in combination with his talent, transformed the business of sports. 2. Jesse Owens – His performance under pressure amounted to a worldwide rebuke against Nazi theories of racial superiority. 1. Jack Johnson – The great boxing champ defined black defiance at the turn of the 20th century. His excellence defeated racial stereotypes around the globe. Juan Williams is an award-winning correspondent for National Public Radio and a political analyst for the Fox News Channel. You can contact him at
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