10 Californian Athletes Who Changed Their Sports Forever

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Complex Original

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Image via CBS
Image via CBS

In this age of heaping praise on athletes and moving on, it is easy to lose sight of the athletes that are truly great. A truly great athlete will not only rack up points, but will impact the way their game is played. What did NBA stardom mean before Michael Jordan? What was NFL rushing before Jim Brown? The greatest athletes don’t just take over games — they transform the game itself.

The state of California has produced many athletes who transformed their field. It’s hard to say whether it’s the favorable climate, the vastness of the state or the striving frontier spirit that helped create Hollywood and Silicon Valley, but whatever the reason, Cali has produced many great sportsmen and women who have changed their respective games. The men and women listed here are some of the greatest of them all.

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Billie_Jean_King
Image via Afflictor

Billie Jean King

Hometown: Long Beach
Sport: Tennis

Not only is Billie Jean King one of the greatest female tennis players of all time, she is also a fierce advocate for women’s rights. King may be best remembered for beating Bobby Riggs in the 1973 “Battle of the Sexes” match. King achieved several other victories for women’s tennis that were a bit more tangible and a bit less flashy. She was the founder of the Women’s Sports Foundation and the Women’s Tennis Association.

In addition to her advocacy, King was the winner of 39 grand slams and 129 titles during her career. She was also a key member of U.S. international competition teams for the better part of a decade. Though King received myriad accolades throughout her career, two stand out as symbols of her true importance to women’s sports and women’s rights. She has been the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom and was named one of Time’s Persons of the Year in 1975.

Mark_Spitz
Image via History

Mark Spitz

Hometown: Modesto
Sport: Swimming

Swimmers don’t become household names unless they turn in legendary performances. Our generation has Michael Phelps, and back in the ’70s, the man to put swimming on the map was Mark Spitz. There are a number of ways to talk about just how dominant Spitz was in his time. Our favorite is that no competitor has ever held as high a percentage of the medals awarded at a single Olympic Games as Spitz. The American swimmer took home seven medals in the 1972 Olympics, a record until Phelps took home his eight in 2008. It’s not just the hardware that Spitz brought home that reinforces his dominance. Spitz also set 35 world records during his career.

Image via Next Impulse Sports
Image via Next Impulse Sports

Tiger Woods

Hometown: Cypress
Sport: Golf

Only one year after turning pro, Tiger won his first major, the 1997 Masters. A few months later, still not much more than a year after becoming a professional, he was the number one golfer in the world. He strung together streaks of 264 and 281 weeks atop the golf leader boards, which means he was the best golfer in the world for almost an entire decade. Woods’ dominance was so complete that courses added yards in hopes of keeping the game interesting with a steamrolling Tiger in the field. Studies showed that when Woods was playing in a tournament, other golfers were worse.

Few athletes have had the effect on their sports that Woods had on golf in the 2000s. It’s hard to say whether his prolonged slump has been the result of psychology, age or a combination of both, but one can’t help but imagine what Woods’s career would have turned into if he had continued his dominance through what for most golfers is their prime.

Joe_DiMaggio
Image via Joe DiMaggio

Joe DiMaggio

Hometown: Martinez
Sport: Baseball (Center Field)

DiMaggio is best remembered for his 56-game hit streak — a record that still stands today. Of course, to achieve that record, you would have to reach some other impressive milestones along the way. With a career batting average of .325, DiMaggio had 2,214 hits, 361 homers and 1,537 runs batted in during his illustrious career. These numbers helped propel the Yankees to nine World Series titles under DiMaggio’s watch. For his efforts, Joltin’ Joe was voted into the All-Star Game every year of his career.

DiMaggio is a vital part of the Yankee legacy that has loomed over baseball for decades. Along with Lou Gehrig, Mickey Mantle and Babe Ruth, DiMaggio is part of a mythology that set the stage for the Yankees continued dominance of the sport. Unlike most competitive team sports, baseball doesn’t have a salary cap. This means that the legends of the sport continue to help the team by generating revenues long after they retire. The greatest Yankee players of all time not only changed the game by being great, but collectively helped establish the Yankees as the most financially (and arguably athletically) successful team of all time. DiMaggio is a key piece of this hallowed Yankee tradition.

Pete_Sampras
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Pete Sampras

Hometown: Los Angeles
Sport: Tennis

Reigns of supremacy in tennis last so long that they feel almost like presidential terms. While a dynasty in most team sports is anything over two years, to be truly remarkable in tennis, your dominance has to last closer to a decade. We are just edging out of the era of Roger Federer, and before his time the sport was ruled by the two-headed monster of Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi (their head-to-head record ended up 20-14 with Sampras having the edge). Each year between 1993 and 1998, Sampras was the year-end number one player in the world, and though Sampras never matched his dominance during this streak, he continued to be a fierce competitor until 2002. His final match as a pro, appropriately enough, was in 2002 when he beat Agassi for the U.S. Open title.

Image via CBS
Image via CBS

Randy Johnson

Hometown: Walnut Creek
Sport: Baseball (Pitcher)

There has never been another pitcher quite like Randy Johnson. Over twenty-two years with six teams, “The Big Unit” made a serious impact on his sport. At the end of his career, Johnson was first among starting pitchers in strikeouts per nine innings and second all-time in total strikeouts. At the height of his powers, Johnson was capable of launching a 100-mile-per-hour fastball. Even scarier, that wasn’t his signature pitch. He was known for a vicious slider that bedeviled right- and left-handed batters alike. The five-time Cy Young winner was also the tallest player ever to play in the major leagues at 6’10” until 2012, when his teammate, the 6’11” Jon Rauch stripped him of the honor.

Image via Top Sports Report
Image via Top Sports Report

Tom Brady

Hometown: San Mateo
Sport: Football (Quarterback)

There have been a number of great quarterbacks through the years, but Brady has left his own unique mark on the sport. No conversation about Brady can conclude without mentioning that he was a sixth-round draft pick, unheard of for starting QBs, let alone Hall of Famers. Brady and coach Bill Belichick have sustained the dominance of the New England Patriots, even in years where they’ve had a sub-par roster around them. These two have made football analysts re-evaluate the value of running backs, wide receivers and defensive play at various points in their time together. He and Belichick have also helped redefine the role of the tight end, as the Patriot’s two tight-end set has greatly impacted NFL offensive play. Perhaps most importantly, Brady’s rivalry with Peyton Manning may go down in history as the greatest of all time. Their dueling careers have given rise to a debate that is sure to rage long after they’ve both retired directly into the Hall of Fame.

amanda_beard
Image via Zimbio

Amanda Beard

Hometown: Newport Beach

Sport: Swimming

California has produced some of the greatest swimmers of all time, both male and female. Beard’s seven Olympic gold medals certainly put her in the pantheon of great swimmers, but there is something particularly remarkable about her Olympic career. Beard made her Olympic debut when she was only fourteen years old, making her the second youngest American swimming medalist in history. Because she started so young, Beard was able to medal at three consecutive Olympics and easily qualify for a fourth. For a time, she was also the world record holder in the 200-meter breast stroke. Beard’s early triumphs came at a cost. In 2012, she released a memoir entitled In the Water They Can’t See You Cry: A Memoir. In the book, she details numerous issues she has struggled with through the years including depression and bulimia.

Image via Turner
Image via Turner

Jeff Gordon

Hometown: Vallejo

Sport: NASCAR

Before you dredge up the age-old argument over whether NASCAR is a sport, take a moment to appreciate Jeff Gordon’s dominance of as a race car driver. Gordon has the most wins in the modern NASCAR era, and is third all-time in terms of pole positions. He has won a pole at least once a year for the last 22 years. He has not missed a race in 761 races. He was the first driver to reach $100 million in winnings. Gordon also co-owns the car currently driven by Jimmie Johnson, who has usurped Gordon as the greatest driver on the scene. It is hard to imagine an athlete achieving greater dominance over, or impact on, a single sport. On second thought, think whatever you want about NASCAR; Gordon and his $100 million probably don’t mind one bit.

Marcus_Allen
Image via ESPN

Marcus Allen

Hometown: San Diego
Sport: Football (Running Back)

As running back careers grow shorter and rushers are drafted later, it’s become clear that each generation will produce fewer and fewer every-down workhorse backs. This means we may not see many more players who have careers like Marcus Allen. Allen stands among the greatest NFL running backs of all time; he is one of only 10 NFL players ever to pile up more than 12,000 rushing yards in a career and on top of that he amassed almost 5,500 yards receiving. Allen is probably best remembered for his amazing performance in Super Bowl XVIII where turned in the kind of day on the ground that may never be replicated. During that game, Allen gained 191 yards rushing, which included a 74-yard run. That run stood as the longest in Super Bowl history for over twenty years. Allen’s accomplishments are even more impressive when you consider that the middle of his career was hampered by injury and a bad relationship with Raiders owner Al Davis. For several seasons, Allen was buried down the depth chart; his numbers only recovered after a trade to Kansas City, where he finished his career strong. Though his Kansas City years were certainly well-after his prime, he still had some impressive achievements there, including becoming the oldest player to score more than ten touchdowns in a season at the age of thirty-seven.

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