1. Wilt Chamberlain wilt-chaimberlain
A generation before every team in the NBA had a 7 footer, the biggest basketball player in the 1960’s was Wilt Chamberlain. At 7’1”, and topping out at 325 pounds late in his career, Wilt was a 2-time NBA champion. Chamberlain’s career just starts there, because his stature led the NBA to enact various rule modifications, including the expansion of the lane, and he has dozens of individual records, including the NBA’s lone 100-point game.
Chamberlain was also a part of the Harlem Globetrotters, where fans across the globe marveled at his talent and his height. Besides being in the Basketball Hall of Fame, Chamberlain is also in the Volleyball Hall of Fame for his services.
For those of you unfamiliar with Chamberlain’s domination, you could question yourself, “if he was so dominant, why did he win only two championships?” Good question. The smaller Bill Russell, who won 11 titles, famously dubbed Chamberlain a “malingerer” and many murmured that he was a distracted player. Distracted, hmmm? Maybe by the 20,000 women he allegedly claimed to have slept with over his lifetime?
2. Andre the Giant
andre-the-giant
Wrestling may be more entertainment than sport but, in a realm of steroid-enhanced giants, Andre the Giant was the biggest wrestler in the world. Beloved within the ring and out, Andre crossed into the mainstream as an entity unto himself. He appeared in movies, television programmes, and, most crucially, attracted the casual audience to wrestling. By 1993, Andre weighed over 500 pounds, at 7’4” in height. Acromegaly both gave him his remarkable stature, and drove his body towards a premature death at 47.
3. Jim Brown jim-brown
Jim Brown is perhaps the finest running back in the history of the National Football League. He resigned early from the Cleveland Browns in 1965 to make his way to Hollywood and feature films. His greatest post-football smash has to be the 1967’s The Dirty Dozen. But, far back in Brown’s undergraduate days, he also played collegiate lacrosse, becoming the second top scorer in the country his senior year. Can you picture being a Duke Lacrosse player, witnessing Syracuse’s 6’2”, 232-pound star running back powering down the field right toward you? Incidentally, Brown is also in the Lacrosse Hall of Fame.