Who is the most important person in the history of sports in the state of Alabama?

Inspired by a debate on ESPN earlier this week, we’re seeking to answer that question. “Most important” is a highly subjective term, which we take to include not only on-field athletic exploits, but also fame and cultural impact.

It’s not an easy task, given that this state has produced many transcendent figures in the world of sports over the years. But we have narrowed it down to 10 we believe best answer the question we posed above.

For this list, we considered those who were both born in Alabama and grew up here, or who made their professional lives in the state. Thus, we don’t include those sports legends who were born in the state but left as small children and made their names elsewhere, such as Jesse Owens, Joe Louis and Mia Hamm.

Here’s our list:

10. Vonetta Jeffery Flowers

A Birmingham native and seven-time All-American as a track & field sprinter and long jumper at UAB, Flowers became a pioneer for both women and African-Americans in winter sports. She teamed with Jill Bakken to win the Olympic gold medal in the two-person bobsled in Salt Lake City in 2002, becoming the first Black athlete (male or female) from any country to win gold at the Winter Olympics. Flowers later won a bronze medal at the 2004 World Championships and competed in the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin before retiring from competition to raise a family with her husband, Johnny. She was elected to the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in 2011.

9. Bobby Allison

The leader of NASCAR’s “Alabama Gang,” Allison helped turn stock-car racing from a regional enterprise to a nationwide phenomenon during his heyday in the 1970s and 80s. Racing alongside brother Donnie Allison and fellow Hueytown residents Red Farmer and Neil and David Bonnett (and later sons Davey and Clifford Allison), Allison was among the most-popular drivers on the circuit for more than two decades. He won the Daytona 500 three times among his 85 Cup Series victories (which also included four wins at Alabama’s Talladega Superspeedway), and was Winston Cup points series champion in 1983. Allison is a member of the International Motor Sports Hall of Fame, the NASCAR Hall of Fame and in 2023 was named one of the sport’s 75 Greatest Drivers.

8. Satchel Paige

Major League Baseball and independent researchers have done a good job in recent years of highlighting pre-integration Black baseball in this country, but what we know about the Negro Leagues is largely due to the exploits of Paige, the ageless Mobile native who might be the greatest pitcher of all-time. Including barnstorming exhibitions, international competition and official league contests in a career that lasted until he was nearly 60, Paige is reputed to have won nearly 2,000 games. He was also well-known as a master showman and eccentric personality, whose “Six Rules for Staying Young” became part of the cultural lexicon.

7. Bobby Bowden

A Birmingham native and Howard (now Samford) graduate, Bowden became one of the greatest coaches in college football history after leaving his home state. In 34 years at Florida State from 1976-2009, he won 316 games, 21 bowl games, 12 conference championships and national titles in 1993 and 1999. Bowden’s Seminoles finished in the Top 5 in the final national rankings every year from 1987-2000. He also won another 73 games at Howard and West Virginia, giving him a total of 389 victories in his career. A two-time national Coach of the Year, Bowden was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2006.

6. Charles Barkley

A Leeds native, Barkley was SEC Player of the Year at Auburn in 1984 and an 11-time All-Star and league Most Valuable Player in an NBA career that spanned 16 seasons from 1984-2000. He was also a key part of the 1992 U.S. Olympic “Dream Team,” which dominated the competition in Barcelona and helped spark an explosion of the game internationally. A member of the NBA’s 50th and 75th anniversary all-time teams, the outspoken Barkley has become even more well-known since his playing career ended, first as an advertising pitch man and more recently as a broadcaster on the Emmy Award-winning “Inside the NBA” studio show on TNT.

5. Willie Mays

Arguably the greatest baseball player who ever lived, Mays grew up in the Westfield neighborhood of Birmingham and played for the Negro American League’s Black Barons as a 17-year-old before signing with the New York Giants in 1950. The 1951 National League Rookie of the Year, a 24-time All-Star, 12-time Gold Glove winner and two-time National League Most Valuable Player in a career that spanned 22 seasons, his 660 career home runs remain sixth all-time in MLB. A 1979 inductee into the Baseball Hall of Fame and a member of MLB’s All-Century Team, Mays is perhaps best-remembered for his other-worldly catch in deep center field during Game 1 of the 1954 World Series, believed by many to be the most-sensational defensive play in the sport’s history.

4. Nick Saban

A West Virginia native, Saban restored Alabama football to glory and put together what might be the greatest sustained run of coaching excellence in college football history during his 17-year tenure in Tuscaloosa. His Crimson Tide teams won 206 games (losing only 29), nine SEC championships and six national titles (including 2003 at LSU, Saban has a record seven national championships as a coach). Saban won at least one national Coach of the Year Award in six different seasons, was SEC Coach of the Year four times while at Alabama, and coached three Heisman Trophy winners and 76 first-team All-Americans. Saban — who will be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in December — ventured into broadcasting following his retirement at the end of the 2023 season, and won an Emmy for his first year of work on ESPN’s College GameDay pre-game show.

3. Bo Jackson

There was a time in the late 1980s and early 1990s that Jackson was the most-famous athlete on the planet, a star in both baseball and football and a ubiquitous advertising pitchman. The Bessemer native won the Heisman Trophy and the SEC Male Athlete of the Year award at Auburn in 1985, but shocked many when he publicly announced he would pursue two sports at the professional level — something no one had done successfully in decades. The Most Valuable Player of the 1989 MLB All-Star Game and a Pro Bowl selection a year later with the NFL’s Los Angeles Raiders, Jackson’s football career was ended by a severe hip injury suffered during a playoff game in January 1991. He continued to play baseball for several more years with the Chicago White Sox and California Angels, however, hitting a home run in his first at-bat following hip replacement surgery in 1993.

2. Paul ‘Bear’ Bryant

Saban may have surpassed many of his records, but Alabama football would not exist in its current form without the foundation put in place by Bryant during his quarter-century tenure from 1958-82. An Arkansas native, Bryant started at end on a Rose Bowl champion Crimson Tide team in 1934, and returned to his alma mater as head coach more than two decades later. In 25 seasons, Bryant won 232 games, 13 SEC championships and six national titles, retiring as the winningest coach in major-college football history with 323 victories. A 12-time SEC Coach of the Year, three-time National Coach of the Year and a 1986 College Football Hall of Fame inductee, Bryant became synonymous with the state of Alabama during his 1960s and 70s glory years. His 1983 funeral — he died just 28 after coaching his last game with the Crimson Tide — became a day of mourning throughout the state, with hundreds attending services and several thousand more watching the procession pass on its journey from Tuscaloosa to Birmingham.

1. Hank Aaron

A Mobile native, “Hammerin’ Hank” held the most-famous record in all of sports for more than 30 years. A 25-time All-Star, National Rookie of the Year, MVP and World Series champion during his career with the Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves and Milwaukee Brewers, Aaron hit his 715th home run on April 8, 1974, overtaking Babe Ruth as baseball’s “Home Run King” and surpassing a record many figured might never be broken. He did so with grace and humility, despite facing torrents of racist hate mail and even death threats. Aaron’s home run record was broken by Barry Bonds in 2007, but he still holds MLB career marks for runs batted in (2,297), total bases (6,856) and extra-base hits (1,477). He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982 and was named a member of MLB’s All-Century Team in 1999.

Honorable mention

(in alphabetical order)

Gene Bartow, Sylvester Croom, Alice Coachman Davis, Mike Donahue, Pat Dye, Rowdy Gaines, John Heisman, Wendell Hudson, Wilbur Jackson, Ralph “Shug” Jordan, Joe Namath, Ozzie Newsome, James Owens, Sarah Patterson, Bruce Pearl, Bruce Pearl, Bart Starr, Pat Sullivan, Wallace Wade.

Creg Stephenson has worked for AL.com since 2010 and has written about sports for a variety of publications since 1994. Email him at [email protected].