re: Greatest athlete from your state

quote:

---

Michael Jordan

---

Born in Brooklyn, NY.

quote:

---

Steve Spurrier

---

Born in Miami, FL.

Now do it per capita and shut these Aggies up. frick, why wouldn't they have the most, they're a country by themselves.

quote:

---

She is a friend of my DIL best friend. Their kids trained at the same gym in Fairmont just a few years ago. 
She grew up there until she came here. Then she moved back. She IS NOT from Houston or Spring where she is currently living. Regardless of where her husband played football. 
You can’t “claim” them unless they were born in your state. 

Would you consider Alan Faneca from Houston? He played high school football in Houston Area? His family moved to here from New Orleans area. He lived elsewhere during his playing career. 

I wouldn’t consider Pistol Pete as “from Louisiana” he wasn’t born there, didn’t play high school basketball there. 

Let’s get really clear on how this crap works: 

Did you know that Texas only has 2 Texas born QBs to ever win a Super Bowl? 
Brees and Foles that’s it. You want to compare Louisiana QBs that have won SBs? 
No comparison - 9 and that’s just off the top of my head that i can think of. 

---

It is where someone says they are from...
Some of you are trying to determine where someone is from.
That is their choice.
Their choice alone.

Like I said...
Someone like Shaq would not say they are from Texas.
While others like Clyde Drexler, Roger Clemens and Mary Lou Retton would.

Mary Lou Retton has lived in Texas since the early 1980's.
Close to 40 years.
This is before the 84 Olympics...

Her connection to WV was because her father was working there at the time as a coal executive.
Born somewhere because that was where her dad worked.

If you spend the majority of your youth somewhere I say that is where they are from. Mary Lou Retton spent the majority of her youth in West Virginia. Birth-16 she was in WV.

It is still their choice.

Had to be before she was 16....

Don't know exactly when she left West Virginia but it as between 1980-1984.
So between 12-16.
I think she was living in Southern California for a time as well before she ended up in Houston before the Olympics.

quote:

---

Wilma Rudolph for Tennessee


Willie Gault should be mentioned for Georgia. He was a winter Olympian, and would have been a summer one were it not for the boycott. Plus he was very good at football.

---

Reggie always comes to mind first because of football but you're damn right about Wilma Rudolph. Good call. It seems that producing great female athletes is a Tennessee thing all the way around. Even Pat Summitt was an Olympic medalist (Silver as an athlete and Gold as a coach).

Also, I agree that Gault is a good one for Georgia -- amazing athlete.

quote:

---

Her connection to WV was because her father was working there at the time as a coal executive.
Born somewhere because that was where her dad worked.

---

Good lord. She graduated high school in fairmont. She SAYS SHE IS FROM Fairmont WV just like Saban does if you ask them where they are from or what is their hometown they are from.
She did move back in 2009 and lived there until 2012 before coming back to Houston.

quote:

---

Good lord. She graduated high school in fairmont. She SAYS SHE IS FROM Fairmont WV just like Saban does if you ask them where they are from or what is their hometown they are from. 
She did move back in 2009 and lived there until 2012 before coming back to Houston. 

---

Don't get so emotional...
She left West Virginia and never returned.
How did she graduate from there when she was living in Houston...

Saban says he is from West Virginia...No one is questioning that.
Still has ties to the state

Mary Lou on the otherhand wants to be a Texan.
Who can blame her?

It is a personal choice.
If someone moves to Texas and wants to be called a Texan...That is their right.

Doesn't matter what we say. It is not our decision.

Like with someone like Carl Lewis or Shaq.

Lewis may have been born in Alabama but grew up in New Jersey.
I have no idea what state Carl Lewis would claim
Neither with Shaq.

I do know Mary Lou Retton would call herself a Texan.
She could have moved anywhere in the country after her career was done but stayed in Texas and attended the University of Texas.

She could have left last year after her divorce as well.

I see your point and its a fair point. I just am going by a strict interpretation of the OP " From your state" being where you someone was born.