20 Athletes Who Became Household Names Before TV Existed

Babe Ruth (who first starred with the Boston Red Sox) was the primary attraction for the New York Yankees, transforming the low-scoring “Deadball Era” of baseball into a show of big-league power. He swatted 60 home runs in 1927; the record held for 34 years. His popularity helped fill the well-known Yankee Stadium, which opened in 1923. It was even dubbed “The House That Ruth Built.” Ruth basically became a media pioneer, writing newspaper columns and signing endorsements, all without a single camera broadcasting his swings live!

Jesse Owens, an American track-and-field star, won four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics in the 100m, 200m, long jump and 4x100m relay. The event was filmed by newsreel cameras from around the world. Despite a popular story that Adolf Hitler personally snubbed Owens, Hitler had stopped greeting individual athletes after the first day, following Olympic neutrality guidance. Owens later said that the snub came back home instead: President Franklin D. Roosevelt never invited him to the White House.

Boxer Jack Johnson defeated Tommy Burns in Australia on December 26, 1908, and became the first African American heavyweight champion. He won a knockout victory over former champion Jim Jeffries, who was undefeated at the time, on July 4, 1910, in the “Fight of the Century” in Reno, Nevada. Johnson’s victories prompted riots and other racially motivated actions across the country. Federal officials prosecuted Johnson in 1912 on racially motivated grounds for violations of the Mann Act after he crossed state lines with a white woman, and he was posthumously pardoned in 2018.

Joe Louis (“The Brown Bomber”), a World Heavyweight Champion for more than 11 years, with 25 title defenses, defeated German boxer Max Schmeling (who had earlier defeated him) on June 22, 1938, at Yankee Stadium, in a rematch, knocking him out in 124 seconds. Barely enough time to settle in for a fight. The fight was heard by millions on radio. It represented a triumph of the American spirit and resistance to Nazism.

In 1912, American athlete Jim Thorpe of the Sac and Fox Nation won gold medals in the pentathlon and the decathlon at the Summer Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden. King Gustav V of Sweden allegedly declared him “the greatest athlete in the world.” However, in 1913 officials stripped Thorpe’s medals after discovering he had been paid for semi-pro baseball games. Thorpe’s official status was reinstated as the sole recipient of the 1912 gold medals in 2022, decades after he had led the league that became the NFL, starting in 1920.

On August 6, 1926, 20-year-old American swimmer Gertrude Ederle became the first woman to swim the English Channel, completing her journey in 14 hours and 31 minutes, almost two hours ahead of the previous men’s record. Although she was not the first person to cross the English Channel, as Captain Matthew Webb achieved the feat in 1875, her triumphant return to New York City was marked by an estimated two million spectators lining her ticker-tape parade. That kind of turnout for a swimmer certainly puts modern follower counts into perspective. President Calvin Coolidge proclaimed her America’s Best Girl.

Baseball star Ty Cobb spent 22 seasons in the majors, mostly with the Detroit Tigers. He holds an MLB career batting average record of .366 and had 4,189 hits, a record until 1985, making him one of the biggest sources of baseball headlines from 1905 through the 1920s.

Swimmer Johnny Weissmuller was a five-time Olympic gold medalist (Paris 1924, Amsterdam 1928) and never lost an amateur race. He was the first man to swim the 100-meter freestyle in under a minute on July 9, 1922, when he swam the distance in 58.6 seconds. He built his celebrity as an athlete long before he was cast as Tarzan in the 1932 film that spawned 11 more sequels.

Sonja Henie was a Norwegian figure skater who won three consecutive Olympic gold medals in 1928, 1932, and 1936 and also won ten straight World Championships from 1927 to 1936. She even introduced short skirts and choreography to figure skating. In 1936, she became one of the highest-paid Hollywood stars after signing with 20th Century Fox, and later toured North America with successful commercial ice shows. From Olympic ice to Hollywood marquees is quite the career change.

Playing college football at the University of Illinois, Harold “Red” Grange, known as The Galloping Ghost, scored four touchdowns in the first 12 minutes of a game against Michigan on October 18, 1924, before finishing with five. Sportswriter Grantland Rice wrote of Grange: “A streak of fire, a breath of flame.” In November 1925, Grange signed with the NFL’s Chicago Bears and led them on a traveling exhibition tour throughout the country, drawing enormous crowds everywhere he played.

Boxer Jack Dempsey was called “The Manassa Mauler.” He reigned as the World Heavyweight Champion between 1919 and 1926. Promoted by Tex Rickard, his bouts brought in the first million-dollar gates in boxing, meaning more than $1 million in ticket sales. After losing his title to Gene Tunney in 1926, Dempsey faced him again on September 22, 1927. In round seven, Dempsey knocked Tunney down. Dempsey did not step back into the neutral corner as the new rules required. Referee Dave Barry suspended his count until Dempsey moved, giving Tunney extra time to get up. He did, and he won.

Australian cricketer Don Bradman ended his Test career with a batting average of 99.94. It remains the highest average ever recorded in Test cricket and by a significant margin. In his last Test innings in 1948, he required only four runs to achieve a perfect 100.00 average but was dismissed without scoring a run. Australians were proud of Bradman’s success against England, particularly during the Great Depression, when his success offered rare national pride.

Golfer Bobby Jones ruled 1920s golf as a strict amateur while practicing law on the side. In 1930 he became the only man to complete the sport’s original Grand Slam of winning the U.S. Open, U.S. Amateur, British Open and British Amateur in one year, a feat that combined professional and amateur titles unlike today’s four professional majors. Jones then retired from competitive play at age 28 and eventually helped found Augusta National Golf Club, which hosts the Masters Tournament.

William “Bill” Tilden II, also called “Big Bill,” was ranked world No. 1 in tennis from 1920 to 1925, winning 10 Grand Slam singles titles including seven U.S. Championships and three Wimbledons. In 1920, he became the first American man to win Wimbledon singles. His big serve and flamboyant personality drew crowds to pay to see him play around the country, bolstered by extensive newspaper and radio reporting.

From 1919 to 1926, French tennis phenom Suzanne Lenglen lost just one singles match. The sport’s first international female superstar, Lenglen won 21 official Grand Slam tournament titles (eight singles, eight doubles, five mixed) and 10 World Hard Court Championships during that era. Her iconic calf-length silk tennis dresses, designed by Jean Patou, replaced the tight-fitting corsets women had worn prior to her and permanently changed athletic clothing.

In the late 1890s, track cycling was the top spectator sport in America. On August 10, 1899, Marshall “Major” Taylor claimed the 1-mile World Track Cycling Championship title in Montreal, becoming the first African American world champion in the sport. Despite facing Jim Crow laws, track sabotage, and threats by white competitors, he set seven world records in 1899 and subsequently embarked on international tours in Europe, Australia, and North America to large crowds.

At the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics, American athlete Mildred “Babe” Didrikson Zaharias claimed two golds (javelin and 80m hurdles) and one silver (high jump, after officials deemed her jumping method illegal), then shifted to golf, co-founded the LPGA in 1950, and went on to win 10 LPGA majors. One sport clearly wasn’t enough. She received AP’s Female Athlete of the Year award six times from 1932 through 1954.

Long-distance walker Edward Payson Weston covered 478 miles from Boston to Washington, D.C. in 10 days in 1861 as repayment for a lost bet following the 1860 presidential election win by Abraham Lincoln. Newspaper coverage of the feat made Weston one of America’s first athletic superstars and ignited “pedestrianism,” a 19th century obsession with long-distance walking races. Yes, competitive walking was once a major spectator sport. At age 70, Weston walked 3,895 miles from New York to San Francisco in 104 days in 1909.

Boxer John L. Sullivan, known as the Boston Strong Boy, was World Heavyweight Champion from 1882 to 1892. His most famous match came on July 8, 1889, when he defeated his challenger Jake Kilrain after 75 bare-fisted rounds under London Prize Ring rules, making it the final bare-knuckle title fight. Sullivan subsequently went on tour, promising a cash prize for anyone able to go three rounds with him. He lost his title in 1892 to boxer James J. Corbett, in a match fought under the newer Queensberry rules, which required gloves.

First baseman Lou Gehrig of the New York Yankees, where he played alongside Babe Ruth, was nicknamed The Iron Horse and was famous for his streak of 2,130 consecutive games played. After being diagnosed with ALS, a fatal neuromuscular disease, he retired and made his farewell speech at Yankee Stadium on July 4, 1939, which was transmitted by radio to fans across the country. “Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth,” Gehrig said.

This content was created with the help of AI.