Sports’ best non-champions
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Published: November 8, 2009
A case could be made for Mark Martin as the best NASCAR driver to never win a championship. If so, he’d be in good company with some great athletes who fell short of the pinnacle in their respective sports.
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The NFL’s best players
without a Super Bowl title
→Dan Marino: Holds or has held every significant
NFL passing record, but failed in his only Super Bowl appearance.
→Barry Sanders: Routinely grouped with
Jim Brown in the argument of the greatest running back ever, but
Detroit was dismal in the playoffs.
→Dick Butkus: The most feared linebacker to ever take the field never played in a championship game.
→Anthony Munoz: The
Cincinnati left tackle helped make
Ickey Woods famous, but never got a ring.
→Warren Moon: He won five
Grey Cup titles in six
CFL seasons, but couldn’t continue that success in the NFL.
→Other notables: Bruce Smith,
Archie Manning,
Eric Dickerson,
Fran Tarkenton, Dan Fouts
The NBA’s best players
without a championship
→Elgin Baylor: Saved the
Lakers franchise and made eight fruitless trips to the
NBA Finals.
→Charles Barkley: His TNT studio show won an Emmy, but his on-court pursuit of a trophy never materialized.
→Karl Malone and John Stockton: The great
Jazz duo had their best title shots ended by
Michael Jordan in 1997 and ’98.
→Patrick Ewing: Couldn’t win it when Jordan was in the league or out of it.
→Other notables: George Gervin,
Steve Nash,
Dominique Wilkins,
Jason Kidd, Allen Iverson
Major League Baseball’s best players
without a World Series title
→Ted Williams: Two Triple Crowns, two MVPs, six batting titles, a career .344 batting average with 521 home runs, but no championships.
→Ty Cobb: Baseball’s first great player lost three straight World Series from 1907-09.
→Barry Bonds: Hit more home runs and created more controversy than any player, but was generally quiet in the postseason.
→Don Sutton: The 324-game winner pitched for the 1988 Dodgers but wasn’t on the World Series roster.
→Ernie Banks: Like Williams, a great hitter doomed by his team’s long-standing postseason shortcomings.
→Other notables: Carl Yazstremski,
Harmon Killebrew,
Rod Carew,
Tony Gwynn, Ferguson Jenkins
The best Cup drivers without a championship
→Junior Johnson: His 50 career wins are tied for 10th all-time, better than any driver without a championship.
→Mark Martin: Has 40 wins, and more runner-up and top-five finishes than any other non-champion.
→Fireball Roberts: Sixth in career win percentage and 20th in total victories with 33.
→Fred Lorenzen: Only ran 158 races over 12 years and won 26, the best winning percentage of non-champs and fifth overall.
→Davey Allison: Won 19 times in 191 races before his death in a helicopter crash at age 32.
→Other notables: Jim Paschal,
Jeff Burton,
Ricky Rudd,
Jack Smith, Speedy Thompson
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