Top 10 Best Athletes of the 1970s

The Top Ten

Martina Navratilova

Martina Navratilova is a retired tennis player and coach who holds both Czech and American citizenship. She was born on October 18, 1956, in Prague and became a U.S. citizen in 1981, later regaining Czech citizenship in 2008. Navratilova won 59 Grand Slam titles across singles, doubles, and mixed doubles,... read more
Muhammad Ali

Muhammad Ali, born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. (January 17, 1942 - June 3, 2016), was an American professional boxer, activist, entertainer, poet, and philanthropist. Nicknamed The Greatest, he is widely regarded as one of the most significant and celebrated sporting figures of the 20th century. Ali is... read more

No doubt, Ali is number one on other great lists listed on The Top 10s. Here are some amazing 1970s honors for Ali: 1974 was an amazing awards year for Ali. He was named the Hickok Belt Athlete of the Year, Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year, Ring Magazine Fighter of the Year, Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year, Sugar Ray Robinson Fighter of the Year, BBC Sports Personality World Sports Star of the Year, and ABC's Wide World of Sports Athlete of the Year, all for Ali knocking out Foreman.
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Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is an American retired professional basketball player who played 20 seasons in the National Basketball Association for the Milwaukee Bucks and the Los Angeles Lakers. He is the NBA's all-time leading scorer with 38,387 points, a record he held from 1989 until it was surpassed in 2023... read more
Mark Spitz

Mark Andrew Spitz, born on February 10, 1950, is an American former competitive swimmer. He is a nine-time Olympic champion and held world records in seven events. Spitz gained international fame at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games where he won seven gold medals, each in world-record time.

Why is Mark the best swimmer of this decade? Here are seven reasons:
1. 200-meter butterfly in 2:00.70
2. 4 x 100-meter freestyle relay in 3:26.42
3. 200-meter freestyle in 1:52.78
4. 100-meter butterfly in 54.27
5. 4 x 200-meter freestyle relay in 7:35.78
6. 100-meter freestyle in 51.22
7. 4 x 100-meter medley relay in 3:48.16
Seven world records, seven gold medals, and he later met Bob Hope.
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Richard Petty

NASCAR and Richard Petty go hand in hand. After dominating the 1960s, Petty delivered more of the same in the 1970s. In 1971, driving the Plymouth Road Runner (named after the famed Looney Tunes character), he won the Daytona 500. Two years later, he and Buddy Baker went at it in an unforgettable Daytona 500 shootout. Baker dropped out with an engine problem with six laps to go, giving Petty his fourth Daytona 500 win.
The next year, in what racing writers called the Daytona "450" due to the energy crisis, it was Petty all the way in a dominating performance. This victory was part of Petty's legacy as NASCAR's all-time greatest winner.
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Ken Dryden
Carlos Monzon

Now entering the ring: Carlos Monzon. In exactly 100 bouts, he won 87, and 59 of them came by knockout. Monzon was a treasure in boxing's golden era, long before HBO got into boxing. On November 7, 1970, he fought against Nino Benvenuti for the undisputed Middleweight Championship. The boxing world was in shock to see Monzon attacking Benvenuti. In Round 12, a right hand landed perfectly on Benvenuti's chin, and the title changed hands.
Monzon later beat Benvenuti in a return match on May 8, 1971. Eight years after his death (1995), Ring Magazine named him as one of the 100 hardest punchers of all time. Awesome stuff.
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Phil Esposito
Roger Staubach

Roger Thomas Staubach, nicknamed Captain America and Captain Comeback, is a former American football quarterback in the National Football League. He played his entire career (1969-1979) with the Dallas Cowboys, winning two Super Bowls and earning six Pro Bowl selections. Staubach was inducted into the... read more
Bjorn Borg

Björn Rune Borg is a Swedish former professional tennis player who was ranked world No. 1 during his career. He won 11 Grand Slam singles titles, including six French Opens and five consecutive Wimbledon titles between 1976 and 1980. Borg retired in 1983 at the age of 26 and remains a prominent figure... read more

He arrived on the scene at the same time in his country that ABBA also arrived on the pop music scene. Borg's five straight Wimbledon titles were the stuff of tennis legend. At Wimbledon in 1976, he made tennis history by becoming the first Wimbledon champion without dropping a set. He easily beat the following stars: David Allan Lloyd, Marty Riessen, Colin Dibley, Brian Gottfried, Guillermo Vilas, Roscoe Tanner, and then the big one, Ilie Năstase, to begin a domination at Wimbledon. Here in America, the men's final that year wasn't live, but soon it would change just in time for Borg.
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The Newcomers

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Billie Jean King

Billie Jean King (née Moffitt, born November 22, 1943), also known as BJK, is an American former world No. 1 tennis player.
Widely regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time, King won 39 Grand Slam titles, including 12 in singles, 16 in women's doubles, and 11 in mixed doubles.... read more
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Pele

Edson Arantes do Nascimento, known as "Pelé", was a Brazilian professional footballer who played as a forward. In 1999, he was named Athlete of the Century by the International Olympic Committee and was included in Time's list of the 100 most important people of the 20th century. In 2000, Pelé was voted... read more

The Contenders

Johan Cruyff

Hendrik Johannes "Johan" Cruijff (April 25, 1947 - March 24, 2016) was a Dutch professional football player and coach. He won the Ballon d'Or three times, in 1971, 1973, and 1974... read more
Bob McAdoo

Robert Allen McAdoo Jr. (born September 25, 1951) is an American former professional basketball player and coach. He played 14 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA), where he was a five-time NBA All-Star and was named the NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) in 1975.... read more

The Los Angeles Clippers would not exist today had they not drafted this man, Bob McAdoo. In his five seasons, he was basketball in Buffalo, being named NBA Rookie of the Year in 1973. The scoring titles were a lot, but not as many as Michael Jordan achieved. However, three straight NBA scoring titles were still great for him. He stayed with a team that went from losing 61 games in 1973 to the brink of the NBA Finals in 1976. He even appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated that year. He played in three straight NBA All-Star games as a Buffalo Brave and was the 1975 NBA MVP. Bob, a legend for all times.
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Vasily Alekseyev

In my opinion, the best European athlete ever.
Nadia Comaneci

Nadia Elena Comăneci is a Romanian retired gymnast. She is a five-time Olympic gold medalist, all in individual events.
In 1976, at the age of 14, Comăneci became the first gymnast to be awarded a perfect score of 10.0 at the Olympic Games. At the same Games, she received six more perfect 10s... read more
Franz Beckenbauer

Franz Anton Beckenbauer (born September 11, 1945, died January 7, 2024) was a German professional footballer and manager. Early in his playing career, he was nicknamed "Der Kaiser" because of his elegant style, dominance, and leadership on the field. His first name "Franz" also evokes the legacy of Austrian... read more

A lot of world-unknown athletes are included in this list. Franz should be in the top ten.
Teófilo Stevenson

Teofilo achieved something that no other boxer did in the Olympics: winning three consecutive heavyweight titles. This list focuses on his moments in the 1970s. In the 1972 edition, he defeated Ludwig Dendeys and Duane Bobick, the same fighter who defeated Larry Holmes to qualify for the Olympics. He then defeated Peter Hussing on his way to winning the gold. The trend continued in 1976, as he first defeated Mamadou Drame, then Pekka Ruokola, and finally future WBA Heavyweight champion John Tate and Mircea Simon, solidifying his status as an instant boxing legend.
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Niki Lauda

Niki was a master on the Formula 1 circuit, winning two F1 championships, but it was 1976 that, in my mind, showed what this racing legend was all about. The German Grand Prix was a race that many thought was Lauda's last, as he suffered a massive crash and was given a 10 percent chance to live. He survived the accident and raced on with sheer heart, never surrendering.
The final race in Japan was a massive downpour. Lauda, in my book, may have made the right choice by not risking another massive accident and leaving the race early when visibility was bad. Lauda was truly one of the 1970s best.
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Chris Evert

Christine Marie Chris Evert (born December 21, 1954) is an American former professional tennis player who held the world No. 1 ranking for 260 total weeks, the most in WTA history at the time. She won 18 Grand Slam singles titles: seven at the French Open, an Open Era record for women, and six at the... read more
Jackie Stewart

Jackie was truly a legendary race car driver, with three Formula 1 championships and the distinction of being the first driver to be honored as Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year in 1973, as well as the ABC Wide World of Sports Athlete of the Year that same year. But more than the wins and the championships, he was a pioneer of safety in auto racing. He wanted to make sure that Formula 1 is the safest racing promotion in the world.
After his retirement from racing in 1973, Formula 1 improved slowly year by year. Today, thanks to Stewart, Formula 1 is now a worldwide racing spectacle.
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Joe Frazier

Joseph William "Smokin' Joe" Frazier (January 12, 1944 - November 7, 2011) was an American professional boxer who competed from 1965 to 1981. He was the undisputed heavyweight champion from 1970 to 1973. As an amateur, he won a gold medal in the heavyweight division at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo... read more

Joe Frazier definitely needs to be counted among the best athletes of the 1970s. After all, he won the Fight of the Century against Ali and came out as the undisputed heavyweight champion.
He gave Ali the beating of his life.
Yurik Vardanyan

A forgotten legend of the 1970s, unless you live in Russia. This man took weightlifting into the 1980s, breaking many records. But the biggest occurred on the biggest stage in sports, the 1980 Summer Olympics. He became the first light-heavyweight to lift 400 pounds successfully and won the gold. It was one of 21 gold medals he won in international competition. To this day, he remains a hero in his hometown of Armenia for his deeds in the sport of weightlifting.
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Nikolai Andrianov
Olga Korbut

One of the greatest female gymnasts ever.
Larry Robinson
Rod Carew

On November 16, 1977, Carew was named American League MVP in a season for the ages. It was not how he did it, but that he did it in a season headlined by another team - the New York Yankees - for its daily, real-life soap opera. Carew's stats were out of this world that year. He hit .388, led the American League in hits (239), runs scored (128), and triples (16). He also had 100 RBIs and 23 stolen bases.
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