Small Towns Made Famous By Sports Legends

[ckhthankgod]

Originally Posted by elchevere

I guess we can add Lafayette, LA for Ron Guidry though he was better known as “Louisiana Lightning”.

Is Lafayette small enough? It is a city of about 126,000 and had about 70-80,000 people there when he played.

[elchevere]

That’s not what I consider a big city....maybe I should have used the term small city rather than small town in the title of the thread.

Originally Posted by ckhthankgod

Is Lafayette small enough? It is a city of about 126,000 and had about 70-80,000 people there when he played.

[illadelph73]

Charles Barkley put Leeds, Alabama (11,773 as of 2010 census) on the map

[arr430]

Jimmie Foxx born and raised at Sudlersville MD, pop-500, a short walk from Delaware.

Mickey Mantle grew up in Commerce OK, born in even smaller Spavinaw.

[2goldens]

Joe Nameth in Tequesta, Florida,

[recycled]

I lived in Auburn, AL in the late 1990s. I had a chance to drive around to many places in Alabama & Georgia that were way off the tourist path. One time I visited the Jesse Owens Museum in Oakville, AL, which is near his birthplace and childhood home. His parents were sharecroppers in the Tennessee River valley of northern Alabama, about 15 miles from Decatur, AL.

Museum | Jesse Owens Museum

I was in the US Army stationed in West Berlin for a year or so in the mid-1970s. The Olympic Stadium where Jessie Owens won 4 gold medals in the 1936 Olympics is still an active sports venue, and there are many parks in the area. I went to that area often on weekends. The main street in front of the Olympic Stadium is aptly named Jesse-Owens-Allee, which you see upon walking out of the S-bahn local train station next to the Stadium.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Je...5!4d13.2368546

[ckhthankgod]

Maybe Jim Brown-Manhasset NY

Julius Erving(Dr. J)-Roosevelt NY

[illadelph73]

Former LSU now Bengals QB Joe Burrow was born in Ames, Iowa and raised in Athens, Ohio. Derek Jeter was born in Pequannock Township, New Jersey (15,540 in 2010, and lost population via a 2019 estimate to 14,965). Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist was born in Åre, Sweden (3,200).