The city of Houston's top five athletes

Here's a little discussion fodder for the weekend for you: Who would you consider to be Houston's top five athletes? The criteria, as noted by Stephanie Stradley, who gives her own answers plus some honorable mentions, are as follows:

1) What would a Houston sports fan say is his or her favorite local athlete? 2) Would the player's name be familiar to someone who doesn't follow sports or only follows local sports casually? 3) Would the player be recognized walking down the street?

There's an unmentioned fourth requirement in there, which is that the athlete must be actively playing, otherwise I can't imagine a list that didn't include at least three of Nolan Ryan, Jeff Bagwell, Earl Campbell, Hakeem Olajuwon, and maybe Carl Lewis. As for me, I'd swap Steph's #5 with the first runner-up, but that says more about my own sports biases than anything else. Beyond that, I've no real quibble. What do you think?

Posted by Charles Kuffner on June 23, 2007 to Other sports