There is a body of thought in professional sports that says rivalries – the stuff of heat and passion and acrimony – are on the wane.
Sure, there are rivalries, but are they too manufactured? Has it become too much a case of “our mercenaries vs. your mercenaries?” Has big money and free agency made today’s rivalries more trumped up than real?
“I just don’t see the kinds of bloodthirsty rivalries that you had in the past,” Hall of Fame NHL coach Scotty Bowman says. “Players are friends with the other team now. You didn’t have that in the past. If you were caught talking to another player, teammates and coaches would frown. Teams change so often now that rivalries are harder to establish.”
Many great rivalries still exist in college sports, such as Duke vs. North Carolina in basketball and Auburn vs. Alabama in football. But pro sports seem to have suffered a drop in good old-fashioned grudge matches.
Individual rivalries are perhaps even harder to find. Where are the Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier days, when it was impossible to be neutral as a fan? You were either an Ali guy or a Frazier guy. Where is the Larry Bird-Magic Johnson type of rivalry? Or the Joe DiMaggio-Ted Williams-style feuds?
Try to come up with a top 10 list of the best individual rivalries of all time, and it seems like all of them are from the distant past – although Roger Federer vs. Rafael Nadal – French Open finalists today – has the making of a great rivalry over the next few years.
Is there a lack of rivalries because of the increased financial comfort and notoriety of today’s pro athlete, and the vast increase in sports media that has made athletes more wary of controversy?
Whatever the reasons, here’s hoping the great one-on-one rivalries of the future can approximate these 10 from the past.
10 Gordie Howe
vs. “Rocket” Richard
Forgotten among today’s young hockey fans is just how bitter this personal rivalry was.
Both played right wing, on Original Six NHL teams. Both wore No. 9. Each player took turns winning goal-scoring championships, and Stanley Cups. Each played stylish, skillful games, but turned mean at the slightest provocation. Gordie Howe was a farm boy from Saskatchewan while Maurice Richard was French-Canadian. It was Red Wings vs. Canadiens, English vs. French, one great winger against another.
They met seven times in the playoffs, four times in the Finals. Howe’s teams won four meetings, including three of four in the Finals.
9 Bjorn Borg
vs. John McEnroe
They met 14 times, not including exhibitions. Borg won seven matches, McEnroe won seven.
They were a great contrast of style and temperament: Borg, the smooth, unflappable Swede, against the loudmouth New Yorker McEnroe. Their greatest match was the 1980 Wimbledon finals, which Borg won but is best remembered for the 18-16 tiebreaker McEnroe won to force a fifth set.
Tennis just didn’t get any better when these two went at it in their primes. Borg won 62 career matches to McEnroe’s 77, partly because he walked away from the game at an early age.
8 Carlton Fisk
vs. Thurman Munson
Some baseball historians believe the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry didn’t get truly nasty until these two came along, vying for the title of best catcher in the American League in the 1970s.
These two hated each other, period. Munson, a stumpy, mustachioed catcher from Ohio, resented the taller, more athletic and articulate Fisk. Fisk got more ink, but Munson’s teams won more.
Both were leaders of their teams and as tough as they came. They had a major brawl in 1972 when Munson barreled into Fisk at home plate, and the feud continued until Munson’s tragic death in a plane crash in 1979. Fisk was broken up by Munson’s death, and later called him one of the greatest players he ever played against.
7 Joe Louis
vs. Max Schmeling
When the German Schmeling became the first to beat the American Louis, in a 12-round match in 1936, he became a hero to the Nazi Party.
Problem was, Schmeling wanted nothing to do with Adolf Hitler and his politics. That didn’t stop Schmeling’s rematch with Louis, at Yankee Stadium in 1938, from being billed as a collision between world powers that soon would be at war. There may never be as much pure hype as there was before the rematch, but it didn’t last long. Louis knocked out Schmeling in 124 seconds.
The two men ended up good friends, with Schmeling helping to pay for Louis’ funeral.
6 Ted Williams
vs. Joe DiMaggio
It seems hardly imaginable, but the year Williams became the last player to hit .400 (.406 in 1941), he didn’t even win the American League MVP award.
Joltin’ Joe of the Yankees did. That was the year DiMaggio hit in 56 consecutive games, and their personal rivalry kept on from there. The men weren’t bitter enemies, but relations were often strained. Things didn’t get much better after they retired, with Williams proclaiming himself the greatest hitter who ever lived, while DiMaggio insisted on being introduced as the “World’s Greatest Living Ballplayer.”
Williams finished with better hitting statistics but never won a World Series, which DiMaggio did so regularly.
5 Jack Nicklaus
vs. Arnold Palmer
From 1960-66, these golfers combined to win six of seven Masters titles. When Nicklaus beat Palmer for the 1962 U.S. Open on his home course, the Oakmont Country Club just outside of Pittsburgh, a fierce rivalry kicked into gear. Nicklaus became the dominant force in golf, winning a record 18 majors, including six Masters green jackets, but Palmer was the charismatic crowd pleaser, with Arnie’s Army following his every step.
Their rivalry helped bring golf into the mainstream of American sports in the 1960s. The two were uneasy together in the early days, but became good friends in their later years.
4 Chris Evert
vs. Martina Navratilova
They met a staggering 80 times from 1973-88, not including numerous exhibitions.
In the end, their rivalry in women’s tennis was about as even as it could get. Navratilova won 43 of the 80 matches, but each finished with 18 Grand Slam singles titles.
Evert was the patient one from the baseline, while Navratilova was the hard-charging, more emotional player. They were barely cordial during the rivalry, but, as often is the case, they became good friends when their playing days ended. They often socialize in Aspen.
3 Larry Bird
vs. Magic Johnson
After playing against each other for the 1979 NCAA title, this pair would take the NBA to dizzying new heights in popularity in the 1980s – fueled in part by their bitter personal rivalry.
Johnson was from the “Showtime” Lakers, while Bird played for blue-collar Boston. Johnson won the college title game and a championship his first year with the Lakers, while Bird won rookie of the year and a title in his second year.
Bird won the first team matchup, in the 1984 Finals, but Johnson’s Lakers won in 1985 and 1987. Bird, a supreme trash talker, would yell, “Hey, I got a little one” when Johnson ended up guarding Bird on a switch. It wasn’t until they filmed a commercial together in 1984 that the two became more friendly, and when Johnson was diagnosed with HIV, one of the first people who called him was Bird.
2 Wilt Chamberlain
vs. Bill Russell
Their teams would meet 142 times in their long NBA careers, with Russell’s Boston Celtics winning 85. While Russell clearly could claim superiority in overall team success, winning 11 championships overall to Chamberlain’s two, Wilt’s backers could point to his astounding statistics in arguing their man was better.
Chamberlain averaged 28.7 points and 28.7 rebounds per game against Russell, who averaged 14.5 points and 23.7 rebounds. Chamberlain scored 62 points on Russell in a Jan. 14, 1962, game. But Russell’s team won, 145-136.
All in all, it was The Rivalry of all of basketball, not to be remotely approached until Bird and Magic came along.
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1 Joe Frazier vs. Muhammad Ali
There was unparalleled hype surrounding these two legendary boxers when they fought. They met three times, including 1975’s “Thrilla in Manila” that was watched by 700 million people worldwide. Frazier was the working man’s hero, the quiet, plodding puncher from Philadelphia who was always coming hard. Ali was the brash, controversial showman who converted to Islam and talked about how pretty he was.
There was genuine animosity between the two, especially from Frazier’s camp, but they respected each other and helped take boxing to new heights. Ali won two of the three bouts and will always be known as “The Greatest” to millions of boxing fans.
