Two athletes with local ties are among Sports Illustrated's "50 Greatest Sports Figures of the Century" for the state of Wisconsin.
Former University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point guard Terry Porter is No. 21 and Stevens Point Area Senior High graduate Suzy Favor-Hamilton is ranked No. 31.
Porter, who now plays for the San Antonio Spurs, the NBA's defending champion, played for the Pointers from 1981-85. He holds the program's all-time single-season scoring record with 600 points in 1983-84 and is third on the all-time scoring list with 1,585.
Sports Illustrated, which listed the top 50 from each state in its Dec. 27, 1999-Jan. 3, 1999 double issue, wrote a description for every Wisconsin athlete in a special state issue. "Two-time NAIA All-America at Wisconsin-Stevens Point; appeared in two NBA finals with Blazers; hit 1,000th three-pointer last year with Heat," the magazine wrote about Porter.
Favor-Hamilton won numerous WIAA titles at SPASH, Big Ten and NCAA championships at UW-Madison and participated in the Olympics.
Sports Illustrated described Favor-Hamilton by writing: "Won 23 Big Ten and nine NCAA distance running titles at Wisconsin from 1987 to '90."
Eric Heiden of Madison, who won five gold medals in speed skating in the 1980 Olympics, was ranked No. 1.
Porter and his former UW-SP coach Dick Bennett both appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's ranking of the state's best.
Porter was ranked No. 22 in the paper's "Top 25 Athletes" and Bennett, who now coaches the Badgers, is eighth among the "Top 10 Coaches, Managers, etc."
Bennett coached the Pointers from the 1976-77 season until the 1984-85 campaign. He left UW-SP to head the UW-Green Bay program and then moved on to take the top job with the Badgers. His teams have made several NCAA tournament appearances.
Cliff Christl of the Journal Sentinel, who compiled the lists, wrote Bennett is "(r)ated by his peers in several polls as one of the best college basketball coaches in the country."
Ernie Nevers of Superior, who the Journal Sentinel said "(f)inished fourth in 1950 in a vote to determine the greatest football player of the half-century" was listed the No. 1 athlete. Green Bay Packers founder, coach and player Curly Lambeau was ranked No. 1 in the "Top 10 Coaches, Managers, etc."