Colorado Sports Icons: Who Are The Greatest Colorado Athletes? (PHOTOS, VOTE)

October 1, 2009 is official Joe Sakic Day in Colorado, so declared by Governor Ritter to honor the retired Avalanche legend, whose number 19 is being raised to the rafters on opening day. This got us thinking: who are the greatest Colorado sports icons of all time? See our list below, and vote for your top choices.

Joe Sakic

A former Hart Trophy and Conn Smythe trophy winner, Sakic played in 13 all star games and led the Avalance to 2 Stanley Cups. He played his entire 20-year NHL career with the Quebec Nordiques/Colorado Avalance franchise.

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Watch this commemorative Joe Sakic Youtube video produced for his retirement announcement earlier this year.

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Comments

[Jay Adams]

04:10 PM on 10/01/2009

How about athletes who are actually from Colorado, and possibly outside of 'mainstream' sports.

Bobby Julich. Grew up in Glenwood Springs, Got 3rd in Tour de France in '98.

[Frantag]

03:09 PM on 10/01/2009

Floyd Little
David Thompson
Coach Larry Brown
Lyle Alzado...

The candidates in the poll are all post 1985. Colorado's sports history goes back much further.

[RedStateCenterLeft]

09:32 AM on 10/01/2009

Obviously, the author of this has no clue as to anything in Colorado sports prior to the dawn of the Internet.

Let's set the time machine back a few years to add these greats.

Floyd Little. There would be no Elway without him.
David Thompson. There would be no Dikembe without him.
Keith Magnuson. He was ours long before he was Chicago's (Denver U. Hockey).

How about some coaches:

Larry Brown
Red Miller
Murray Armstrong (Denver U. Hockey. You'll need lots of fingers to count the NCAA titles.)
Terry Francona (Played for the Denver Zephyrs, setting a city minor league home run record.)
Tony La Russa (Player-coach for the Denver Bears.)

So, a little digging and maybe get some help from some "old timers" 'round here when thinking about who's the best ever.