Courtesy of the Star Tribune
December 25, 1999

The Star Tribune's Top 100
most important Minnesota sports figures of the century culminates a year-long project looking back at the athletes, teams and characters so memorable in our state's sports history.

And  what better way to end this series than with a special section that ranks those personalities.

We began assembling names for our list last summer. Staff members Kevin Bertels, Dennis Brackin, Patrick Reusse, Jon Roe, Jay Weiner, Tim Wheatley and Judd Zullgad, all with in-depth knowledge of Minnesota sports, were joined by three outsiders with as much, if not more, knowledge: Dave Mona, a former Minneapolis Tribune sportswriter, chairman of Shandwick public relations and co-host of WCCO Radio's Sunday Morning Sports Huddle; Dorothy McIntyre, associate executive director of the Minnesota State High School League; and Harry Davis, a former Golden Gloves boxing official.

We started with a list of names a mile long and eventually pared it to a more workable number: 153.

From that list, our voters were asked to rank their choices 1 through 100. We awarded 100 points for a first-place vote, 99 points for a second-place vote, etc.

It was obvious early that two of our panelists were under consideration for the Top 100.

Indeed, both McIntyre and David were selected. However, they were not allowed to vote for themselves. To compensate, the average score from the other scoresheets were added to the point totals for both nominees.

We hope we have stirred some memories.

--Glen Crevier, assistant managing editor for sports