Hockey

Mario Lemieux

Le Magnifique's per-game averages for goals (.823) and points (2.01) are the highest of any player in NHL history.

"Silently, serenely, Mario Lemieux comes to kill you. He arrives as if from nowhere, a towering apparition looming 6'7" above the ice in his three-inch-high skates."
—JON SCHER SI, Nov. 16, 1992

Gordie Howe

Mr. Hockey, a six-time NHL MVP, is the game's alltime leader in seasons (26) and games played (1,767); he played in his final NHL All-Star Game at age 51.

"One precept Howe lives by is this: Set your goals high, but not so high that you can't reach them. When you do, set new ones. The trouble is, he has attained so many that he is running out of goals to set."
—E.M. SWIFT SI, Jan. 21, 1980

Terry Sawchuk

He has more games played (971), wins (447) and shutouts (103) than any other goaltender in NHL history.

"In a sport justly celebrated for the cobra-quick reflexes of its players, Terry Sawchuk unquestionably is the fastest-moving of all goalies...He doesn't move so much as he explodes into a kind of desperate epileptic action: down the glove, out the arm, over the stick, up the glove—all in such rapid succession that it is difficult to watch him."
—ANDREW CRICHTON SI, Jan. 29, 1957

Wayne Gretzky