Florida continues to produce some of the greatest athletes in all sports. From football to swimming, it doesn’t get better than the Sunshine State. Here are the top five greatest athletes from Florida of all time.
Deion Sanders, North Fort Myers High School
“Prime Time” lived up to the nickname, as he was one of the best and most influential athletes of the 1990s. He was first a three-sport superstar at North Fort Myers High School, where he was a standout baseball, football, and basketball player.
He then took his talents to Florida State, where he was a unanimous All-American two years in a row and a Jim Thorpe winner for the best defensive back in college football. He did this while being a star on the baseball diamond again.
He went on to have successful NFL and MLB careers. He was a star for the Atlanta Falcons and later won Super Bowls with the Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers. He also put in great seasons with the Atlanta Braves and Cincinnati Reds.
While no player was more vocal than Sanders, he backed up his talk with results.
Emmitt Smith, Escambia High School
The NFL’s all-time leading rusher was a legend of the game before he ever stepped foot on an NFL field. Smith held the Florida High School career rushing record for 23 years before it was broken by Derrick Henry. Smith is also regarded as one of the best athletes to ever come out of the University of Florida.
As a Gator, Smith was a three-time All-SEC performer and a unanimous All-American in 1989. Like most of his career, he was a record holder when all was said and done. He finished his Gator career in three seasons with 58 Gator records. He went on to the Dallas Cowboys, and his career didn’t stop from there.
In the end, Smith ended with over 18,000 career yards, one MVP award, and three Super Bowls wins, and he is regarded as one of the best running backs of all time. This true model of consistency deserves his spot on this list.
Alex Rodriguez, Westminster Christian School
A-Rod is perhaps the greatest high school baseball player in Florida history. He finished his high school career a national champion and hit over .500 batting average his senior year. He did all that along with being the star quarterback at Westminster.
Rodriguez went to the Seattle Mariners with the first overall pick and went on to have one of the most successful, and lucrative, careers in MLB history. This was capped with a World Series win in 2009 with the New York Yankees. He finished with a career .295 batting average; 3,115 hits; and 669 home runs.
Roy Jones Jr., Booker T. Washington High School
Jones Jr.’s accolades aren’t tied to his time at Booker T. Washington, but when he was in high school he was already hyped as one of the best young boxers in the world. In 1984, at 15 years old, he won the U.S. Junior Olympics, then later the Golden Gloves at age 17. This set him up to win an Olympic silver medal at age 19. Overall, Jones finished with an amateur record of 121-13.
His professional career wasn’t too shabby either. He finished with a pro record of 66-9, and he became one of the only fighters ever to win a title in the middleweight and heavyweight divisions. In all, he finished with titles in five different weight classes and is regarded as one of the best boxers of his era.
Wade Boggs, Plant High School
Boggs is one of the best hitters in the history of Major League Baseball. He ranks 33rd in career batting averages at .328 and finished his career with over 3,000 hits. Boggs was an eight-time silver slugger award winner and five-time AL Batting Title winner in his 16-year career.
Before that illustrious career, Boggs dominated at Plant High School, where he was a star baseball and football player. He was a star quarterback until his senior year, when he switched to punter and kicker to avoid injury, and was an All-State kicker. He even was a part of the WWE and wrestled for a time. He’s a natural athlete who will always be one of the greats.
Written by: Kyle Grondin
