Multi-Sport Pro Athletes

As March Madness has been taking over the web and TV, its been a majority of what I've been hearing about and watching lately. Something that really caught my attention and encouraged me to dig deeper recently was hearing about the Notre Dame basketball star who didn't only shine on the basketball court. Pat Connaughton attends Notre Dame as a basketball AND baseball student-athlete. He was even drafted for the MLB but returned to finish his last basketball season for the Fighting Irish. I then remembered back to the Volleyball National Tournament last fall. A few volleyball players on some of the final teams also played on their college's basketball teams.

There has constantly been a controversy about whether high school athletes should participate in multiple sports or take their talents and focus on just one. But which one is right? Personally, I consistently played 3 sports throughout my high school career, so I lean more towards the multi-sport side. Some colleges, though, prefer the athletes that devoted all of their time to one sport. Kentucky, for example only has one player on the roster that participated in a sport (football) other than basketball as a high school athlete.

Thinking about these things made me wonder if there were any professional athletes out there that either were multi-sport collegiate athletes, or if they played a completely different sport in college than they do professionally. Here's some of the things I found!

 

Michael Jordan participated in basketball, baseball, and track in high school. He later went on to become the most well-known NBA player, and even played a season in the MLB.

Tom Brady declined his offer in the MLB draft before he went on to play college football, and later a star in the NFL, where he currently plays for the Patriots

Johnny Manziel, a current NFL player, was also drafted to the MLB in 2014

Jackie Robinson was UCLA's first 4 sport letter-men where he excelled in baseball, basketball, football, and track

Justin Marneau played as a goaltender in the NHL before emerging as a catcher for the Minnesota Twins (MLB)

Marion Jones is most known for her multiple track medals in the Olympic games, but she was also a basketball leader for the UNC Tar Heels an even went on to also play in the WNBA





Comment below if you have any input on multi-sport vs. single sport athletes!