Mount Mile High

Today on denverpost.com a reader posed a question to Woody Paige regarding who would be on the Mount Rushmore of Denver athletes. He said it should be John Elway, Joe Sakic, and Todd Helton but was unsure of who would be the fourth member representing the Denver Nuggets. In true Woody fashion, his response made a case for everyone from Amy Van Dyken to Whizzer White but didn't really give a definite answer.

So this knocked around in my head all day when I needed a break from thinking about the various tax returns I was working on. The answer depends on exactly what the question is - does it have to be one person from each of the four major pro teams in Denver, or is it wide open?

I think if you were to leave it wide open, you could very easily end up with Mount Bronco - either Little/Gradishar/Elway/TD or maybe Elway/Shanahan/TD/Sharpe or something along those lines. So I think you'd have to limit it to one per pro sports team.

My choices:

John Elway, representing the Broncos. You can't have a Mount Mile High without Elway. No explanation needed. Sorry, TD.

Joe Sakic, representing the Avalanche. I really am not an authority on the NHL, so I'll just agree with the others. He seems like the logical choice since he's been here so long and won the two Stanley Cups.

Larry Walker, representing the Rockies. I'd have to disagree with choosing Helton, since I have to choose a Rocky to go on the list. It's hard to beat what Walker accomplished in nearly 10 years in Denver: 5 Gold Gloves, 4 All-Star appearances, 3 batting titles, 1 MVP award. But I can see where some would go with Helton since he's spent his whole career here and was on last year's World Series team. If Matt Holliday ends up sticking around, this spot is his for the taking.

Alex English, representing the Nuggets. I guess there's a reason the reader asked the question. It's tough to decide who would represent the Nuggets. Dan Issel would be a pretty good choice, but the Hispanic community probably would be unhappy about it. Woody seemed to lean towards David Thompson, which would also be okay with me given that I'm an NC State guy myself. There's also Fat Lever and maybe even Dikembe Mutombo. But when I think of all-time great Nuggets, I think of Alex English. Maybe that's because his career coincided with my formative years. Anyways, he averaged well over 20 points per game over his 10-year stay in Denver, won two NBA scoring titles, and represented the Nuggets 8 times in the All-Star game. That's good enough for me.