The Poll Ohioans weigh in on sports*

Favorite major league baseball team:

Cleveland Indians..........40%
Cincinnati Reds............32%
New York Yankees............4%

Favorite NFL team:

Cleveland Browns...........37%
Cincinnati Bengals.........19%
Pittsburgh Steelers.........6%

Favorite NBA team:

Cleveland Cavaliers........17%
Los Angeles Lakers..........8%
No favorite................52%

Favorite NHL team:

Columbus Blue Jackets......18%
Pittsburgh Penguins.........7%
Detroit Red Wings...........6%
No favorite................53%

Favorite college team:

Ohio State football........20%
Cincinnati basketball.......5%
Michigan football...........2%

Greatest athlete who ever lived in or played for a team in your
state:

Jim Brown..................21%
Pete Rose..................14%
Archie Griffin.............13%

State's biggest rivalry:

Ohio St.-Michigan..........37%
Bengals-Browns.............25%
Browns-Steelers............12%

Favorite announcer:

Marty Brennaman, John Madden (tie)....11%
Tom Hamilton, Joe Nuxhall (tie)........8%

More a fan of college or pro sports?

Pro...................................51%
College...............................20%
Equal.................................29%

Sports played in the last year[1]:

Swimming..............................29%
Bowling...............................28%
Haven't played anything...............27%

ENEMY OF THE STATE

Art Modell..............52%
Mike Brown...............6%
Bo Schembechler..........5%

Who else could be Ohio's No. 1 enemy but the man who in 1996
moved the original Browns out of Cleveland? As their most hated
opponents, Ohioans chose the University of Michigan (49%), the
Pittsburgh Steelers (24%) and, yes, the Baltimore Ravens (6%).

*Harris Interactive poll, conducted online, of 410 Ohio residents
who identified themselves as sports fans. Margin of error +/-4.8%
[1]Multiple responses allowed.

WHO & WHERE

1 George Steinbrenner
Love or hate the Rocky Road native, but consider this: In 2003
he's paying his New York Yankees $45 million more than the
Indians' and Reds' payrolls combined.

2 LeBron James
The No. 1 pick in this year's NBA draft led St. Vincent-St.
Mary's of Akron to three state high school titles. Next season
he'll play his home games 39 miles down the road in Cleveland.

3 Thurman Munson
The great Yankees catcher and team captain, from Akron, died in
1979 when the plane he was piloting crashed in Canton; the minor
league stadium in Canton is now named after him.

4 Bob Knight
The General from Orrville played basketball at Ohio State before
going on to coach Indiana and Texas Tech.

HOT SPOT
5 Pro Football Hall of Fame
In 1920 seven businessmen held a meeting at a car dealership in
Canton and formed the American Professional Football Conference,
the forerunner of the NFL. In 1963 the Hall of Fame opened in
Canton. It has 221 players enshrined and draws 200,000 visitors
each year.

6 Joey Galloway
The 5'11" wideout starred at Bellaire High and Ohio State before
taking his big-play ability to the NFL. This year he and fellow
ex-Buckeye Terry Glenn, a Columbus native, are expected to lead
the Dallas Cowboys' receiving corps.

7 Katie Smith
The 2000 Olympian and four-time WNBA All-Star guard for the
Minnesota Lynx grew up in Logan and played at Ohio State. She
holds the Big Ten career scoring record and in 2002 was named
Ohio State's female athlete of the century.

8 Ken Griffey Jr.
The graduate of Cincinnati's Moeller High was baseball's player
of the decade for the 1990s.

9 Paxson Brothers
John, the general manager of the Chicago Bulls, and Jim, G.M. of
the Cavaliers, grew up in Dayton.

10 Buster Douglas
The Columbus heavyweight was a 42-to-1 underdog when he KO'd Mike
Tyson in a February 1990 title bout. Other world champions from
Ohio include heavyweights James Jeffries and Ezzard Charles and
junior welterweight Aaron Pryor.

11 Ben Curtis
The surprise 2003 British Open winner, from Ostrander, won two
state amateur titles and was a three-time All-America at Kent
State.

12 Westerville
This city of 35,000 is the state's SI Sportstown for having
Ohio's best community sports programs. It is also home to
Otterbein College, the 2002 NCAA Division III basketball
champion.

13 Scott Hamilton
The 1984 Olympic figure skating gold medalist and ice-tour
performer grew up in Bowling Green.

14 Toledo Mud Hens
The Triple A club made famous on M*A*S*H by Toledo native Jamie
Farr has boasted future Hall of Famers such as Kirby Puckett,
Hack Wilson and Casey Stengel over its 120-year history. The Hens
are a Detroit Tigers farm team.

GREATEST MOMENT

Not since 1968 had Ohio State won the national title. Not since
September 2000 had defending champ Miami lost a game. The
Buckeyes came to the 2003 Fiesta Bowl as nine-point underdogs but
shocked the Hurricanes 31-24 in double overtime, capping a 14-0
season and giving coach Jim Tressel his fifth national
championship, after four I-AA crowns up the road at Youngstown
State.

NUMBERS

1
Ranking last year among American soccer venues of four-year-old,
22,555-seat Columbus Crew Stadium, the first stadium in the
nation built specifically for professional soccer.

24
Consecutive Division III men's swimming titles won by Kenyon
College, in Gambier, an NCAA record for any sport in any
division.

35
Years that Hamilton Tailoring of Cincinnati has made the green
jackets given to the Masters winners.

265
Chapters of the Browns Backers fan club, located in 42 states and
12 foreign countries, including Australia and Japan.

1888
Year Cincinnati and Miami (Ohio) played the first game in their
college football rivalry, the longest west of the Alleghenies.

THE ALLTIME BEST
Ohio's greatest homegrown sports figures

JESSE OWENS
Sprinter, long jumper
In 1936 he showed up Hitler by winning four Olympic golds. A year
earlier, as a Buckeyes sophomore, he had set or tied four world
records at a single meet. Owens was born in Danville, Ala., but
grew up in Cleveland.

PETE ROSE
Major league infielder
Four years before he was banned from the sport, in 1989 for
gambling, the Cincinnati native gave Riverfront Stadium one of
its greatest moments when he broke Ty Cobb's alltime hits record
there.

ARCHIE GRIFFIN
Ohio State running back
The 5'9" 180-pounder from Columbus is the only player to win two
Heisman Trophies. He led the Buckeyes to four Big Ten titles from
1972 to '75 and had an NCAA-record 31 consecutive 100-yard
rushing games.

JACK NICKLAUS
Golfer
The Golden Bear won the last of his record 18 pro majors titles
in 1986, when, at 46, he earned his sixth Masters jacket. He is
from Columbus, and his alma mater, Ohio State, houses the Jack
Nicklaus Hall of Fame.

PAUL BROWN
Football coach
The Hall of Famer from Norwalk was coach of the Browns--who were
named after him--and owner and coach of the Bengals. Practices
credited to him include film study and sending plays in from the
sideline.

MIKE SCHMIDT
Hall of Fame third baseman
The Dayton native, perhaps the greatest ever at his position, hit
548 home runs, won 10 Gold Gloves and led the Philadelphia
Phillies to their only World Series title, in 1980. He won three
NL MVP awards.

COLOR CHART Enthuse-o-meter On a scale of 1 to 100, how would you rate your state's enthusiasm for sports, relative to other states'? COLD ---- 82.8 - HOT

COLOR PHOTO: DAVID LIAM KYLE (MODELL)

COLOR MAP: MAP ILLUSTRATION BY JOE ZEFF COLUMBUS

B/W PHOTO: PRO FOOTBALL HALL OF FAME (WARFIELD) Ohio native and 1983 inductee Paul Warfield

COLOR PHOTO: BOB ROSATO (OHIO STATE) MAURICE LEE AND THE BUCKEYES GET PUMPED UP FOR VICTORY

B/W PHOTO: AP

TWO COLOR PHOTOS: WALTER IOOSS JR.

TWO COLOR PHOTOS: JOHN IACONO

COLOR PHOTO: HEINZ KLUETMEIER

COLOR PHOTO: CORBIS SYGMA (KING)

MEMORABLE QUOTE

"The activity of the brain is what generates hair growth.... My
own hair stands sentry over a brain that can emulate and imitate
any of the great thinkers of yesteryear."
--DON KING, CLEVELAND-BORN BOXING PROMOTER, IN FROM HAIR TO
ETERNITY, SI, DEC. 10, 1990