Streets Named for Athletes

There are over 3,700 streets in the United States which have been given the names of athletes (if you include horses). ESPN has analyzed the names of 1 million roads in America to determine how many streets have been named in honor of individual athletes and which athletes have the most streets named after them (apparently ESPN does believe that horses are athletes).

In The United States of Athlete Streets ESPN has mapped out all the streets named for individual athletes. Using this ESPN story map you can explore all the roads named for athletes across the whole of the United States. The human athlete with the most streets named in his honor is Dale Earnhardt. Earnhardt was an auto racing driver who was known as one of the greatest drivers in NASCAR history. However Earnhardt doesn't have as many streets named in his honor as Secretariat. Secretariat is the athlete with the most streets named in his honor (if you include horses). In 1973 Secretariat became the first Triple Crown winner in 25 years.

It turns out that Americans really like horses. More streets in the USA are named in honor of individual horses than are named in honor for athletes from any other sport. There are 276 different horses with streets named in their honor in the USA. The next most popular sport is golf. 207 golfers have streets named in their honor. In total there are 1,835 different streets in the US named for horses and 777 streets named for golfers.

The most honored athlete still active in sport is Tom Watson, who has 19 streets named in his honor. Closely followed by Tiger Woods with 16 streets.