Any all-time ranking of athletes inevitably does some an injustice. It's easier to relate to modern athletes than to stars from long-ago eras. Who remembers Jack McDowall of N.C. State from the 1920s? He didn't just go to the College Football Hall of Fame, he was captain of the basketball team, played baseball and ran track.

No number for him.

The greatest, of course, are easier to find in some sports than in others. Lawrence Taylor, no problem. But how many people remember Don Schollander, the Michael Phelps of 1964. Schollander, a Charlotte native, won four Olympic swimming gold medals in Tokyo.

No number for him.

The great thing about digging through history is the chance to unearth hidden nuggets, in this case great athletes worth remembering. Here are a few:

Dave Kiley

Dick Bryant, the Charlotte-based commissioner of the National Wheelchair Basketball Association and himself a member of the NWBA Hall of Fame, says flatly that Kiley "is the best all-around player to ever play the game."

Kiley, who has worn No. 12 and played for the Charlotte Wheelchair Hornets and Rollin' Bobcats, is a six-time NWBA Most Valuable Player and nine-time Paralympic gold medalist.

Hanes Hosiery

If "A League of Their Own" had been a movie about women's basketball instead of baseball, Geena Davis, Madonna and Rosie O'Donnell would have been portraying Lurlyne Greer Rogers, Eckie Jordan and Eunies Futch.

Those three starred on the Hanes Hosiery teams from Winston-Salem that dominated women's basketball long before the WNBA and players like Duke's Alana Beard came along, winning three straight AAU national titles from 1951-53.

All three played on the U.S. gold-medal team in the 1955 Pan American Games. Jordan and Futch, who wore 14 and 19, respectively, are members of both the N.C. Sports Hall of Fame and N.C. Softball Hall of Fame, and excelled in other sports, too. Greer Rogers wore No. 7.

Connie Mack Berry

OK, what didn't this former N.C. State athlete do?

The late Berry, also a member of the N.C. Sports Hall of Fame, played at a time before athletes tended to specialize in one sport -- and, wow, could he play.

An end on N.C. State's football team, he played center for the basketball team and led the Southern Conference in scoring in 1936 and '37. He pitched for the baseball team and competed in track.

He wore 23 for the Chicago Bears, the "Monsters of the Midway" who won two NFL titles in the 1940s; played pro basketball before there was an NBA; and pitched and played first base in the Chicago Cubs' minor league system.

Leora 'Sam' Jones

A basketball star at Louisburg College and later at East Carolina, she was the rare athlete who achieved greatness in an adopted sport.

Introduced to team handball in 1982, Jones played on three U.S. Olympic teams, wearing No. 13. She scored 32 goals in 1984, when the Americans finished a surprising fourth. She has been named as the U.S. Team Handball Federation Athlete of the Year three times.

The athlete, who grew up near Mount Olive and led ECU to back-to-back AIAW and NCAA berths, hasn't disappeared from ECU's record book: She is sixth in career scoring average (16.0) and sixth in career assists (252).

Charles Futrell

Back when ECU was East Carolina Teachers College and "triathlon" wasn't a word, Futrell played football, wearing 52, and baseball from 1938-41. As a senior, he batted .404.

As the Greenville native got older, he became a world-class triathlete. In 1991, he won the U.S. male 70-and-over category at the Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii, completing the 140.6-mile swim, bike and run in 15 hours, 35 minutes, 22 seconds.

Dave Sime

Sime starred in football and baseball at Duke, wearing No. 24, but what set him apart in the 1950s was speed. Sime set or equaled six world sprint records from 1956-58, became the first athlete to run the 220-yard dash in 20.0 seconds and won the 100-meter silver medal at the 1960 Olympics. He lost an apparent relay gold when the U.S. team was disqualified for passing out of its zone.