Roads Named For Sports Heroes

[1995hoo]

Dale Earnhardt Boulevard in Kannapolis, NC (not coincidentally, a segment of NC Route 3)

Bruton Smith Boulevard in Concord, NC, connects I-85 to Charlotte Motor Speedway. Smith owns Speedway Motorsports, Inc.

Killebrew Drive in Annandale, VA (Harmon Killebrew played for the Washington Senators)

Maris Court is located near Killebrew Drive (I have no idea what, if any connection, Roger Maris might have had to the area)

George Welsh Way in Charlottesville, VA (named for the longtime UVA football coach)

In my original hometown of Copperas Cove, TX, you can find Robert Griffin III Drive (the Redskins' quarterback grew up in Copperas Cove)

[PHLBOS]

The road connecting two retail shopping centers in Framingham and Natick, MA is called Flutie Pass, named for Natick's own Doug Flutie, who had a rather memorable hail mary pass to win a game over the Miami Hurricanes when he was playing for Boston College.

He also was in the Canadian Football League and the NFL (Bears, Bills, Chargers & Patriots) as well.

[Pete from Boston]

Cambridge, Mass., has a Rumeal Robinson Pl., named after the Michigan basketball player I mainly remember for keeping Seton Hall from winning the NCAA championship.  I'm surprised there's no Pat Ewing street, since he went to high school there. 

And of course there is Yawkey Way in Boston, named for that hero to all us Yankee fans, former Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey.

[DandyDan]

Omaha has Bob Gibson Dr., which is on the north side of what used to be Rosenblatt Stadium, the former home of the College World Series.  I believe the official Nebraska Welcome Center once you come into Nebraska from Iowa officially has the Bob Gibson Dr. address.  There's also Bob Boozer Dr., way out in West Omaha, named for the former basketball player and 1960 Olympian.

On the day I left Indianapolis the second time I was there, I went west on I-74 and seem to recall a Jeff Gordon Drive at one of the exits.

[BamaZeus]

For years, we've had Paul W. "Bear" Bryant Drive running past the stadium named in his honor.  But in recent years, the city has also added small streets named for other championship coaches (Frank Thomas, Wallace Wade, Gene Stallings) all in the general vicinty of the stadium.  I presume we'll have one named for Saban eventually.

This map will kinda give you a glimpse of the neighborhood near the stadium and the street names.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Wallace+Wade+Ave,+Tuscaloosa,+AL+35401/@33.2089493,-87.5516053,17z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x888602971bfe1193:0xce9b9f24791bb389

[roadman65]

Newark at one time had a Muhammad Ali Drive off of Springfield Avenue in New Jersey.

[Mr. Matté]

For our disdain of the highway number, why not rename Interstate 99 the JoePa Expressway?

[NWI_Irish96]

South Bend has a Rockne Dr.

[agentsteel53]

For our disdain of the highway number, why not rename Interstate 99 the JoePa Expressway?

is there a tunnel on that road?  it's crying out to be renamed for Jerry Sandusky.

[Brandon]

For our disdain of the highway number, why not rename Interstate 99 the JoePa Expressway?

is there a tunnel on that road?  it's crying out to be renamed for Jerry Sandusky.

Given what Bud Schuster did to the grid...

OK, my mind has officially gone off the PC rails.

[roadman65]

PA 611 in Easton is named after Larry Holmes.
12th Avenue in New York City is named after the Yankee Clipper.

[DandyDan]

Killebrew Drive in Annandale, VA (Harmon Killebrew played for the Washington Senators)

I looked it over and am surprised no one mentioned the one in Bloomington, MN, where he played for the Twins.

[Mapmikey]

Jeff Gordon Blvd in Pittsboro IN, Exit 61 on I-74

Mapmikey

[ski-man]

Texas 288 in Houston is named the Nolan Ryan Expressway down to his hometown of Alvin.

[iowahighways]

The city of Coralville, IA renamed part of their main street as Hayden Fry Way (Hayden Fry was the University of Iowa's football coach in the 70s)

Iowa City has an Evashevski Drive near Kinnick Stadium named for Forest Evashevski, a successful coach for the Hawkeyes in the 1950s who died in 2009.

Cedar Rapids has Kurt Warner Way adjacent to Kingston Stadium, where the future NFL quarterback played high school football in the late 1980s. It's not on Google, but it is on OpenStreetMap.

[mgk920]

Here, about two blocks from my current residence, in Appleton, WI:

http://goo.gl/maps/ba4IB

This was S Oneida St (the main street southward out of downtown Appleton) until the bridge in the background, which bypassed it and cut it off, was opened in 1980, then 'S Olde Oneida St' (the part south of Water St, the intersecting street in the image, is still Olde Oneida St) and then changed to the current name about five years or so ago.

Why that player, well known for playing for a team that is located well out of state, in this city?  He grew up in Appleton.



Mike

[The High Plains Traveler]

Minneapolis had Kirby Puckett Way by the Metrodome, but Kirby's life went off the rails after he left baseball, and the Metrodome is gone, and so is that street. Nothing I could find for any Twins star by Target Field. Killebrew Drive is stilll near the Mall of America, though, site of Metropolitan Stadium where the Twins first played.

There is a golf course that winds through a neighborhood near me, and many streets are named for prominent golfers. My favorite is Chi Chi Drive.

[CtrlAltDel]

I'm a bit surprised that no one's mentioned the Jesse-Owens-Allee in front of the Olympic Stadium in Berlin.

[txstateends]

Tyler, TX:
In recent years, the city constructed a new arterial on the west side of town, and named it for former University of Texas and Houston Oilers football player Earl Campbell.  He attended high school a few miles up the road from the new street, dubbed Earl Campbell Parkway.

[cwf1701]

Near the former site of Tiger Stadium in Detroit, there is a street called Cochrane St, thought to be named after the first Tiger manager (Mickey Cochrane) who brought a World Series championship to Detroit (in 1935).

[SidS1045]

A portion of I-90 between downtown Boston and East Boston is officially named the Ted Williams Tunnel, and a portion of MA-9 through Framingham is still signed as the Ted Williams Highway.

[mrsman]

Kareem Ct and Pincay Rd (a Hollywood Park jockey) intersect in Inglewood, CA, where the Lakers used to play before Staples Center.

[kendancy66]

I am surprised that with all the posts mentioning Ted Williams, that none refer to Ted Williams Parkway/Freeway in San Diego.

[geocachingpirate]

About 8 miles of US 421 in Wilkes County, NC is named Junior Johnson Highway. He was born there.

[thenetwork]

Jack Nicklaus Freeway is I-270 in Columbus, Ohio.

For a while when I-270 was first dubbed the JN Freeway, they added a named panel on some of the pull-through BGSs around the belt.  Most were gone by the late 80s.