There have been a number of athletes to play more than one sport professionally over the course of their career. Deion Sanders first springs to mind having been successful in both the NFL and MLB. Brock Lesnar has had a go at just about everything, and Fabian Barthez won the 1998 FIFA World Cup before transitioning to rally car racing.
Although several players participate in more than one sport at college level in the United States today, it’s very difficult to do so on a professional level this millennium given the high competition levels in sport these days. Below are three players who succeeded in both hockey and other sports:
Anders Lee
Current winger and captain of the New York Islands, Anders Lee was originally an All-State quarterback at Edina High School in Minnesota. Despite receiving multiple offers to play Division I football, the Minnesota native went on to attend the University of Notre Dame to play hockey. If he hadn’t, he could have found odds beside his name in online football betting among candidates for the 2021 NFL MVP award.
Left Wing Anders Lee (#27) of the New York Islanders flips the puck up off his stick
Lee was also a long-track speed skating national champion and even held a record in the sport. Clearly he chose the right sport as he has excellent in the National Hockey League having been a regular for the past five seasons and racking up more than 50 points in each of the past three. He’s a regular for the United States national ice hockey team too.
Petr Cech
Peter Cech, who surname is pronounced the same as his nationality, is a former soccer goalkeeper for the Czech Republic national team, who most notably played for Chelsea in the English Premier League during his illustrious career.
During his career, he won the EPL title on four occasions as well as the 2012 Champions League and 2013 Europa League. He won the English FA Cup on five occasions, four of them with Chelsea and one with fellow London team, Arsenal. To date he holds the EPL record for most clean sheets (202).
After hanging up his cleats in 2019, Petr Cech went straight over to ice hockey, playing for the Guildford Phoenix. He made two saves in a penalty shootout to help his side to victory in a man of the match performance on his debut.
Bill Ezinicki
Born in Massachusetts, “Wild” Bill Ezinicki played 12 seasons in the NHL as a winger between 1944-1955. His career started at the Toronto Maple Leafs where he won three successive Stanley Cups in 1947, 1948 and 1949 before moving to the Boston Bruins in 1950. He would finish his career with the New York Rangers.
After hanging up his skates at the age of 31, Bill Ezinicki became a professional golf player where he won several tournaments in the New England region. His name was inducted into both the Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame and the New England section of the PGA Hall of Fame prior to his death in 2012, at the age of 88.
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