BIG BABE:

Minneapolis Lakers great George Mikan dies (Dan Barreiro, June 3, 2005, Star Tribune)

George Mikan, professional basketball's first dominant big man, who led the Minneapolis Lakers to five NBA championships, has died, family members said Thursday. He was 80.

He was considered the Babe Ruth of basketball's first half-century, and was the heart and soul of the Minneapolis Lakers, the game's first true dynasty.

As the 10-year-old marbles champion of Will County, Ill., Mikan was given the opportunity to travel to Comiskey Park in 1934 to meet Babe Ruth before a White Sox-Yankees game.

Mikan asked Ruth to hit a home run. Ruth agreed, and later stepped up to the plate and delivered. "For a moment," Mikan later wrote, "I thought he could perform on command."

The basketball world would come to think no less of the Will County, Ill., marbles champion.