TORONTO, June 2 (UPI) -- Babe Ruth, Joe Louis and Jim Thorpe were among the 17 athletes chosen Wednesday to make up the first class of the World Sports Hall of Fame.
The Hall of Fame will open in Toronto on Oct. 14.
Only four sports will have more than one inductee in the inaugural class. Boxing will be represented by Louis and Muhammad Ali, basketball by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Bill Russell, baseball by Ruth and Willie Mays and tennis by Billie Jean King and Rod Laver.
Others to be inducted will be football player Jim Brown, figure skater Sonja Henie, mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary, hockey player Gordie Howe, cyclist Eddy Merckx, golfer Jack Nicklaus, soccer player Pele and swimmer Mark Spitz.
In addition, the World Sports Hall of Fame will honor two outstanding sports dynasties -- the Brazilian national soccer team of 1958 to 1970 and the Soviet national hockey team of 1963 to 1990.
