Family Ties: 5 Fathers and Children Who Competed Together

The NBA's all-time scoring leader will making a different sort of history during the 2024-25 NBA season. LeBron James has long said he would love to play alongside his son Bronny – and that dream is about to become reality after the Lakers selected him in the second round of the NBA Draft. In honor of this potentially historic union, we look at the most notable father-child pairings in sports history.

The frequency of father-child duos largely depends on the sport.

The Big 4 North American pro sports leagues have experienced just a few instances of fathers hanging around long enough to share a playing surface with their sons. It's more common in auto racing (as we'll see below), and there were a whopping 18 examples of fathers and sons competing alongside each other in cricket as of 2015.

Here's a look at the five most celebrated father-child unions in sports:

Ken Griffey Jr. and Ken Griffey Sr. (MLB)

Seattle Mariners, 1990-91

Baseball is a sport of bloodlines. Mention the names Bonds, Bell, or Boone to any die-hard diamond denizen, and you're likely to hear multiple players associated with each.

But none of those families did what Ken Griffey Sr. and his son Ken Jr. achieved on Aug. 31, 1990, becoming the first father-son duo to appear together in a Major League lineup. Griffey Sr. joined the Mariners – and his 20-year-old son – fewer than two weeks after the Reds placed him on waivers.

That moment would have been hard to top for most major leaguers – but not these two. Just two weeks after their initial splash of history, the Griffeys became the first father-son duo to hit back-to-back home runs during a 7-5 loss to the Los Angeles Angels.

We've seen plenty of wild and crazy happenings across the history of Major League Baseball, but it's hard to imagine this one ever being duplicated.

Al Unser Jr. and Al Unser Sr. (Auto Racing)

CART, 1982-92

You could spend a lot of time arguing over who should be considered the First Family of U.S. auto racing, but there's absolutely no doubt that the Unsers deserve a seat at that table.

Al Unser Sr. was a three-time National Championship winner and one of just four men with four Indianapolis 500 titles on his resume (1970-71, 1978, 1987). He also racked up 39 victories and 98 podium finishes over a 30-year racing career that wrapped up with an appearance at the 1993 Indy 500.

Unser's career took on an entirely different complexion in 1982, when his son Al Jr. joined CART. "Little Al" was no slouch behind the wheel, earning two Champ Car titles while winning 31 races and finishing on the podium 80 times. He also holds the distinction of winning the closest Indy 500 in history after a 0.043-second victory over Scott Goodyear in 1992.

Add in Al Sr.'s brother Bobby Unser into the mix, and the trio has combined to win an incredible nine Indianapolis 500s.

Gordie, Mark and Marty Howe (WHA)

Houston Aeros, 1973-77; Hartford Whalers, 1979-80

The hockey fraternity is probably the most familial of any North American pro sport. Consider the Sutters of Viking, Alta., who boasted six brothers playing in the league at the same time.

The Howes weren't quite that prolific, but they do own the distinction of being the only father-son combination to share the ice in North American pro hockey. And legendary dad Gordie didn't just trade tape-to-tape passes with one son. Instead, there were two on the team.

Howe came out of retirement for the opportunity to play alongside sons Mark and Marty with the Houston Aeros of the World Hockey Association. What was expected to be a brief family outing turned into a four-year phenomenon during which the Aeros won a pair of titles and Howe took home the WHA's most valuable player award at age 46.

The legendary triumvirate reunited one last time with the NHL's Hartford Whalers in 1979-80. Howe, who was 52 when the season began, finished with 41 points while playing all 80 games. Mark finished third on the team with 80 points, while Marty tallied one assist while appearing in just six games.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Sr. (Auto Racing)

NASCAR Winston Cup Series, 2000-01

Few drivers have had a bigger impact on the evolution and growth of NASCAR as Dale Earnhardt. Fans of "The Intimidator" considered it a genuine blessing to have seen No. 3 share the track with his son Dale Jr. during the 2000 and 2001 Winston Cup Series seasons.

Dale Sr. was one of the best drivers in the history of American auto racing, winning an incredible seven NASCAR Cup Series titles while earning 76 race victories and 428 top-10 finishes. He remains the only driver in circuit history with wins in four different decades.

Dale Jr. made the 2000 season a special one for him and his father, earning a pair of wins and five top-10 finishes during his first campaign in the top-tier NASCAR circuit. He broke his dad's record for fewest starts before his first win, securing the DirecTV 500 checkered flag in just his 12th career NASCAR race.

Tragedy struck the Earnhardt family during the Daytona 500 in 2001 when Dale Sr. was involved in a final-lap crash and died of a head injury. Dale Jr., who finished second in the race, returned to Daytona International Speedway less than five months later and tallied an emotional victory at the Pepsi 400.

Paul and Trine Elvstrom, sailing

Summer Olympics (1984, 1988)

It's quite uncommon for fathers and sons to compete at the same time. But it's even more rare for fathers and daughters to share the sporting stage. And there are few duos more prominent than this dynamic Danish pair.

Paul Elvstrom was an incredible story on his own after winning gold at four straight Olympic Games from 1948 to 1960 while competing in the events across a 40-year span, becoming one of only five athletes to achieve that feat. He added 13 world championships during that stretch.

As he reached the tail end of an incredible sailing career, he began sailing with his daughter Trine. The duo picked up the multi-hulled Tornado quickly and went on to win world titles in the discipline in 1983 and 1984, qualifying for the Summer Games in Los Angeles.

They narrowly missed out on a bronze medal in L.A., and followed that up with a 15th-place result in Seoul at the 1988 Summer Games – the year Paul turned 60.