They marvel at Meads, clamour for Coutts, go haywire for Hadlee, declare for Devoy, rate Richie, value Van Dyk or Valerie, and jump up and down over Jonah.
Eventually, they tend to settle on Snell.
Rating and comparing sportspeople — especially across codes and vastly differing eras — can be a pointless exercise but, for the past half a century, it has not been too taxing a task for New Zealand sports fans to name their greatest of all.
There was never anyone like Peter Snell before he came on the scene and, following his death in Dallas just a few days before his 81st birthday, it can be said with some assurance there will never be anyone like him again.
He was a phenomenon, a runner of pace and grace and power who entered New Zealand folklore with his three Olympic gold medals, in the 800m in Rome in 1960 and the 800m-1500m double in Tokyo four years later.
The magnificence of that golden double, in particular, is magnified by the astonishing realisation not a single male athlete has replicated it in the 55 years since Snell broke the tape.
And, lest modern-day fans be fooled into thinking the feats of the black-and-white era do not stack up in the new millennium, it should be noted Snell still holds the New Zealand 800m record — set in 1962, and on grass.
He won two Commonwealth Games gold medals to go with his three Olympic golds and broke six world records, and all before he retired at 26. Small wonder we named him New Zealand’s sports champion of the 20th century.
Later, the accolades flowed. He was the first person to be inducted into the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame in 1990, knighted in 2009 (what took so long?), and admitted to the IAAF Hall of Fame in 2012.
Snell was the poster boy of a golden era of New Zealand running that started with Lovelock and flowed through to "Lydiard’s boys" — the group of middle-distance champions under famed coach Arthur Lydiard.
It was a time when the black singlet was a regular feature on the elite stage, and the sight of Snell pumping those muscular legs and arms got New Zealanders’ hearts thumping.
Humble to the core, Snell later settled in the US, earning a PhD and becoming a leading voice in exercise physiology. Perhaps, as he felt that push to break the finishing line first as a runner, he was propelled to excel on another track.
His post-running life created a sense of separation — Snell himself alluded to the slightly awkward relationship he had with his home country — but he remained a beloved New Zealander, and his death will be widely mourned.
