A SIDEWAYS GLANCE : FOR THE MILLENNIUM'S SAKE, HE'S THE GREATEST.

If we gave 100 guesses, you still might not come up with the name of the only athlete the editors of Life magazine decided was worth including on a daunting list of the Top 100 people of the millennium.

Jackie Robinson? Makes sense, but nope.

Not Jim Thorpe. Not Muhammad Ali.

Neither Babe Ruth nor Babe Didrikson.

It's not even the guy who ran the first marathon, climbed the highest mountain or started the modern Olympic Games (he's not an athlete anyway, so that doesn't count).

From all those who contributed to mankind between 1000 and 2000 A.D. - we're talking names like Columbus, Da Vinci, Shakespeare and Michelangelo - the one athlete in the Top 100 sits in position No. 92. He's lodged between Nelson Mandela and Leo Tolstoy of the people ``who made the millennium'' and who are ranked in order of importance.

It's Roger Bannister.

And if you didn't know he was the world's first to run a mile in under four minutes, it's time for a brief history lesson.

On May 6, 1954, the English runner, participating in a dual meet in Oxford, crossed the finish line in 3:59.4.

Write the editors of Life in their special issue:

``Why did the world stand hypnotized for so long before a wall that didn't exist? Hard to say. But when Roger Gilbert Bannister showed us it can be done, dreams were encouraged, and human potential was suddenly seen as limitless. Bannister made us question and then redefine our concepts of human possibility.''

One sidenote:

In 1994, Sports Illustrated (a Time-Life company) issued a 40th anniversary issue and, in its honor, picked ``the 40 individuals who have most dramatically elevated and altered the games we play and watch.''

Bannister, whose feat was included in that 40-year time frame, wasn't included.

Try to get carded in this joint

American Express card-holders have been encouraged to rack up as many purchases as possible through Dec. 31 so they'll have more automatic entries into its latest sweepstakes. One of the grand prizes - join Tiger Woods' gallery at whatever major golf tournament you select, get a one-hour golf lesson with Tiger's dad, Earl, and take home an autographed golf bag with a set of clubs. Throw in the first-class plane tickets to the event, a four-day, three-night hotel room and $6,000 in cash - plus American Express will donate $5,000 to the Tiger Woods Foundation - and that brings the approximate value of the prize to $24,000.

Woods, who signed a huge endorsement deal with American Express earlier this year, might want to read the fine print.

Seems that one place you can't use the American Express card is the new All-Star Cafe in New York. Woods is one of the major investors in the food joint.

Is that a dead bug or an edible hockey puck?

General Mills plans to come out with what it'll call USA Olympic Crunch Cereal next month, right before the '98 Winter Olympics in Japan.

The red, white and blue box will include marshmallows in the shape of winter sports equipment, according to the company.