Sports Obituaries

waltky

Wise ol' monkey
Feb 6, 2011
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Somber day for NASCAR as Marvin Panch dies...

Former Daytona 500 champ Marvin Panch dies
Thursday 31st December, 2015 . -- Thursday was a somber day for NASCAR, as Marvin Panch was found unresponsive in his car.
The 17 time winner in NASCAR's top series and 1961 Daytona 500 winner, was pronounced dead of natural causes according to the Daytona Beach News-Journal.

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Panch, who was named one of NASCAR's 50 greatest drivers, never won a cup title. "He was one of the last of the group of drivers who helped establish the sport," Buz McKim, the historian at the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, told the News-Journal. "We have a few left at best."

The 89-year-old's wife also died in 2006. Panch was a resident of Port Orange, FL, according to FOX Sports. He made his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series debut in 1951. Panch also had two children, Richie and Marvette. Richie died in a plane crash in 1985.

Former Daytona 500 champ Marvin Panch dies
 
I was watching the western Break Heart Pass the other night. ONly to learn during the broadcast that one of the actors, Defensive End Doug Atkins per ESPN died during the movie.
Strange.
 
Tennis commentator Bud Collins has died...

Bud Collins, barrier-breaker and tennis authority, dies at 86
March 04, 2016 - In the early 1960s, after joining The Boston Globe as a tennis writer, Bud Collins took a giant leap into the future of sports journalism when he stepped in front of a TV camera to offer commentary. As he expanded the reach of columnists, he called himself a “scribbler and a babbler,” and the words that emerged were as colorful and memorable as the custom-tailored pants he wore while covering more than a half-century of tennis championships.
Mr. Collins provided the sport with its most authoritative voice, and wrote a tennis encyclopedia and a history of the game, all while remaining one of the most congenial people anyone met courtside or in the press box. He was 86 when he died Friday in his Brookline home. In September, he traveled to New York for the US Open, when the media center was dedicated and named in his honor, although his health had been failing the past couple of years.

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Bud Collins, who called himself a “scribbler and a babbler,” died Friday at his Brookline home.​

“Few people have had the historical significance, the lasting impact, and the unqualified love for tennis as Bud Collins,” tennis legend Billie Jean King tweeted. “He was an outstanding journalist, an entertaining broadcaster, and as our historian he never let us forget or take for granted the rich history of our sport.’’

Considered the first sports print journalist to establish a regular second home on TV, Mr. Collins began offering tennis commentary for WGBH-TV from the Longwood Cricket Club in Chestnut Hill not long after he became a Globe columnist in 1963. His longest and most visible venue was at NBC from 1972 to 2007, notably with the “Breakfast at Wimbledon” broadcasts.

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Commentator Joe Garagiola dies at 90...
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Joe Garagiola, Baseball Player Who Became a Broadcasting Star, Dies at 90
MARCH 23, 2016 - Joe Garagiola, who spent nine forgettable seasons in the major leagues as a weak-hitting catcher and then parlayed his witty tales of life as a baseball underachiever into a far more notable career as a folksy broadcaster and television personality, died on Wednesday in Scottsdale, Ariz. He was 90. Major League Baseball announced his death.
Garagiola was propelled from the catcher’s box into the broadcast booth largely by his crowd-pleasing appearance before a United States Senate subcommittee on monopoly practices in April 1954. At the time, he was playing for the Chicago Cubs. The committee chairman, Senator Edwin Johnson of Colorado, had sponsored a bill to make corporate ownership of baseball teams illegal and was targeting one of Garagiola’s former teams, the St. Louis Cardinals, who were owned by the Anheuser-Busch brewery.

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Garagiola, who was near the end of his playing career, had been looking for a radio job in St. Louis. Because the advertising agency working on his behalf also represented the brewery, Johnson suggested that the Cardinals were guilty of “tampering” by improperly trying to lure him from the Cubs. “Senator, how can you tamper with a .250 hitter?” Garagiola said. His testimony, laced with the self-deprecation and irreverence that would become his trademarks, attracted enthusiastic press coverage and earned him a broadcasting job with the Cardinals.

He went on to be a colorful broadcaster for NBC, which also made him a host of the “Today” show and a game-show personality, always recognizable by his bald head and broad smile. “The Baseball World of Joe Garagiola,” an NBC pregame show, won a Peabody Award in 1973. Garagiola was cited for a segment titled “The Hill,” in which “he returned to his old neighborhood in St. Louis for a warm portrait capturing with great fidelity a sense of time and place.”

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Commentator Joe Garagiola dies at 90...
:(
Joe Garagiola, Baseball Player Who Became a Broadcasting Star, Dies at 90
MARCH 23, 2016 - Joe Garagiola, who spent nine forgettable seasons in the major leagues as a weak-hitting catcher and then parlayed his witty tales of life as a baseball underachiever into a far more notable career as a folksy broadcaster and television personality, died on Wednesday in Scottsdale, Ariz. He was 90. Major League Baseball announced his death.
Garagiola was propelled from the catcher’s box into the broadcast booth largely by his crowd-pleasing appearance before a United States Senate subcommittee on monopoly practices in April 1954. At the time, he was playing for the Chicago Cubs. The committee chairman, Senator Edwin Johnson of Colorado, had sponsored a bill to make corporate ownership of baseball teams illegal and was targeting one of Garagiola’s former teams, the St. Louis Cardinals, who were owned by the Anheuser-Busch brewery.

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Garagiola, who was near the end of his playing career, had been looking for a radio job in St. Louis. Because the advertising agency working on his behalf also represented the brewery, Johnson suggested that the Cardinals were guilty of “tampering” by improperly trying to lure him from the Cubs. “Senator, how can you tamper with a .250 hitter?” Garagiola said. His testimony, laced with the self-deprecation and irreverence that would become his trademarks, attracted enthusiastic press coverage and earned him a broadcasting job with the Cardinals.

He went on to be a colorful broadcaster for NBC, which also made him a host of the “Today” show and a game-show personality, always recognizable by his bald head and broad smile. “The Baseball World of Joe Garagiola,” an NBC pregame show, won a Peabody Award in 1973. Garagiola was cited for a segment titled “The Hill,” in which “he returned to his old neighborhood in St. Louis for a warm portrait capturing with great fidelity a sense of time and place.”

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I saw Joe play many times when the Cards played in Pittsburgh. He was a great broadcaster and always had a funny Yogi Berra story.
 
Swiss snowboard champ Estelle Balet dies in avalanche...

Swiss snowboard champ Estelle Balet killed in avalanche
April 20, 2016 -- Swiss snowboard champion Estelle Balet was killed Tuesday in an avalanche in the Swiss alps.
Balet, who was the Freeride World Tour Champion, had been making a film on the Portalet mountain when the avalanche hit just after 8 a.m. local time. The 21-year-old had won her second world freeeride title earlier this month in the Swiss resort of Verbier. Balet was wearing a tracking device, an airbag and a helmet. By the time rescue workers arrived by helicopter, the snowboarder had been dug out. However, she couldn't be revived via resuscitation efforts.

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According to police, another person had skied the slope before Balet descended. "Despite immediate efforts to revive her, she died at the scene," Valais police said in a statement. "An investigation has been started to determine the causes of the accident." "The Freeride community has experienced a tremendous loss today as we learned that one of the most hopeful young talents and current snowboard World Champion, Estelle Balet, has tragically passed away in an avalanche," the Freewide World Tour posted on its website. "Estelle Balet was a naturally gifted shining star and demonstrated remarkable talent as she quickly became a household name on the Freeride World Tour."

Swiss snowboard champ Estelle Balet killed in avalanche
 
From WWII internment camp to Olympic weightlifting champion...

Olympic weightlifting champion Tommy Kono dies in Hawaii
April 30, 2016 — Tommy Kono, who took up weightlifting in an internment camp for Japanese-Americans and went on to win two Olympic gold medals for the United States, has died. He was 85.
Kono died Sunday in Honolulu, the U.S. Olympic Committee announced. His daughter, JoAnn Sumida, told The New York Times the cause was hepatic encephalopathy caused by cirrhosis of the liver. He was born Tamio Kono in Sacramento, California in 1930. Kono was a frail, asthmatic 14-year-old when a neighbor first gave him a dumbbell at the Tule Lake internment center in Northern California, where he lived with his family for most of World War II. He packed on 15 pounds of muscle by the time he left the camp in 1945. "I didn't want to be a weightlifter," Kono said in 1960, according to the Times. "I just want to be healthy."

Before his weightlifting career, Kono went to high school and college in Sacramento and was drafted into the army. Kono would become one of the sport's greatest champions, winning golds in Helsinki in 1952 and Melbourne in 1956. He also won a silver medal at the 1960 games in Rome and six straight world championships in the 1950s. At various times he held 20 world records, according to the International Weightlifting Federation. That organization named him "Lifter of the Century" on its 100th anniversary in 2005.

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Tommy Kono, of the United States, competes in a weightlifting match between the U.S. team and a visiting Russian team in New York. Kono, who took up weightlifting in an internment camp for the Japanese and went on to win two Olympic gold medals for the United States, has died. The U.S. Olympic Committee announced that Kono died Sunday, April 24, in Honolulu. His daughter, JoAnn Sumida, told The New York Times the cause was complications from liver disease. He was 85.​

In the same period, he competed as a bodybuilder winning the title Mr. Universe three times. Kono said Arnold Schwarzenegger once cited him as an inspiration. "He told me he was a 13-year-old boy in the audience that day and was so inspired he ran home and started working out," Kono told the Sacramento Bee in 2005. Kono later became a coach of Olympic weightlifting teams for three different countries, including the U.S. team that competed in Montreal in 1976.

Olympic weightlifting champion Tommy Kono dies in Hawaii
 
Jose Fernandez Killed in Boating Accident...
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Miami Marlins Pitcher Fernandez Killed in Boating Accident
September 25, 2016 - One of professional baseball's rising young stars, Miami Marlins pitcher Jose Fernandez, has died along with two companions in a boating accident near the U.S. city of Miami. He was 24.
Public safety officials say the 10-meter boat was traveling at full speed early Sunday morning when it crashed into a rock jetty off Miami Beach, killing all three occupants. The Associated Press quotes authorities who probed the wreckage as saying there was no evidence of illegal drugs or alcohol at the scene. Toxicology tests are set to be conducted in Miami. The boat's owner and likely operator, a friend of Fernandez, was thought to be familiar with the coastal area, according to a local conservation official. "We just can't say why this happened," the official added early Sunday.

News of the deaths cast a pall over Major League games, with the Marlins immediately canceling their scheduled Sunday home game against Atlanta. A charismatic rookie in 2013, Fernandez' backstory as a Cuban refugee captivated countless fans in Miami and beyond. A native of Santa Clara, Cuba, he was unsuccessful in his first three attempts to defect, and spent several months in detention while awaiting his forced return to Cuba. On his fourth try, at age 15, he and his mother reached Mexico, after a perilous voyage in which he saved his mother from drowning in the Gulf of Mexico.

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Miami Marlins starting pitcher Jose Fernandez throws in the first inning of a baseball game against the Atlanta Braves in Atlanta​

Mother and son were later reunited in Tampa, Florida with Fernandez' father, who had earlier escaped his communist homeland. On Sunday, Hall of Famer Tony Perez, an executive with the Marlins organization, said "all I can do is scream in disbelief. Jose won the love of all. I feel as if I have lost a son." Team owners said they were "devastated by the tragic loss of Jose..."

Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred described Fernandez "as one of our game's great young stars who made a dramatic impact on and off the field. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family ...and all the people he touched in his life." This season Fernandez was among the Major League's pitching leaders with a record of 16-8, 253 strikeouts and an earned run average of 2.86.

Miami Marlins Pitcher Fernandez Killed in Boating Accident
 
Golf great Arnold Palmer dies at 87...
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Arnold Palmer dies at 87, made golf popular for masses
Sep. 25, 2016 - Arnold Palmer brought a country club sport to the masses with a hard-charging style, charisma and a commoner's touch. At ease with both presidents and the golfing public, and on a first-name basis with both, "The King" died Sunday in Pittsburgh. He was 87.
Alastair Johnston, CEO of Arnold Palmer Enterprises, confirmed that Palmer died Sunday afternoon of complications from heart problems. Johnston said Palmer was admitted to the UPMC Hospital on Thursday for some cardiovascular work and weakened over the last few days. "Today marks the passing of an era," said Johnston, Palmer's longtime agent at IMG. "Arnold Palmer's influence, profile and achievements spread far beyond the game of golf. He was an iconic American who treated people with respect and warmth, and built a unique legacy through his ability to engage with fans."

Palmer ranked among the most important figures in golf history, and it went well beyond his seven major championships and 62 PGA Tour wins. His good looks, devilish grin and go-for-broke manner made the elite sport appealing to one and all. And it helped that he arrived about the same time as television moved into most households, a perfect fit that sent golf to unprecedented popularity. "If it wasn't for Arnold, golf wouldn't be as popular as it is now," Tiger Woods said in 2004 when Palmer played in his last Masters. "He's the one who basically brought it to the forefront on TV. If it wasn't for him and his excitement, his flair, the way he played, golf probably would not have had that type of excitement. "And that's why he's the king."

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This jan. 28, 1962, file photo shows Arnold Palmer concentrating on his next move during the Lucky International Open at San Francisco's Harding Park. Palmer, who made golf popular for the masses with his hard-charging style, incomparable charisma and a personal touch that made him known throughout the golf world as "The King," died Sunday, Sept. 25, 2016, in Pittsburgh. He was 87.​

Beyond his golf, Palmer was a pioneer in sports marketing, paving the way for scores of other athletes to reap in millions from endorsements. Some four decades after his last PGA Tour win, he ranked among the highest-earners in golf. "Thanks Arnold for your friendship, counsel and a lot of laughs," Woods tweeted Sunday night. "Your philanthropy and humility are part of your legend. It's hard to imagine golf without you or anyone more important to the game than the King."

On the golf course, Palmer was an icon not for how often he won, but the way he did it. He would hitch up his pants, drop a cigarette and attack the flags. With powerful hands wrapped around the golf club, Palmer would slash at the ball with all of his might, then twist that muscular neck and squint to see where it went. "When he hits the ball, the earth shakes," Gene Littler once said. Palmer rallied from seven shots behind to win a U.S. Open. He blew a seven-shot lead on the back nine to lose a U.S. Open.

He was never dull.
 
Three dindu nuffins kill Tyson Gay's sweet talented daughter, Trinity...
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Three charged over shootout after Tyson Gay's daughter killed
Tuesday 18th October, 2016 - Three men have been charged in connection with a shootout which police say left the 15-year-old daughter of US Olympic sprinter Tyson Gay dead.
Trinity Gay died in hospital in Lexington, Kentucky, on Sunday after she was shot in the neck at around 4am local time during an exchange of gunfire between people in two parked vehicles in the car park of a nearby Cook Out restaurant. Dvonta Middlebrooks fired multiple shots during the incident, Lexington police investigators said. He was charged with wanton endangerment and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. A father and son were also charged. Chazerae Taylor, 38, and his 19-year-old son D'Markeo both face wanton endangerment counts, police said in an online statement.

Police spokeswoman Brenna Angel said police do not believe Trinity Gay was in either of the vehicles involved. Tyson Gay said he and his daughter were very close, according to Lexington TV station WLEX. "It's so crazy. I have no idea what happened," Gay told the station. Grief counsellors will be at Lexington's Lafayette High School on Monday for students and staff, Fayette County Public Schools spokeswoman Lisa Deffendall said. Both Gay and his daughter attended the school. Trinity Gay was a promising sprinter, finishing in the top five in several events at the state championships in May. Her father still holds the state record in the 100 metres set in 2001.

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Trinity Gay with her father Tyson Gay​

Tyson Gay competed in the last three Summer Olympics. He was part of a US team that won a silver medal in the 4x100m relay at the 2012 London Games, though that medal was ultimately stripped after Gay tested positive for steroids in 2013. Last summer's Games in Rio featured another stinging disappointment for Gay, 33, who has battled injuries. He was a member of the American men's 4x100m relay team that finished third in the final before being disqualified for an illegal baton exchange between Mike Rodgers and Justin Gatlin. The team's appeal was denied, giving Canada the bronze medal.

The sports world has been mourning the news of the death on social media. USA Track and Field tweeted: "Sending our thoughts & prayers to @TysonLGay & his loved ones as they mourn the tragic & senseless loss of his daughter, Trinity." Several of Gay's USA track team-mates echoed the comment, including Natasha Hastings and Arman Hall. Former NFL wide receiver Santonio Holmes, NBA veteran Vince Carter and tennis great Martina Navratilova have also tweeted messages of support for Gay. The trio charged appeared via video-link before District Court Judge T Bruce Bell on Monday morning, and all three pleaded not guilty. They will face court on October 25.

Three charged over shootout after Tyson Gay's daughter killed - BelfastTelegraph.co.uk
 
The former UConn and Blazers star had two All-Big East years with Huskies before an 18-year NBA career.

He was only 53. (1966-2020)

RIP Uncle Cliffy
 
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"when i'm gone, if i can't go to heaven, take me back to Georgetown" - John Thompson Jr
 

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