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Deaths Of Notable Sports Figures (R.I.P.)

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Former two-time All-Star Fairly dies at 81

Two-time All-Star Ron Fairly has died of cancer, Southern California announced Wednesday. He was 81.

The school said Fairly, a member of USC's Athletic Hall of Fame, died in Indian Wells, Calif.

Fairly batted .266 with 215 homers and 1,044 RBIs in 2,442 games in 21 seasons from 1958-78. He was part of three World Series winning teams with the Los Angeles Dodgers from 1958-69.

Fairly also played for the Montreal Expos (1969-74), St. Louis Cardinals (1975-76), Oakland Athletics (1976), Toronto Blue Jays (1977) and California Angels (1978). The first baseman/outfielder was a National League All-Star with Montreal in 1973 and made the American League team with Toronto in 1977.

Entire article: https://sports.yahoo.com/former-two-time-star-fairly-200057576.html?src=rss
 
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Former Michigan State, Lions Receiver Charles Rogers Dies at 38

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Former NFL receiver Charles Rogers has died. He was 38.

Chris Baker, Rogers’s former Michigan State teammate, said on Twitter that he had spoken with Rogers’s mother, who confirmed his passing.

Rogers’s high school coach, Don Durrett, told the Detroit Free Press that he had been told by former players Rogers died overnight Sunday.

“We are deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Charles Rogers,” the Lions said in a statement. “From Saginaw, to East Lansing, to Detroit, Charles’ connection to the state of Michigan and its football community was felt by many during the course of his life. We extend our heartfelt sympathies and condolences to his friends and family during this difficult time.”

Rogers had a record-setting career at Michigan State before the Lions selected him with the second pick of the 2003 NFL draft. He caught 27 touchdown passes in just two seasons for the Spartans, a school record. His 2,821 receiving yards are third in school history.

Injuries and drug issues hampered Rogers’s NFL career. He played just 15 games in three seasons for the Lions, catching 36 passes for 440 yards and four touchdowns. He was released by Detroit before the 2006 season.

Entire article: https://www.si.com/nfl/2019/11/11/lions-michigan-state-charles-rogers-dead
 
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Packers’ Bratkowski, Bart Starr’s backup, has died

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This March 17, 2010, photo, Zeke Bratkowski gestures during Pro Day for NFL scouts at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Fla. The quarterback who backed up Bart Starr during the Packers’s 1960s dynasty, died Monday.

GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — Zeke Bratkowski, the quarterback who backed up Bart Starr during the Green Bay Packers’ 1960s dynasty, has died at his Florida home. He was 88.

The team announced his death late Monday but did not disclose further details.

The Packers Hall of Famer was a quarterback in Green Bay from 1963-1968 and again in 1971. One of Bratkowski’s most notable performances in relief of an injured Starr came in 1965, a 13-10 overtime playoff win over the Baltimore Colts that sent the Packers to the title game against Cleveland.

They beat the Browns for what would be the first of three straight championship seasons, and Bratkowski played briefly in both Super Bowl wins in the two years that followed.

His death comes six months after Starr died at the age of 85. Under coach Vince Lombardi, Starr led Green Bay to six division titles, five NFL championships and wins in the first two Super Bowls.

“I’ve tried to pattern myself after Bart,” Bratkowski said in 1967, according to the Packers. “We study the movies together and go over the game plan together. I try to think as much like he does as I can so the team will not have to make a big adjustment if I’m needed.”

Entire article: https://www.avpress.com/news/packer...cle_a52cf054-0692-11ea-bbe9-a36d332aa851.html
 
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Vera Clemente, widow of Pirates legend, dies at age 78

Vera Clemente, the widow of Baseball Hall of Fame outfielder Roberto Clemente and a goodwill ambassador for Major League Baseball, has died. She was 78.

MLB and the Pittsburgh Pirates announced her death on Saturday. She died in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

MLB said she recently had experienced health issues. The Pirates tweeted on Nov. 1 that she had been hospitalized in "delicate health."

Entire article: https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/28096785/vera-clemente-widow-pirates-legend-dies-age-78
 
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ScriptOhio said:


Vera Clemente, widow of Pirates legend, dies at age 78

Vera Clemente, the widow of Baseball Hall of Fame outfielder Roberto Clemente and a goodwill ambassador for Major League Baseball, has died. She was 78.

MLB and the Pittsburgh Pirates announced her death on Saturday. She died in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

MLB said she recently had experienced health issues. The Pirates tweeted on Nov. 1 that she had been hospitalized in "delicate health."

Entire article: https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/28096785/vera-clemente-widow-pirates-legend-dies-age-78
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Sad to hear about Mrs. Clemente's passing. "Bobby" was my favorite player growing up as a kid. I'll never forget waking up on New Years Day 1973 and hearing of his death. I was in 6th grade and did a verbal book report on him later in the year. As I spoke, I started crying like a baby in front of my class. No one laughed. They all knew.

RIP Vera.

Peace
 
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We have lost not only a great track athlete but a greater American. May God be with you Harrison.


Harrison Dillard, Olympic champion, dies at 96
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Harrison Dillard, left, is pictured in this 1949 photo competing in the 120-yard international hurdles during the British Games in London.
(Associated Press)
By Associated Press
Nov. 17, 2019
1:26 PM
CLEVELAND —
Harrison Dillard, the former Buffalo Soldier and only Olympic runner to win gold medals in both the sprints and high hurdles, has died. He was 96.

Longtime friend Ted Theodore said Dillard died Friday at the Cleveland Clinic after a fight with stomach cancer. The 1955 Sullivan Award winner as the nation’s outstanding amateur athlete, Dillard was the oldest living U.S. Olympic champion.

“It is a loss for humanity,” Theodore told Cleveland.com. “He was an example for all of us, how to live our lives, with never an unkind word for anyone. He was a champion, a true champion.”

Dillard was a sharpshooter in the last racially segregated unit in the U.S. Army in World War II, serving as a Buffalo Soldier in the 92nd Infantry Division. He returned to Europe a few years later for the Olympics.


In the 1948 London Games, Dillard won the 100 meters in 10.3 seconds and earned another gold medal on the United States’ 400 relay team. At the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, Dillard won his specialty, the 110 high hurdles, in 13.91, and again ran on the winning relay team.

Overall, Dillard won more than 400 races — 82 in a row at one point. Dillard won 11 indoor and outdoor national championships, including the indoor 60-yard hurdles a record eight consecutive years. Dillard won that event at the Millrose Games nine years in a row.

He held world hurdles records at 60 yards indoors, and 110 yards and 220 yards outdoors.

A native of Cleveland, Dillard grew up idolizing another Cleveland native, Jesse Owens.

Dillard and Owens, who won four gold medals in the 1936 Olympics, graduated from Cleveland East Technical High School and starred at Baldwin Wallace College.

In 1974, Dillard was inducted into the Track and Field Hall of Fame, and in 1983 he became a charter inductee into the U.S. Olympic Committee Hall of Fame.
https://www.latimes.com/obituaries/story/2019-11-17/harrison-dillard-olympic-champion-dies-at-96
 
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Fred Cox, former Pitt, NFL standout who invented Nerf football, dies at 80

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A legendary native of Monongahela and an NFL icon, Fred Cox, died Wednesday in Minnesota from complications due to kidney failure.

Cox, 80, had been in hospice care in his home in Monticello for some time before his death.

After his football career, with the help of Minnesota entrepreneur John Mattox, he invented in 1971 the Nerf football, a foam rubber toy which is still popular today. He got the idea while a playing for the Minnesota Vikings.

Entire article: https://triblive.com/sports/fred-cox-former-pitt-nfl-standout-who-invented-nerf-football-dies-at-80/



 
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Junior Johnson, moonshiner turned NASCAR legend, dies at 88

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Junior Johnson, a stock-car racing giant whose career spanned the sport’s history from its moonshining roots to its modern era as a fierce, hard-nosed driver and an innovative mechanic and team owner, has died. He was 88.

Johnson’s passing was confirmed by the NASCAR Hall of Fame. He had been in declining health and entered hospice care earlier this week. His wife, Lisa, told The New York Times that Johnson had Alzheimer’s disease.

Johnson was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in its inaugural Class of 2010. He won 50 races in NASCAR’s top division — the most of any driver without a championship — and added 132 victories and six championships as a successful team owner for many legends of the sport. Johnson won the second running of the Daytona 500 in 1960, then added two more triumphs in the Great American Race as a car owner in 1969 and ’77.

His all-out style — honed from years of hauling illegal liquor at breakneck speeds through the North Carolina foothills — took a toll on his competitors and his own equipment, earning him a reputation as the hardest of the hard chargers. Johnson was also known as the Wilkes County Wildman and heralded as “The Last American Hero,” after a brilliant 1965 essay in Esquire by author Tom Wolfe.

“Junior Johnson truly was the ‘Last American Hero,’ ” NASCAR Chairman and CEO Jim France said in a statement. “From his early days running moonshine through the end of his life, Junior wholly embodied the NASCAR spirit. He was an inaugural NASCAR Hall of Famer, a nod to an extraordinary career as both a driver and team owner. Between his on-track accomplishments and his introduction of Winston to the sport, few have contributed to the success of NASCAR as Junior has. The entire NASCAR family is saddened by the loss of a true giant of our sport, and we offer our deepest condolences to Junior’s family and friends during this difficult time.”

Entire article: https://www.nascar.com/news-media/2019/12/20/junior-johnson-moonshiner-nascar-legend-dies-88/
 
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Don Larsen, Only Pitcher To Throw Perfect World Series Game, Dies At 90

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In the 1956 World Series, the New York Yankees were playing the defending champion Brooklyn Dodgers — a rematch of the 1955 series.

Spoiler alert: The Yankees went on to win, and they did it with the help of pitcher Don Larsen, the only player to have pitched a perfect game in the World Series.

"Larsen was the unlikeliest of characters to attain what so many Hall of Famers couldn't pull off in the Fall Classic," The Associated Press reports. "He was 81-91 lifetime, never won more than 11 games in a season and finished an unsightly 3-21 with Baltimore in 1954, the year before he was dealt to the Yankees as part of an 18-player trade."



Entire article: https://www.npr.org/2020/01/02/7929...to-throw-perfect-world-series-game-dies-at-90
 
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