Posted on 03/04/2009 5:55:43 PM PST by Justaham
Gone too soon. 20 deaths from the sports world that shocked us .
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.foxsports.com ...
NASCAR lost both Adam Petty and Kenny Irwin in the same year. Petty wasn’t a winning driver but Irwin had a few. Alan Kulwiki and Davey Allison were a couple of big name drivers who died in a plan and helicopter crash respectively.
good list. all the ones i could think of were on there.
To An Athlete Dying Young, by A. E. Houseman
THE time you won your town the race
We chaired you through the market-place;
Man and boy stood cheering by,
And home we brought you shoulder-high.
To-day, the road all runners come,
Shoulder-high we bring you home,
And set you at your threshold down,
Townsman of a stiller town.
Smart lad, to slip betimes away
From fields where glory does not stay,
And early though the laurel grows
It withers quicker than the rose.
Eyes the shady night has shut
Cannot see the record cut,
And silence sounds no worse than cheers
After earth has stopped the ears:
Now you will not swell the rout
Of lads that wore their honours out,
Runners whom renown outran
And the name died before the man.
So set, before its echoes fade,
The fleet foot on the sill of shade,
And hold to the low lintel up
The still-defended challenge-cup.
And round that early-laurelled head
Will flock to gaze the strengthless dead,
And find unwithered on its curls
The garland briefer than a girl’s.
Would Bruce Lee be considered a sports figure in martial arts ?
I would have thought the Israeli Olympic team members kidnapped and executed in Munich would have made the list.
Nice. Always loved that poem.
I read about it at the time. My first experience with a sports event death, but not the last in the Sweet Science.
Lyle Alzado
Joe Delaney
Derrick Thomas of the Kansas City Chiefs?
The death of Doug Dedge deserves some mention since it nearly killed the young sport of MMA.
Wayne Estes
Swede Savage wasn’t on the list.
Spider Sabich
Drazen Petrovic (1964-1993), a native of Sibenik, Croatia, played in the NBA for the Portland Trailblazers and the NJ Nets before being killed in a car accident in Germany at the age of 28. He also was on the 1984 and 1988 Yugoslavian Olympic teams and the 1992 Croatian team. (His father was Montenegrin and his mother Croat, according to Wikipedia.) I guess he's too much of a foreigner to be included, and hadn't played long enough in the US to be much-remembered here.
Hank Gathers, Loyola Marymount University, Southern California, 1990. Was playing against Portland during a WCC tournament game, had a dunk midway through the first half, started down court, collapsed, and was declared DOA at the hospital, at the age of 23. (hypertrophic cardiomyopathy)
LMU players rallied and made it to the Elite 8 that year, losing to eventual champ UNLV.
Note: star guard Bo Kimble began a tribute to Gathers that would continue through the tournament, and into his playing career - Kimble would shoot his first free-throw left handed (Gathers was right-handed, but a poor free thrower and had started trying to shoot with his left hand) before going back to his natural right handed shooting.
I think you might have meant 3 Cleveland Indians pitchers during spring training - 2 died, 1 injured...
t’s just as it was March 22, 1993, when a relaxing day of laughter, friendship and family turned to horror as Cleveland Indians pitchers Crews, 31, and Steve Olin, 27, were killed in a boating accident. A third pitcher, Bob Ojeda, barely survived.
That’s the incident I was thinking of—don’t know why I remembered it as involving members of the Orioles club rather than the Indians. The player steering the boat, Tim Crews, was legally drunk when the boat hit the pier. Only two of them were killed—the third player was seriously injured.
Jim Fixx, the famous runner.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.