Link won’t work for me but Len Bias must be on the list.
Did they include the filly Ruffian?
There were 3 Baltimore Orioles players killed in a boating accident (alcohol involved) some years ago, but I don't think any of them were individually at the celebrity level of these "top 20."
http://video.aol.com/video-detail/randy-johnson-pitch-hits-bird/2288538641
Poor guy never saw it coming
Earnhart was more of a tragedy because of his celebrity, but in terms of horrific, Gordon Smiley’s crash at Indy in ‘82 had to be the worst.
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.
Lyle Alzado
Derrick Thomas of the Kansas City Chiefs?
The death of Doug Dedge deserves some mention since it nearly killed the young sport of MMA.
Swede Savage wasn’t on the list.
Jim Fixx, the famous runner.
As a very young Detroit Lions fan, I remember when Chuck Hughes collapsed and died right on the field back in 1970.