Cleaning out the inbox: Passings

The passings list is cleaned up for the time being with the remainder of the list of notables being posted today.

Goodbye to Harley Race at the age of 76.
Race, who was the first wrestler to win the NWA world title seven times in the era when it was that championship and not that of Vince McMahon's WWF that was the most prestigious title in pro wrestling.
Race was noted for his legitimate toughness outside the ring and the legendary stories about Race's knocking people cold away from the arena are plentiful.
Race, who had a steel plate along his forearm and wasn't afraid to smash someone in the skull with it, also survived several car crashes that damaged him severely through the years and in these crashes broke many bones among other injuries.
Race won the NWA title for the first time in 1973 with a victory over Dory Funk Jr and lost it for the final time in 1983 to Ric Flair in the first Starrcade in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Due to my lack of cable television during Race's reigns as NWA champion, my exposure (as far as actually seeing Race wrestle) to Race came after Race's defection to the WWF as the "King" Harley Race managed by Bobby Heenan.
Race defeated the Junkyard Dog at Wrestlemania III and would receive a run against Hulk Hogan, but during the run, Race would injure himself by falling through an unprepared table in a Hogan match and would receive a hernia when the metal from the table drove into his abdomen and gave Race a hernia.
Race would never be the same in the ring and other than a brief return against the new King Haku and some cameo appearances in the AWA and WCW, Race would be finished as a wrestler, although he would manage Lex Luger and Big Van Vader to championships in WCW.


Goodbye to Chris Kraft at the age of 95.
Kraft, who was the head of NASA Flight Operations and the first-ever Flight Director for the agency. retired before the start of the Apollo program as the Flight Director in favor of being the director of the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
In other words, as the head of flight operations for an agency that was brand new and for spacecraft that had never flown, Kraft was the person in charge of making the rules for every part of the mission from scratch.
Kraft's duties as head of the space center included training and being in charge of the other flight directors as well as being part of the decision-making process on who flew on what missions.


Goodbye to Denise Nickerson at the age of 62.
Nickerson might be best known as "Violet Beauregard" in the original "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory", the chewing gum obsessed teenager that would blow up with berry juice and would be rolled to the "squeezing room".
Nickerson also was known for her role in the vampire soap opera "Dark Shadows" and after the Wonka film, she would appear in "The Brady Bunch" as a date of Peter Brady's and was a member of the "Short Circus" troupe on the "Electric Company" in the mid-70s before retiring from acting.


Goodbye to Ernie Broglio at the age of 83.
Best known as being the key part of the trade that sent Lou Brock to the Cardinals that resulted in Brock going to the Hall of Fame and Broglio winning only seven games in three years before retiring at thirty years old, what is often forgotten is what a quality pitcher Broglio was with the Cardinals before the trade.
Broglio won 21 games for the Cardinals in 1960 and 18 in 1963 in the season before the mid-season trade that sent him to the Cubs.


Goodbye to Prudencio Cardona at the age of 67.
A 1972 Olympian at the Munich games, Cardona held the WBC flyweight title in 1982 after slashing through Antonio Avelar in one round to win the title and became one of what seemed to be 74 guys to hold the WBC title while Santos Laciar (remember our Hall of Fame boosting of Laciar?) held the WBA title.
Keeping in the form of the time, Cardona dropped the championship to Freddie Castillo via unanimous decision in his first title defense and would challenge Laciar for his title in 1984, losing by 10th round knockout.


Goodbye to Eddie Marlin at the age of 89.
Marlin, a long-time wrestler in the 50s through the 70s, was better known as the authority figure in the Memphis territory as the general manager (in character) of the territory.
Marlin was one of those people that that always looked like he was 70, even when he was 40, so it worked to have him as the enforcer of company policy.
Marlin happened to be the father-in-law of company owner Jerry Jarrett, which helped in getting and holding his position and the grandfather of Jeff Jarrett.


We now are finished catching up on the inbox (finally) and I hope to begin writing about the road trip shortly!