Goodbye to Ken Riley at the age of 72.
Riley spent all fifteen seasons on the corner in Cincinnati for the Bengals from 1969 through 1983 and is one of those defenders of that era that has fallen through the cracks for induction for the Hall of Fame.
Riley intercepted 65 passes in his career, which is fifth on the all-time list for interceptions and when he retired after the 1983 season, Riley was still playing well as he intercepted eight passes in his final season.
Riley would serve as head coach at his alma mater, Florida A&M, from 1986-93 and then took over as athletic director from 1994 until 2003 when he retired.
Goodbye to Claudell Washington at the age of 65.
Washington, who played for seventeen years in the majors, never became the star that he was projected to be when he made the 1975 All-Star team at only 20 years old but was of enough value that he would play for eight teams in his career.
Washington hit a career-high of .308 with ten homers and career-high in stolen bases with forty in 1975 and looked to be on his way to stardom, but it never panned out for Washington in his travels around baseball.
Washington also has another interesting point as it is Washington that hits the foul ball that Ferris Bueller catches in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off".
Goodbye to Mike McCormick at the age of 81.
McCormick debuted at 17 in 1956 for the New York Giants and won fifteen games for the San Francisco Giants in 1960.
McCormick was traded to the Orioles for the 1963 season, struggled to six wins in two seasons there before moving to Washington in 1965 where he would win eight and eleven games in two years with the Senators.
The Giants reacquired McCormick before the 1967 season and McCormick won the Cy Young award out of seemingly nowhere as he finished 22-10 with an ERA of 2.85.
McCormick would win 33 games over the next four years and in 1971 would pitch only four games with an ERA over nine for the Royals and would be finished in baseball at 32.
McCormick's passing leaves only 14 living New York Giants.
Goodbye to Mr. Wrestling II at the age of 85.
Johnny "Rubberman" Walker was a journeyman wrestler that in 1972, was semi-retired and running a gas station when he was approached by Georgia promoters to become Mr. Wrestling II to play off the spectacular success of Mr. Wrestling (Tim Woods) as someone to take the place of Woods when he was wrestling elsewhere both in and out of the territory.
Wrestling II would often tag team with Woods, but would become the bigger star nationally with II being one of the first stars of Georgia Championship Wrestling on WTBS with his "Million Dollar Kneelift".
Wrestling II was given even more mainstream publicity when Jimmy Carter was inaugurated as President in 1977 and the President-elect's mother Lillian Carter's favorite wrestler was Mr. Wrestling II, who she invited to the inauguration as her guest.
Walker had to turn down the invite when the Secret Service insisted that Walker unmask for the ceremonies and Walker decided not to risk his identity being known.
Walker did eventually meet Carter at the White House with a picture of the two appearing in newspapers of the day.
Wrestling II's most memorable angle for me was his heel turn in Mid-South Wrestling where II was teaming with Magnum TA as the Mid-South tag champions as II "mentored" the younger TA, but subtlely became jealous of TA's developing popularity.
II would eventually win the North American title from Junkyard Dog as a heel and abandon TA in the middle of a match with the Midnight Express that caused their team to lose the titles to the Midnights and with a stipulation of the losers getting whipped with a belt in play, II walked away to leave Magnum to receive all the lashes and begin a feud between the two.
Magnum would eventually win the North American title from II and the run was the last big one of II''s career as he would sign with the WWF, but rarely wrestled on television (I don't ever remember seeing him then) and usually was on the lower end of house show cards before retiring.
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