Thursday, June 15, 2023

Cleaning out the Inbox: Passings

 The tributes never stop and here is our latest batch of salutes to persons of note that have recently passed.

Goodbye to the "Iron Sheik" at the age of 81.

Famous in recent years for his profane Twitter account and various other media accounts, The Iron Sheik is otherwise best remembered for the moment to the left when he ended the over five years plus WWF title reign of Bob Backlund at Madison Square Garden, when Backlund's manager, Arnold Skaaland, threw in the towel with Backlund trapped in the Sheik's finishing move, the feared "Camel Clutch".

Sheik would hold the title for close to a month before dropping the championship at the same MSG to Hulk Hogan.

The Sheik would later team with Nikolai Volkoff and their tag team title win over Barry Windham and Mike Rotundo at the initial Wrestlemania would be the first title change ever for Wrestlemania.

Sheik had several runs as a top heel through several territories, including Mid-Atlantic, Georgia, Florida, and Mid-South, and his WWF feud with Sgt. Slaughter was also a very successful series.

Goodbye to Mike Young at the age of 63.

Young looked like a coming star for the Baltimore Orioles when he hit twenty-eight homers for the Birds in 1985 but he would only hit a combined twenty-eight homers over the next four seasons (sixteen of those in 1987) and would be out of the majors after thirty-two games for Cleveland in 1989 before playing in 1990 for the Hiroshima Carp in Japan.

In 1987, Young homered twice in extra innings in an Orioles win over the Angels and was the last player to accomplish that feat until 2013.

Goodbye to Jim Hines at the age of 76.

Hines won two gold medals in the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, winning the 100-meter dash and the four-man 100-meter relay, setting world records in both events.

Hines's record in the 100 meters would stand for fifteen years until broken in 1983 by Calvin Smith.

After the NFL success of 1964 Olympic gold-winning sprinter Bob Hayes with the Dallas Cowboys, NFL teams were drafting sprinters often in the hopes of finding another Hayes for their club, and Hines was not an exception as the Miami Dolphins drafted Hines in the sixth round in the 1968 draft.

Hines, Tommy Smith (Bengals), and John Carlos (Eagles) all were in NFL camps following the Mexico City games but what their teams discovered was that while Bob Hayes was a football player that sprinted, Hines, Smith, and Carlos were sprinters that were trying to play football.

Carlos didn't make the Eagles, Smith caught one pass for forty-one yards in his one season (1969) as a Bengal, and Hines caught two passes for twenty-three for the 1969 Dolphins before playing in one game for the Chiefs in 1970 to end his career.

Goodbye to Jim Turner at the age of 82.

Turner kicked in two Super Bowls, winning with the New York Jets in 1968 and losing with the Denver Broncos in 1977 in his sixteen-season career.

In their Super Bowl win, Turner kicked three field goals for the Jets and nailed a forty-seven-yard field goal for Denver in their 27-10 loss to Dallas nine years later.

Turner was voted to the All-AFL second team as the kicker covering the ten-year existence of the league and in the 1977 "Broncomania" season, Turner slipped out of the backfield on a fake field goal attempt and walked into the end zone with a twenty-five-yard touchdown reception from holder and backup quarterback Norris Weese in Denver's breakout 30-7 win over the defending Super Bowl Champion Raiders in Oakland.

Turner was second in career scoring in league history when he retired in 1980 after losing his job in training camp to Fred Steinfort.

Goodbye to Stan Savran at the age of 76.

A long-time sports media icon in Pittsburgh, Savran was actually from Cleveland but moved to Pittsburgh in 1976 and became a major part of the Pittsburgh media.
Savran worked broadcasts for the Pirates and Penguins on their cable networks, hosted Mike Tomlin's coaches show, and hosted "Savran on Sportsbeat" for seventeen years on Fox Sports Pittsburgh the longest-running sports program in Pittsburgh's history.

Goodbye to Harvey Glance at the age of 66.

An Olympian in 1976 and 1980 in the 100-meter dash, Glance won the Olympic Trials in 1976 and was thought to be a favorite entering the finals in Montreal but finished a disappointing fourth.

Glance did win a gold in Montreal however as he was part of the four-man 100-meter relay team that won that event.

Glance would make the 1980 Olympic team but did not compete due to the United State boycott of the game.

Glance twice equaled the 100-meter world record in 1976, with running times of 9.9 seconds.

After retiring from competition, Glance would serve as the head track coach at his alma mater of Auburn before leaving for the same position at rival Alabama.  






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