I did not add the death of former Ohio State football coach Earle Bruce because I want to do a bigger piece when the time for those types of posts are easier to come by.
We start with the passing of "Number One" Paul Jones at the age of 75.
Jones was a top wrestler in the 60's and 70's, mainly in the Mid-Atlantic and Florida territories, but to most fans, Jones is remembered as the ineffectual manager for the Crockett promotions in the mid-1980's that spent most of his time sending wrestlers to battle "the Boogie Woogie Man" Jimmy Valiant.
It's too bad because Jones was quite a star as both the top babyface and top heel for Mid-Atlantic Wrestling and Championship Wrestling From Florida.
Jones' best run was a little before my time as a fan even through the magazines, but a brief run that I remember through those magazines as a masked wrestler in Florida as "Mr.Florida" and for an angle as Mr. Florida when manager Sir Oliver Humperdink "accidentally shoved a cigar in his eye".
Jones time as a manager saw him as a dandy running around in a white tuxedo then as the leader of the "Army" where he cut his mustache short and resembled a bizarre mix of Adolf Hitler with the mustache and the "brown shirt" uniform of Benito Mussolini and finally in this Johnny Cash "Man in Black" getup where he managed Warlord and Barbarian as the "Powers of Pain in a feud against the Road Warriors that ended prematurely when (in real life) the Warlord and Barbarian left the NWA for the WWF rather than do a series of scaffold matches where they at over 300 pounds each would drop to the mat from a high scaffold.
Then Jones began using the name for himself as announcer David Crockett stated in the first program without his team- "Paul Jones is Powers of Pain".
Every once in a great while through the years, I'd send Ryan an email or a phone message stating that that "Paul Jones is Powers of Pain".
Jones is also known for attending the same high school at the same time as football coach Jimmy Johnson and the late rock star Janis Joplin and for the claim that Jones took the virginity of Ms.Joplin.
Another former wrestler turned manager passed away recently as Johnny Valiant passed away at the age of 71 after being hit by a vehicle in Pittsburgh.
Valiant was part of the Valiant Brothers with the aforementioned Jimmy Valiant in the 1970's and later a third brother Jerry Valiant and was a two-time WWWF tag team titleholder as part of the "brother" act.
Again as with Paul Jones, most fans will be more likely to remember Valiant as a WWF manager in the 1980's, most notably with Brutus Beefcake at first and then managed Beefcake and Greg Valentine "The Dream Team" to the federation's tag team titles.
I always thought Valiant was funny and effective in the role as a manager and occasional commentator but was overshadowed by Bobby Heenan and to a lesser extent Jimmy Hart in the company.
Valiant was good on the mic, could take a nice bump in the ring and pretty good as a color commentator as well, his misfortune was to be in the company at the same time as Heenan, who was simply even better than Valiant at those skills and Valiant was lost in the shuffle.
Former Southern California Sun running back James McAlister passed away at the age of 66 after battling cancer.
McAlister was a multi-talented athlete, who paired with his high school teammate Kermit Johnson at running back to play together at UCLA and with the WFL's Sun before both left the team on the eve of the league's only playoff season in 1974, when the duo (and tackle Booker Brown) when they had not received their game checks.
McAlister is also remembered for his famous Sports Illustrated cover of an up-close shot of his face inside his helmet at UCLA in 1971 but also uncorked the longest leap of 1973 in the long jump in the world, so McAlister was at the world-class level in two sports.
After leaving the WFL, McAlister would spend three seasons in the NFL with the Eagles and Patriots and his son Chris would become an All-Pro cornerback for the Baltimore Ravens.
It was ironic for me, as I was in the middle of a replay season for the Sun in my PC football league and McAlister was on my mind during that time on how best to use him in the game.
Three passings were brought to my attention by Lefty Koch, who seems to always be passing me information that I missed.
Thanks to Lefty for sending me the following three notices.
The all-time scorer in the history of the Philadelphia 76ers passed away at the age of 81 as Hal Greer passed on in Arizona.
Greer leading the Sixers in scoring is saying something for his skills as a player for a franchise that has employed Wilt Chamberlain, Charles Barkley, Julius Erving and Allen Iverson.
Greer spent his first five years with Syracuse before the team moved to Philadelphia in 1963 and spent his entire career with the franchise before retiring in 1973.
Greer played his college ball at Marshall and I remember when we visited Huntington last year crossing "Hal Greer Boulevard".
Greer was named as one of the league's 50 greatest players in 1996 and was the first player ever to have his number retired by the 76ers.
Vic Bubas, the father of Duke basketball, passed away at the age of 91 in Richmond, VA.
Bubas was an assistant under Everett Case at the ACC's first basketball powerhouse at N.C. State before taking the head job at Duke from 1959 to 1969, compiling a record of 212-67, winning four ACC tournaments in the days that only the ACC tournament winner went to the big dance and made the final four three times before retiring young at the age of 42, never coaching again.
Bubas moved into administration at Duke before becoming the first commissioner of the Sun Belt conference in 1976.
Robert "the Tank" Holmes, a bulldozing fullback for three teams in the AFL before moving to Canada, passed away there at the age of 72.
Holmes' peak was in his first two years with the Kansas City Chiefs in 1968 and 69 as part of their only world championship team in rushing for just under 1,500 yards in those seasons.
Holmes would barely top 1,000 yards over the remaining five years with the Chiefs, Chargers, and Oilers before finishing his career in the CFL with Saskatchewan.
We finish with the loss of Jhoon Rhee at the age of 86.
If you are over the age of 40 and live in range of Washington DC television stations, it doesn't take more than to say "Nobody Bothers Me" to someone of a similar age to respond with " Nobody Bother Me Either"!
The Taekwondo commercials by Jhoon Rhee are known so well because of the snappy jingle "Call USA-1000" (written and sung by E-Street Band member Nils Lofgren in return for a small sum and a lifetime membership) and catchphrases mainly because there were so few stations then and those Jhoon Rhee commercials seemed to play every 15 minutes on WDCA, which was the only station that showed syndication shows (Star Trek, a lot!) kids shows (Captain 20
)and was the only place that you could watch the Orioles, Bullets, and Capitals to go with lots of ACC basketball.
Throughout all of that programming was the familiar refrain of "Nobody Bothers Me".
Over 40 years later, I bet people that never threw a kick in their life knows that commercial, jingle and the master of taekwondo that started them all.
Still plenty of inbox cleaning to do, but we have made progress- more coming soon!
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