Goodbye to Harold Lederman at the age of 79 after a long bout with cancer.
Steve Kim in the above link goes into far more detail than I on just loved Lederman was in the boxing community as a judge and as the network judge for HBO's telecasts for many years.
Lederman, who was a pharmacist in his day job, worked for HBO from 1986 until the network's last telecast last fall was universally loved by boxing fans.
It's not often that one can say that in an industry that has so many polarizing personalities, but I'm pretty confident that Harold was one of those people that no one had a bad word to say about.
Lederman also was rare in boxing, that his scores were usually consistent as were his opinions.
Very little flip-flopping with Lederman, who served for a time with the WBO as a championship official and you always seemed to feel that Harold was always looking out for what was best for the game.
Most fans, even casual ones, remember Lederman for his wrapup line to Jim Lampley after delivering his thoughts on an in-progress bout with the concluding exclamation "JIM!", but I'll remember just as fondly his effusive segments during his time with Larry Merchant on the broadcast and after a minute or so of Harold's enthusiasm with how he was scoring a fight, you could almost count to five and then Merchant would come in with a monotone "I have it 5-3".
One night, Ryan who would watch boxing with me on occasion as a child, turned to me and asked: "why the second guy has to get his score in, even though no one asked him?"
I didn't have an answer, but from that time forward, I always thought of those interactions more than his more famous line.
Goodbye to John Havlicek at the age of 79.
"Hondo" spent his entire sixteen season NBA career with the Boston Celtics and was part of eight championship teams with Boston.
Havlicek also played for the 1960 Ohio State national title team with Jerry Lucas and a quiet backup by the name of Bob Knight with being the first alternate on that year's Olympic team.
Havlicek had his number retired by both the Buckeyes and Celtics and still remains the all-time leading scorer for the Celtics, over forty years after his retirement.
The 13-time All-Star also tried out for the Cleveland Browns in 1962 as a wide receiver before his release late in camp saw Havlicek's decision to be safer on the basketball court.
My personal Havlicek memories were of him as the cagey veteran with the Celtics squeezing out a seven-game win over Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's Milwaukee Bucks in the last finals for the Bucks to this day and the classic six-game win over the Phoenix Suns in 1976.
It was Havlicek's running jumper that looked to have won the famous game five in the second overtime that saw fans running onto the court, but with still one second to remaining, the stage was set for Phoenix forward Garfield Heard to hit his own off-balance shot to move the game to the third overtime in which an obscure player named Glenn McDonald, who had fresh legs (since he had barely played) to play his best five minutes as a pro and allow Boston to grab the win.
Note on Glenn McDonald, he would play five minutes in the series-clinching sixth game and would never play for the Celtics again.
McDonald would play nine games with Milwaukee in the following season and would never play in the league again- finished at just 24.
Most people are familiar with the "Havlicek steals the ball!" clip from the 1965 Eastern Final where Havlicek's steal with five seconds to go in game seven against Wilt Chamberlain's 76ers clinched the victory and I've always looked at that moment and Johnny Most's call as being basketball's equivalent to the Russ Hodges "The Giants win the pennant" as few outside the home area heard that call, yet the play and the call are merged together forever.
Havlicek is remembered by most for that play, but his career was far more than only that play and you might be able to make an excellent case for John Havlicek being the most underrated superstar in NBA history.
Goodbye to Johnny Neumann at the age of 68.
Neumann, who was nicknamed "Johnny Reb" during his one season (1970-71) at Ole Miss, where he averaged 40 points a game before signing with the ABA's Memphis Pros.
Neumann was often compared to Pete Maravich with the obvious parallels between the two players, but Neumann never seemed to understand the team concept and his teams often tired of his lack of passing, which resulted in his being traded several times during his career.
In Terry Pluto's oral history of the ABA- Loose Balls, there is an entire chapter devoted to Neumann's career and time in the ABA.
Goodbye to Bert Cooper at the age of 53.
Cooper had the potential to be one of the best cruiserweights ever as he showed explosive power in the division, but his inability to have a cruiserweight champion defend their title against him saw him jump between the cruiserweights and the heavyweights in order to receive fights.
Cooper fought about every heavyweight that you can name in the late 80s and 90s except for Mike Tyson and even though he usually lost, you often had the feeling that had Cooper been able to fight at least some of those contenders without giving away so much size, he would have won against at least some of them.
Cooper is best remembered for his title challenge of Evander Holyfield in which on short notice for the injured Francesco Damiani, Cooper dropped Holyfield for the first time in the champion's career in the third round before Holyfield would eventually stop Cooper in the seventh round.
As good as the Holyfield fight was, the best Cooper fight ever was his war with Michael Moorer for the vacant WBO title (remember that it took almost thirty years before I finally began to recognize the WBO as a legitimate championship) which was one of the fights of the year in 1992 and saw both fighters knocked down twice before Moorer stopped Cooper in the fifth.
The frustration with Cooper was this- at times he could fight with courage and honor as against Holyfield and Moorer, but could also frustrate with a lack of effort as when he meekly quit in the corner after just two rounds against George Foreman or sleepwalking through a loss to washed up former champion Mike Weaver just nine months after the Moorer battle.
Cooper passed away from a battle with pancreatic cancer.
Goodbye to MacArthur Lane at the age of 77.
Lane rushed for over 4,600 yards in an eleven-year career with the Cardinals, Packers, and Chiefs.
Lane's best year was in 1970 with the Cardinals as he rushed for 977 yards and eleven touchdowns in the then fourteen game season, but he might be better remembered for his backfield pairing with John Brockington in 1972 with the Dan Devine coached Packers that won the Central Division title for the only Packer playoff appearance of the 70s.
Goodbye to Reggie Cobb at the age of 50.
Cobb rushed for over 1,100 yards in 1992 for the Buccaneers and would later play for three other teams in his seven-year career, but to me will always be remembered as part of Cobb/Webb, which was a talented backfield for the Tennessee Volunteers with Chuck Webb for a short period of time before Cobb was kicked off the team in 1989.
Cobb dealt with drug issues at Tennessee, but never had any problems thereafter and worked as a scout with three NFL teams including the 49ers at the time of his death,
BTW- If you have never seen Chuck Webb run, you really missed what could have been one of the great backs ever.
Webb ranks with the better known Marcus Dupree as the backs of the time that if you saw them run, one always remembers them as just how good they could have been.
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