Goodbye to Roger Mayweather at the age of 58.
Known more by current boxing fans as the trainer of his nephew Floyd Mayweather, Jr, Roger Mayweather was quite a talented fighter in his own right as he held both the WBA junior lightweight and WBC junior welterweight titles in his career in the ring.
"The Black Mamba" dethroned long-time WBA junior lightweight champion, Sammy Serrano, in Serrano's native Puerto Rico by an eighth-round stoppage and after two exciting title defenses, a unification fight against another undefeated champion in Hector "Macho" Camacho was beginning to be whispered about as one of the better fights to be made at the time.
That fight would never occur as Mayweather was knocked out in one round by Rocky Lockridge to lose his title and even though Mayweather would have success later in his career, the entertaining "Black Mamba" was never the same, in the same manner as Camacho's style changing after being badly hurt by Edwin Rosario and became more of a boxer than an aggressive puncher from distance.
Mayweather didn't win a title at lightweight but did score a knockdown over defensive wizard Pernell Whitaker in a unanimous decision defeat.
Mayweather would win a title at 140 pounds via knockout over Rene Arrendondo and defend it four times before losing for the second time to Julio Cesar Chavez.
Goodbye to Hedgemon Lewis at the age of 74.
Lewis challenged for the world welterweight title on three occasions losing twice to the great Jose "Mantaquilla" Napoles and losing to John H. Stracey via tenth round knockout in what would be the final fight of the career of Lewis.
Lewis was once recognized as the champion by the New York State Athletic Commission at a time when that designation held some measure of respect when he defeated former world champion, Billy Backus.
The loss to Stracey followed two draws by Lewis in three weeks in late 1975 to future WBC champion Carlos Palomino and future title challenger Harold Weston Jr.
Upon retirement, Lewis would train and work corners with two of the best trainers in history in Eddie Futch and Freddie Roach.
Lewis was one of those unlucky fighters that was very good, but not quite great and born at a time with a dominant champion (Napoles) that was just a little better.
Hedgemon Lewis also has a spot in the TRS memory bank as well and I'll tell that story on another day.
Goodbye to War Emblem at the age of 21.
The winner of the 2002 Kentucky Derby and Preakness, War Emblem won the Eclipse Award for the champion three-year-old colt for that year.
A frontrunner that had to take the lead or run poorly, War Emblem burned out his challengers in the Derby and Preakness, but refused to "rate" in the Belmont after stumbling badly out of the starting gate, and finished well out of contention.
War Emblem was well-known for his intolerance for what seemed to be anything around him- animal or human as trainer Bob Baffert gave him the nickname "Hannibal Lecter" for his habitual biting of everyone around him.
War Emblem would win the Haskell Invitational after the Belmont but would lose both of his starts against older horses before being retired at stud in Japan.
Imported to Japan, War Emblem showed little interest in mares and rarely got mares into foal.
Returned to the United States four years ago, War Emblem again showed no desire to copulate, but since he was returned from Japan to be a stallion and he wasn't up to the task, War Emblem was gelded for him to stay in the country.
Goodbye to Ed Farmer at the age of 70.
Farmer spent time with eight major league teams but spent his best years as a reliever with the White Sox with 54 saves for the White Sox from 1979-81.
Farmer's best season of the three came in 1980 when Farmer earned 30 saves, finished with an ERA of 2.43 and made his only All-Star team.
Farmer would work on the White Sox radio broadcasts from 1991 to 2005 and was known as "Eatin' Ed" during his career.
1980 was the best year of Farmer's career, but it had its share of controversy as well.
In 1979, Farmer hit Kansas City's Al Cowens in the face with a pitch, breaking Cowens' jaw and busted several teeth of the Royals outfielder in forcing him to the disabled list.
The following season, after Cowens was traded to Detroit, the two faced each other at Comiskey Park with Cowens grounding out to shortstop Todd Cruz.
As Farmer looked over at Cruz fielding the ball, Cowens ran to the mound, jumped Farmer, and began to pummel the pitcher as the benches cleared.
Farmer threatened legal action but agreed to drop it in return for a handshake with Cowens to bury the hatchet.
Neither player would star after 1980, but to be fair to Cowens, he looked to be a potential star in the making (Cowens finished second in the MVP voting in 1977) before the beaning and he never reached the expected heights after that.
Goodbye to Carl Tacy at the age of 87.
Tacy was the head coach at Wake Forest for thirteen seasons from 1972 to 1985 and took Wake Forest to the Elite Eight twice during what might have been the toughest era for the "Big Four" ACC schools in the state of North Carolina.
During Tacy's years at Wake Forest, North Carolina, and N.C. State won national championships (N.C.State twice) with Duke making the national title game.
Tacy's teams won more than twenty games five times, four of those in Tacy's final five seasons, but his last team finished only 15-14 and Tacy knew that things were going to get worse with recruiting on the downside and decided to retire.
Wake Forest's roster was so bare that Tacy's successor Bob Staak would put one of the worst teams in ACC history on the court in Staak's first season, finished 0-14 in-conference and only two of those losses were by fewer than ten points.
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