Goodbye to Trini Lopez at the age of 83.
Lopez was both a singer and actor with successes in both fields in the 1960s.
Lopez had several hits from 1963 through 1968 with his cover version of "If I had a Hammer" in 1963 reaching two on the charts.
The version by Lopez was the higher charting of the two versions (Peter, Paul, and Mary) in the early 60s and is generally thought of as the signature recording.
Lopez also acted in films and television shows, most notably a co-starring role as one of the "Dirty Dozen" in 1967.
Goodbye to "Kamala" at the age of 70.
James Harris was a journeyman wrestler on some of the smaller wrestling circuits in the South when Jerry Jarrett and Jerry Lawler (Co-owners of the Memphis territory) offered him a job with a new character-Kamala "The Ugandan Giant".
Kamala was positioned as a savage brought from the jungle in introductory vignettes (which were actually filmed on Jerry Jarrett's property" and was an immediate star against Lawler at the top of the card.
Kamala would headline in the Mid-South territory, usually against the Junkyard Dog, the World Class territory in Texas against the Von Erich family, and in the WWF against Andre the Giant and received a few title shots against champion Hulk Hogan.
Kamala wrestled many times vs Andre the Giant in Mid-South and World Class along with a feud in the WWF with a famous cage match that saw Andre slam Kamala and finish him off with two "seat drops".
The Kamala gimmick turned out to be one of the best remembered one of the era as the early version was a feared warrior by the fans and the later WWF model was equally a comedic character.
Goodbye to Dick Coury at the age of 91.
Coury was a long-time assistant coach for nine different NFL teams, but his only head coaching opportunities were in renegade leagues as Coury would coach the Portland Storm for both seasons of the World Football League and the Boston/New Orleans/Portland Breakers in the three seasons of the USFL.
None of Coury's teams made the playoffs in those leagues, but his work with the 1983 Boston Breakers was a tremendous job in leading one of the least talented teams in the league to a winning record at 11-7 and had the playoffs been expanded to two wild cards, the Breakers would have made the playoffs.
Coury had the New Orleans Breakers in contention the following season before a series of injuries caused a second-half collapse that would end in a missed post-season.
Coury was loved by his players as shown in the biggest win in Breakers' history, on a last-second tipped pass that defeated the Philadelphia Stars.
Goodbye to Bill Yeoman at the age of 92.
Yeoman built the Houston Cougars football program into a power as their head coach from 1962 to 1986 and is the school's winningest all-time coach with 160 wins.
Yeoman is also the innovator of the Veer offense, which is another form of the triple option and was by the Cougars as an independent and after they joined the Southwest Conference in 1976.
Houston won the SWC in their first season and would win the league title three times in their first four seasons, but only once in the final six seasons of Yeoman's tenure and following a 1986 season filled with NCAA investigations and a 1-10 record, Yeoman was forced to resign and he would never return to coaching.
Goodbye to Wilbert McClure at the age of 81.
McClure won the middleweight gold medal in the 1960 Rome Olympics for the United States on the same Olympic team as the then-Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) and was expected to have a successful pro career.
Instead, McClure was a disappointing pro, losing eight fights, and losing to all of his notable opponents- twice to former welterweight champion Luis Rodriguez, future light heavyweight champion Jose Torres, a loss and a draw against Rubin "Hurricane" Carter", and losing in his final career bout against future light heavyweight champion Billy "Dynamite" Douglas, the father of James "Buster" Douglas.
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