Goodbye to Marty Schottenheimer at the age of 77.
Schottenheimer played for six years with the Bills and Patriots before moving into coaching, where he won 200 games with four teams (Browns, Chiefs, Chargers, and then-Redskins).
Schottenheimer will be better remembered by many for the games that he lost rather than the games that he won, losing all three AFC championship games and losing three times to inferior teams after his team had the best record in their conference.
Schottenheimer-led teams lost in devastating fashion with the Browns (The Drive and The Fumble), the Chiefs ( losing to the Colts 10-7 with kicker Lin Elliott missing three field goals and 14-10 to the Broncos), and with the Chargers (24-21 to the Patriots), but players mostly seemed to love Marty and his ground-based offense.
Schottenheimer's 200 wins rank him eighth in all-time coaching wins and are the most for a coach that never reached a Super Bowl.
I'm mixed on Marty for the Hall though.
Championships are more important for coaching inductions than even for players and Marv Levy and Bud Grant are both enshrined without a title, but each of those men made four Super Bowls with the argument against Marty being that he never reached one.
Hopefully, Marty is now finding that famous "Gleam" somewhere.
Goodbye to Jon Arnett at the age of 85.
The second overall pick in a loaded 1957 draft ( four members of the Hall were taken in the first-round with Paul Hornung, Jim Brown, Jim Parker, and Len Dawson with arguable members in John Brodie and Del Shofner) by the Rams, Arnett made the Pro Bowl in each of the first five seasons of his NFL career.
The Jaguar never rushed for more than 700 yards or finished with 500 or more receiving yards in a season, but he was ahead of his time as a scatback used as a change of pace back and pass catcher.
Think of Arnett as a Darren Sproles for the 50s and 60s and Arnett still holds the Rams team record for the longest kickoff return at 105 yards.
Goodbye to Harthorne Wingo at the age of 73.
A bit player on the last New York Knicks team to win a championship in 1973, Wingo's name and awkward jumper made him a cult favorite with Knicks fans in his four years in New York.
Wingo averaged four points and three rebounds a game for the Knicks before playing in Europe for the remainder of his career.
Goodbye to Davey Armstrong at the age of 64.
Just days after Leon Spinks passed away, the 1976 United States Olympic boxing team lost another member when Armstrong passed.
The 1975 Pan American Games gold medalist, Armstrong was considered a medal favorite at featherweight in 1976 in Montreal and was the only boxer to return to the team from the 1972 Munich games when Armstrong failed to medal as a light flyweight.
However, in the quarter-finals, the two favorites found themselves meeting each other (Olympic brackets were drawn at random rather than seeded) with Armstrong paired with Cuba's Angel Herrera.
Herrera would win a 3-2 (five judges) decision that could have gone either way and Herrera would win the gold with two easy wins after defeating Armstrong.
Armstrong would turn pro in 1980 with Emanuel Steward's Kronk boxing team, but never developed into a contender and finished with a 24-3 record.
Goodbye to Marshall Cassidy at the age of 75.
Cassidy was the voice of the New York Racing Association in the 1980s at a time when New York was still the capital of the horse racing world.
Known for his relaxed call that increased in excitement as a race neared the wire and for his final statement for each race that named the winner followed by a clipped "In Front".
Cassidy worked for the various networks that covered horse racing in the day and working for NYRA ensured Cassidy called the Belmont Stakes and its national stage each June.
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