Monday, January 24, 2022

Cleaning out the Inbox: Passings

     For now, this should be catching us up on recent passings, although sadly these things never stay caught up.

Goodbye to Al Unser Sr at the age of 82.

Unser, one of four drivers to win the Indianapolis 500, was part of the powerhouse Unser racing family that combined for nine wins at the Brickyard with brother Bobby winning three and his son Al Jr.winning two others.

Unser won three USAC national championships and was the only driver ever to have a brother and son win at Indianapolis and his final win in 1987 at the age of 47 is still a record for the oldest driver to ever win the 500.



Goodbye to Luisa Harris at the age of 66.

"The Queen of Basketball" is the subject of a soon-to-be-released documentary of a dominant player that was well before her time.

Harris's Delta State (Mississippi) teams won three consecutive national championships of the AIAW variety in 1975-77 since the NCAA didn't sanction women's sports at the time and Harris was the only African-American on a team that played in a coliseum named after an outspoken white nationalist.

Harris averaged 25.9 points and 14.5 rebounds a game for her career and would be named first-team All-American in her final three years at Delta State.

Harris would play for the United States in the first-ever Olympic basketball tournament for women and Harris would score the first basket ever in Olympic play on her way to winning a silver medal in the tournament and leading team USA in scoring and rebounding.

Harris was also the only woman to be officially drafted in the NBA draft when the New Orleans Jazz drafted her in the seventh round of the 1977 draft with Harris turning down the chance to go to training camp due to a pregnancy.


Goodbye to Jim Forbes at the age of 69.

Forbes never played in the NBA due to a knee injury, although the Chicago Bulls drafted him in the fourth round in the 1974 draft, but is remembered for his time on the 1972 Olympic basketball team, which lost the controversial final to the Soviet Union.

Forbes was one of the two players from the American team that fell down on the still-debated final play with the Soviet Union's Alexander Belov laying the ball in for a 51-50 USSR win.

Forbes would become a successful high school coach in the El Paso Texas area, winning over 600 games in a coaching career of over forty years.

Goodbye to Clark Gillies at the age of 67.

Gillies was the New York Islanders first-round pick (fourth overall) in the 1974 NHL Draft and was a standout left-winger on the top Islander line (with Bryan Trottier and Mike Bossy) on all four of the Islander Stanley Cup dynasty from 1980-83.

Gillies scored over thirty goals six times and finished his career with 319 goals after two final seasons with the Buffalo Sabres from 1986-88.

Gillies was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2002 and the Islanders retired his number nine in 1996.

No comments: