Goodbye to Carlos Ortiz at the age of 85.
Ortiz held the lightweight title in the days of one champion on two occasions. Before that, Ortiz was the first junior welterweight champion when the division was re-introduced in 1959 after a thirteen-year hiatus.
Ortiz knocked out Kenny Lane in two rounds to win the junior welterweight title and defended it twice before losing a majority decision to Duillio Loi.
After losing to Loi by decision in their 1961 rematch, Ortiz decided to drop to lightweight and upset Joe Brown in 1962 via unanimous decision.
Ortiz would defend the title four times before losing to Ismael Laguna in April 1965 in Laguna's native Panama by majority decision but would regain the title seven months later from Laguna in Ortiz's homeland of Puerto Rico by unanimous decision.
Ortiz would defend the title five times, four times by knockout in his second reign, before losing to Carlos Cruz by split decision in 1968 and would never challenge for the championship again before retiring in 1972.
The Hall of Famer defeated four members of the Hall (Sugar Ramos, Ismael Laguna, Flash Elorde, and Joe Brown) and drew with another (Nicolino Rocche) over the course of his career.
Goodbye to Mike Pratt at the age of 73.
Pratt was a star at Kentucky in the final years of the Adolph Rupp era and would play two seasons for the ABA's Kentucky Colonels after graduating from Kentucky.
Pratt averaged six points a game for the Colonels and decided to enter coaching with the recently deceased Lee Rose at UNC-Charlotte as an assistant before becoming the head coach after UNC-Charlotte's 1977 Final Four run when Rose accepted the head coaching job at Purdue.
Pratt's record was 56-52 over four seasons and after being fired, Pratt became the long-time color commentator on Kentucky Wildcats radio broadcasts.
Goodbye to Don Perkins at the age of 84.
Perkins was the 1961 Rookie of the Year for the expansion Dallas Cowboys in 1961 and would be named All-Pro on three occasions with six selections for the Pro Bowl.
Perkins never rushed for fewer than six hundred yards in his eight seasons with Dallas and made the Pro Bowl in each of his final three seasons before retiring at the end of the 1968 season at the age of 30.
Had Perkins played at his same level for a few more years rather than retire, Don Perkins may have been given consideration for the Hall of Fame.
Goodbye to Marion Barber III at the age of 38.
Barber, the son of former Jets running back Marion Barber, was drafted in the fourth round by Dallas in 2005 after his college career at Minnesota. In his first five seasons with Dallas, he never rushed for less than five hundred yards or scored fewer than five touchdowns.
Barber rushed for over nine hundred yards twice in that stretch and twice scored double-digit touchdowns including fourteen trips to the end zone in 2006 before his production drastically dropped in 2010 leading the Cowboys to allow Barber to leave via free agency.
Barber would play one season with the Chicago Bears before retiring after the 2011 campaign.
Goodbye to Robert Alexander at the age of 64.
Alexander was the high school player of the year in 1976 and was recruited by all the major schools before deciding to stay home with the West Virginia Mountaineers.
Alexander rushed for over 1,000 yards as a Mountaineer senior in 1980 and after he left Morgantown, Alexander was the second-highest rusher in WVU history and still resides in tenth currently.
Alexander was drafted in the tenth round by the Los Angeles Rams in the 1981 draft and played for two seasons with the Rams before playing briefly for the USFL's Los Angeles Express.
Goodbye to Dave Hebner at the age of 73.
One of the twin brothers that served as referees in professional wrestling, Dave spent most of his career working for the WWF/E and Vince McMahon and served as the arbiter in some of the business's best-known matches such as Randy Savage-Ricky Steamboat in Wrestlemania III and Savage vs Hulk Hogan in Wrestlemania V.
Hebner also was a key participant in the buildup to Wrestlemania IV when he was scheduled to referee Hulk Hogan vs Andre the Giant in a Wrestlemania III rematch.
Hebner was placed in the storyline as the WWF had hired Earl Hebner from Jim Crockett Promotions and under an evil twin storyline, Earl kidnapped Dave and took his place in the match, taking a bribe from Ted "Million Dollar Man" DiBiase, counted down Hogan's shoulders despite his shoulder being raised at the count of two to give Andre the championship, which he would "give" to DiBiase minutes after the match.
DiBiase was stripped of the title immediately, which set up a title tournament for Wrestlemania IV.
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