Goodbye to Len Dawson at the age of 87.
Dawson was the pilot for the 1969 Kansas City Chiefs, who upset the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl IV 23-7, winning the Super Bowl MVP, and is a civic icon in the Kansas City area.
Dawson also led the Chiefs in their previous incarnation as the Dallas Texans to the 1962 AFL title in a three-overtime win as well as the 1965 AFL title before losing in the first Super Bowl to Green Bay.
Dawson had failed in the NFL in Pittsburgh and Cleveland after the Steelers selected him from Purdue as their first rounder in the 1957 draft spending two unsuccessful seasons with each team before signing on in the AFL with the Texans for the 1962 season and revitalizing his career.
After his playing career, Dawson along with Nick Buoniconti was the host of HBO's Inside the NFL from 1977 through 2001 as well as serving as the beloved color analyst on the Chiefs radio network from 1985 to 2017.
Goodbye to Pete Carril at the age of 92.
The long-time coach at Princeton and developer of the school's namesake offensive system, Carril was the head coach of the Tigers from 1966-96, winning 514 games, taking them to eleven NCAA tournaments, and ending his career with a colossal upset of defending national champion UCLA in the 1996 tournament with an incredible game plan that saw a 43-41 win in the shot clock era.
The Carril system with its patient passing and backdoor cuts to the basket gave undermanned teams at all levels hopes for upsets and there would have been few bigger upsets in the history of sports than number one ranked and seeded Georgetown losing to Princeton in the first round of the 1988 NCAA Tournament.
Princeton led most of the games before Georgetown took a 50-49 lead with Princeton with the ball with seconds remaining but Alonzo Morning blocked a shot out of bounds with one second to go.
Princeton's Kit Mueller took the final shot with Mourning blocking the shot to end the game with many (including me) believing Mourning fouled Mueller with the referees swallowing their whistle.
A larger and forgotten achievement was Princeton's 1975 NIT title in a day when the NIT title really meant something as a conference could only receive bids for two teams each and gave the NIT a top-notch field.
Goodbye to Tom Weiskopf at the age of 79.
Weiskopf was the first of many in the late sixties and seventies to be named the "Next Nicklaus" only to discover that there was only one Jack Nicklaus and he wasn't going away from the golf course.
Still, Weiskopf put together an excellent career with sixteen wins and one major- the 1973 British Open before winning four times on the senior tour, including the 1995 U.S. Senior Open.
Known as "The Towering Inferno" as a player for his noted temper, Weiskopf finished second four times in The Masters, which holds the record for most second-place finishes at Augusta for someone that would never win the tournament.
Weiskopf would later work as a color commentator for both CBS and ABC after his retirement from the PGA Tour in the days before the Senior Tour offered as many tournaments per year as they currently do.
Goodbye to Steve Worster at the age of 73.
A bruising fullback, Worster was the inspiration behind the University of Texas designing the Wishbone offense in order to use Worster, Ted Koy, and Chris Gilbert all at the same time in 1968.
Texas would win the Southwest Conference titles in all three seasons that Worster played and won the 1969 national championship as Worster rushed for over 2,300 yards in those seasons with Worster named All-American in 1969 and 1970, and finishing fourth in the voting for the 1970 Heisman Trophy.
Worster was drafted in the fourth round by the Los Angeles Rams in 1971 but chose to sign with the CFL's Hamilton Tiger-Cats where he would play in three games before retiring after the season as football was no longer fun for Worster.
Goodbye to Bob Locker at the age of 84.
Known for his sinkerball, Locker didn't make the big leagues until he was 27, debuting with the White Sox in 1965.
Locker's best season came in 1967 for the White Sox, when he saved a career-high twenty games and posted an ERA of 2.09 in seventy-seven appearances.
Locker would win a World Series ring with Oakland in 1972 and would finish his career with ninety-five saves and an ERA of 2.75.
Goodbye to Gene LeBell at the age of 89.
"Judo Gene" has perhaps the most diverse resume' of any person involved in combat sports in the last seventy years with stints in pro wrestling, judo, mixed martial arts fighting before there was such a thing, television and film work as an actor and stuntman, and running the Los Angeles NWA wrestling promotion.
LeBell refereed the Muhammad Ali-Antonio Inoki fight in 1976, sparred with Bruce Lee on the set of the Green Hornet, appeared in three Elvis Presley movies, promoted boxing and wrestling at the legendary Olympic Auditorium with his mother and owner of the Olympic, Aileen Eaton, trained Ronda Rousey, and is reported to have been the person that Brad Pitt's character in "Once Upon A Time In Hollywood" is based on, although Quentin Tarantino denies it.
And that's even before the story that has become legend with several witnesses swearing that LeBell got the best of Steven Seagal on the set of Out For Justice where LeBell was serving as the stunt coordinator- the story gets even more colorful than it sounds!
LeBell's life is reported to have a possible film project in the works and it sounds pretty entertaining on the subject matter alone!
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