Goodbye to Fred Hickman at the age of 66.
Hickman worked for several networks including ESPN and the YES Network in sports as well as working in news for smaller stations including WDVM in Hagerstown.
However, to most sports fans, it will be Hickman's tenure with CNN and especially his team with the late Nick Charles on CNN's nightly sports wrapup program "Sports Tonight" that brings a smile to their face.
CNN's Sports Tonight aired at 11:00 PM and 2:00 AM dueling with ESPN's Sportscenter for the audience and while it only occasionally won a rating battle, I always preferred Hickman and Charles (as well as Vince Cellini and Bob Lorenz along with Headline News's Van Earl Wright) to the ESPN personalities, although I enjoyed most of their anchors as well with two exceptions!
Hickman and Charles hosted the show on the first day that CNN bounced off the satellite in 1980 and would team for most of the next twenty-one years (Hickman left for Detroit in 1984-85) before Hickman left CNN for good in 2001 to help with the beginning of the YES! network with broadcasts of Yankees and Nets games.
Hickman always seemed so professional with his delivery but his love of sports still came through to the viewer and that's a difficult line to walk.
Too detached and one can seem as if they lack the passion for the games that they report about but if too emotional and it's easy to look out of control as more of a fan than a broadcaster.
Fred Hickman and Nick Charles both walked that line so well with Sports Tonight.
Goodbye to Dave Butz at the age of 72.
A defensive tackle, Butz was drafted fifth overall by the then-St. Louis Cardinals in 1973 from Purdue but would spend the following fourteen seasons in Washington after being signed as a rare free agent of the time by George Allen.
A clause in the contract that Butz signed as a rookie with the Cardinals allowed him to become a free agent with Allen quickly signing him for Washington.
However, the rules of the time forced the signing team to pay compensation and the Cardinals would receive Washington's first-rounder in 1977 and their first and second-round selections in 1978.
Butz would make All-Pro in 1983 (with a career-high of eleven and a half sacks) and 1984 and won two Super Bowls in Washington as the bulwark of their interior defensive line.
Goodbye to Brent Moss at the age of 50.
Moss, along with Terrell Fletcher, began Wisconsin's running back tradition under Barry Alvarez and led the Badgers to a shared Big Ten title in 1993 and a victory over UCLA in the Rose Bowl with Moss winning the game MVP after rushing for 158 yards and two scores
Moss rushed for over 1,600 yards in 1993 with sixteen touchdowns in the 1993 season as he won the Big Ten player of the year award.
Moss would be suspended by Alvarez midway through the 1994 season for cocaine possession, wouldn't be drafted in 1995, and would carry only twenty-two times in the NFL, all for the Rams in 1995.
Goodbye to Chuck Carr at the age of 55.
Carr was a member of the original Florida Marlins in 1993 after being selected from the Mets in the expansion draft and would finish fourth in the Rookie of the Year voting for 1993.
Carr stole 58 bases for the 1993 Marlins, which led the National League and followed up with 31 steals in 1994.
Carr finished his career with Houston in 1997 when he homered off John Smoltz in the NLDS in what would be the final at-bat of his career.
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