Goodbye to Paul Silas at the age of 79.
Silas, a rebounding and defensive standout for five teams, won three championships in his playing career (two with Boston, one with Seattle) and would be a head coach for four different teams (San Diego, Charlotte/New Orleans, the returning Charlotte Bobcats, and Cleveland).
Silas was a second-round draft pick from Creighton to the then-St.Louis Hawks in 1964.
Silas made the All-Defensive team five teams and made the All-Star team twice as one of the toughest players of his time, finishing his career averaging a near-double double of nine points and nine rebounds per game for his career.
Silas made the playoffs four times as a coach but never moved past the conference semi-finals and was also the first head coach of LeBron James with Cleveland.
Goodbye to Mills Lane at the age of 85.
Best remembered for his catchphrase "Let's Get It ON!" following his center-ring instructions before fights that he officiated, Lane was often the referee in the most significant world championship fights from 1971-1998, officiating over one hundred title bouts.
Lane was more than the best referee in the game as he was an amateur boxing star and lost in the semi-finals at welterweight in the 1960 U.S. Olympic boxing trials.
Lane won ten fights in a row after losing his pro debut as a welterweight before retiring and moving into officiating with his career earning induction into the boxing hall of fame in 2013.
Lane hosted a syndicated television show ("Judge Mills Lane") that used his legal background as a district attorney and a district judge for three seasons and was the claymation referee for the MTV series "Celebrity Deathmatch" for the four seasons of its run.
Goodbye to Curt Simmons at the age of 93.
A three-time All-Star, Simmons was a part of the group of young players "The Whiz Kids" that surprisingly won the 1950 National League pennant and just as surprisingly never won another championship as a unit.
Simmons was the final surviving player from the 1950 championship Phillies with Simmons finishing 17-8 that season.
Simmons won fourteen games or more five times for Philadelphia in the 1950s. Still, after the Phils released him during the 1960 season, Simmons revitalized his career with the St.Louis Cardinals, winning 43 games from 1962-64, and a career-high eighteen games for the 1964 World Champion Cardinals.
Goodbye to Louis Orr at the age of 64.
A star player at Syracuse in their final seasons before joining the Big East, Orr would play eight years in the NBA, six of those with the New York Knicks, averaging 9.7 points per game for his career.
Orr would later become the head coach at Siena, Bowling Green, and Seton Hall, taking the Pirates to the NCAA tournament twice in his five-season term.
Goodbye to Steve Smoger at the age of 72.
The Hall of Fame referee officiated over two hundred world championship matches and is noted as the most traveled referee in boxing history, although I'm not sure that's officially the case.
Based in Atlantic City, Smoger served as an attorney and judge in his non-boxing life and was one of my favorite referees to watch as he was firm but fair and he didn't attempt to make himself the center of attention as many referees.
He'll be missed.
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