Goodbye to Dick Fosbury at the age of 76.
The 1968 Olympic gold medalist at the Mexico City games in the high jump, Fosbury was far more influential in how he won the gold than he was with just a victory.
The "Fosbury Flop" was a radical departure from the technique that most high jumpers used the "straddle method", which saw the jumper leap facing the ground and then lifting each leg over the bar.
Fosbury couldn't master the straddle in high school and naturally began to use his own method, looking up with his upper body crossing the bar first, and then picking his feet last over the bar.
Fosbury progressed enough to finish second in the Oregon state track meet and attended Oregon State University where he was encouraged to return to the straddle method, which he did with little success before returning to his method, which broke the school record in his first meet as a sophomore.
Fosbury would win the NCAA title along with a victory in the Olympic trials before winning the gold in Mexico City with an Olympic record jump of seven feet, four and a quarter inches.
Fosbury would repeat his NCAA title the following year but Fosbury would not attempt a gold medal repeat in 1972 in Munich as after his college eligibility was completed, he would retire from competition.
The Fosbury Flop is recognized as the biggest advance in high jumping and perhaps in the history of track and field.
Goodbye to John Veitch at the age of 77.
The Hall of Fame horse trainer trained four Eclipse Award winners in his career, including Davona Dale, the champion three-year-old filly of 1978 after winning the Filly Triple Crown of the Kentucky Oaks, Black Eyed Susan, and Coaching Club American Oaks.
Veitch would win the second Breeders Cup Classic with Proud Truth but his greatest horse was Alydar, who is remembered for his second-place finishes to Affirmed in each of the 1978 Triple Crown races by smaller and smaller margins.
Alydar was unstoppable in 1978 other than by Affirmed with spectacular wins in the Whitney Handicap and Arlington Classic before winning the 1978 Travers Stakes over Affirmed but only by disqualification.
Veitch was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2007
Goodbye to Jerry Jarrett at the age of 80.
Jarrett, the father of Jeff Jarrett, was the long-time owner and promoter of the Memphis wrestling territory and later the original owner of the TNA promotion which still operates today.
Jarrett's Memphis promotion starred about every big-name wrestler that you could name from the 70s and 80s for short or long-term stays but the biggest of the promotion was "The King" Jerry Lawler, who doubled as the part owner of the promotion with Jarrett.
Jarrett's television show that the promotion taped at the studios in Memphis drew phenomenal ratings on its live Saturday morning airing that couldn't even be approached today.
Goodbye to Afternoon Deelites at the age of 30.
A West Virginia-bred by composer Burt Bacharach, Afternoon Deelites was the early favorite for the 1995 Kentucky Derby after a blazing fast win in the final juvenile stakes of 1994, the Hollywood Futurity at a mile and a sixteenth and setting a stakes record that still stands currently.
Afternoon Deelites suffered his first loss in the Grade I Santa Anita Derby in a photo finish and would finish eighth in the Kentucky Derby in his next race.
Afternoon Deelites would transition to sprinting and won one graded stakes (Grade III Commonwealth) before retiring to stud, where he would produce twenty-three graded stakes winners.
However, it was a claiming-level gelding named Popcorn Deelites that would be his most famous offspring as Popcorn Deelites would play the role of Seabiscuit in the portions of the film that needed Seabiscuit to be racing.
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