Goodbye to George McGinnis at the age of 73.
The top power forward in the history of the ABA, McGinnis isn't remembered as well as he should be due to his fast decline as a player in his final seasons after the merger with Philadelphia and Denver.
The 1975 scoring leader and co-MVP in the ABA with Julius Erving, McGinnis led the Indiana Pacers to two titles in the ABA, and in the 1975 ABA playoffs against San Antonio, Big George finished game four with the first 50+ point triple-double, fifty-one points, seventeen rebounds, and ten assists.
McGinnis finished his ABA career averaging twenty-five points and just under thirteen rebounds a game before moving to the NBA and the Philadelphia 76ers where he averaged a double-double in his first season in 1975-76.
McGinnis was joined by Julius Erving with the Sixers in the following year and their skills didn't always mesh well, even with the Sixers reaching the NBA finals in the first year.
McGinnis was traded to Denver for Bobby Jones, who helped Philadelphia to a title. After a good first season with the Nuggets, McGinnis's legs began to go and was traded in 1980 to Indiana in a trade that landed Denver Alex English.
McGinnis made six All-Star teams, three in the ABA and three in the NBA before retiring in 1982.
Goodbye to Frank Wycheck at the age of 52.
Wycheck played eleven years, most of them with the Tennessee Titans, making three Pro Bowls as a tight end/H-Back, and caught 505 passes in his career.
Wycheck is most famous as the player who threw the ball across the field to Kevin Dyson with sixteen seconds remaining in Tennessee's 2000 playoff win over Buffalo resulting in the "Music City Miracle".
Buffalo had taken the lead and with seconds remaining, kicked the ball to the Titans on the left side of the field, Wycheck took the squib kick and fired the ball across the field and backward for a legal lateral to Dyson, who took the pass and ran seventy-five yards for the game-winning score.
Wycheck was the Titans' radio color commentator from 2005 to 2016 before retiring due to head trauma suffered during his career.
Goodbye to Vic Davalillo at the age of 84.
The diminutive Venezuelan native played sixteen years in the majors, most notably with the Cleveland Indians, where he made his only All-Star team in 1965 and a Gold Glove in 1964.
Davalillo was known for his "stepping into the bucket" hitting stance and his difficulty for pitchers to strike out in his career with six teams.
Davalillo left the majors for the 1975 and 76 seasons before returning for four seasons with the Dodgers, where Davalillo would comprise the best pinch-hitting duo of the time with fellow veteran Manny Mota.
Goodbye to Hartland Monahan at the age of 72.
One of the early standouts of the expansion Washington Capitals, Monahan played for six NHL teams from 1973-81.
Monahan scored forty goals in his two seasons with Washington but just twenty-one over the rest of his career with the other five teams.
Goodbye to Ryan Minor at the age of 49.
One of the nicest guys in sports that I've ever met. Minor was a two-sport star at Oklahoma for both the baseball and basketball teams and was drafted in both sports, Baltimore in baseball and Philadelphia in basketball.
Minor was named the Big Eight Player of the Year in 1995 for the Sooners in basketball and would manage for several seasons in the Orioles organization managing at Low A, High A, and AA.
Minor played parts of three seasons for the Orioles and Montreal Expos, most notably as the player that started in place of Cal Ripken on the evening Ripken's consecutive game streak ended.
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