Tuesday, September 3, 2024

Cleaning out the Inbox : Passings

   The tributes continue with non-sports personalities and one influential person who has never played a game.

Goodbye to Phil Donahue at the age of 88.

The talk show pioneer hosted the first show that involved their audience and often tackled subjects that the mainstream media would not touch.

Donahue started his show in Dayton, Ohio in 1967, moved to Chicago in 1974, and finished his run in New York from 1985-96.

Donahue's show discussed controversial issues and occasionally touched on a "trash TV" subject, but he usually engaged his audience with respect as they debated the world's problems.

Donahue would marry "That Girl" television actress Marlo Thomas in 1980 and remained with Thomas until his passing.

Goodbye to Peter Marshall at the age of 98.

The longtime host of the Hollywood Squares game show, Marshall was only working sporadically in film and television in 1966, when Morey Amsterdam told Marshall that the host job was open.

Marshall didn't want to accept the job but did to spite the other possible choice, comic Dan Rowan of Rowan & Martin Laugh-In fame, as Marshall and Rowan had a personal feud at the time.

Marshall would host the show until its end in 1081 and five thousand episodes in the can.

Marshall was also the father of former Cubs and Royals first baseman Pete LaCock.

Goodbye to Nick Mileti at the age of 93.

Mileti was the biggest name in Cleveland sports in the 1970s, owning the Indians and AHL Barons and the original owner of the Cavaliers and WHA Crusaders.

Mileti owned the Cleveland Arena and made the decision to build the Richfield Coliseum as the Arena's condition deteriorated.

Mileti built the Richfield Coliseum in 1974 using private funding (although heavily leveraged) and moved the Crusaders and Cavaliers there but financial problems would force him to sell his shares in the Cavaliers and the building in 1979.

Mileti also owned the CFL's Las Vegas Posse in their only season (1994).

Goodbye to Greg Kihn at the age of 75.

The frontman for his namesake band, Kihn scored two hits with "The Breakup Song" in 1981, which reached fifteen on the charts, and his biggest hit "Jeopardy", which made it to number two in 1983.

Kihn and his band never reached those heights again but found success touring and opening for some of the biggest bands of the day.

Kihn also wrote four books including "Rubber Soul", a murder mystery involving the Beatles.

Goodbye to Chi Chi Rodriguez at the age of 88.

The flashy golfer from Puerto Rico won eight times on the main PGA tour and was one of the initial stars on the Senior PGA tour, winning twenty-two times on the veterans circuit.

Known for his flashy "Toreador Dance" when he would score a birdie or Eagle, Rodriguez would wave his putter like a sword and jab at the bull as the bull.

Rodriguez also gained fame as the subject of a DEVO album cover in 1978.

Rodriguez was paid $2,500 and fifty albums as compensation for his permission.

Rodriguez also lent his name to a Sega Genesis video game- "Chi Chi's Pro Challenge Golf" and was the subject of a name mispronunciation on an episode of "WKRP in Cincinnati: when announcer "Les Nessman" on air  stated his name as "CHY CHY Rodriqueez".






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