Goodbye to Ron Turcotte at the age of 84.
Turcotte rode Secretariat to the 1973 Triple Crown, one year after guiding Riva Ridge to wins in the 1972 Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes.
Turcotte was the nation's leading rider in those two seasons and won over three thousand races in his career.
Turcotte's career ended tragically in 1978 when his horse broke down in a Belmont Park race, which resulted in injuries to Turcotte that left him a paraplegic.
Goodbye to Allan Hornyak at the age of 74.
Known as "The Bellaire Bomber", Hornyak was named All-Big Ten in each of his three varsity seasons for Ohio State (1971-73) and averaged twenty-two points per game during his Buckeye career.
Hornyak was drafted in 1973 by the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers in the second round and the ABA's Indiana Pacers in the third round (separate drafts, of course), but Hornyak signed with neither club, deciding not to play professional basketball.
Goodbye to Lee Roy Jordan at the age of 84.
The sixth overall pick by Dallas in the 1963 NFL Draft, Jordan would play his entire fourteen-year career with the Cowboys as the middle linebacker that made Tom Landry's "Flex" defense roll.
Jordan is currently second in team history in tackles, almost fifty years after his retirement, and he is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame for his career with Alabama.
Jordan made the Pro Bowl five times and won a Super Bowl with the 1971 Cowboys.
Goodbye to Joe Bugner at the age of 75.
Bugner challenged Muhammad Ali for the world heavyweight title in 1975, losing a lopsided unanimous decision in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, but fought many top contenders in the seventies and eighties.
Bugner fought Joe Frazier in an excellent fight, which Frazier won by split decision, fought Ali twice (once before Ali won the title for a second time), and held wins over one-time champions Jimmy Ellis, Greg Page, and Bonecrusher Smith in a long career that saw several retirements and eventual returns to the ring.
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