Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
The final farewell
Sending out a last goodbye to some of the athletes who died in a year of loss
There were so many this year. Sports in 2020 was an unending state of mourning. It was as if every week, sometimes days, another luminary fell, bringing a cascade of condolence and remembrance.
It began New Year’s Day, a harbinger of what the year held, with the deaths of David Stern and Don Larsen. Not long after came a seismic jolt, the helicopter crash of Kobe Bryant in the fog-shrouded California hills that reverberated across sports and across continents.
Deep into the year, a bookend to Bryant, Diego Maradona died from a heart attack in Argentina weeks after brain surgery, the waves of grief rippling across soccer. It seemed a whole wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame was ripped away — Al Kaline, Tom Seaver, Lou Brock, Bob Gibson, Whitey Ford, Joe Morgan, Phil Niekro. Football lost a big piece of its heart: Don Shula, Gale Sayers, Paul Hornung, Bobby Mitchell. Gone from college basketball was John Thompson, as imposing and important a coach as any.
The losses, of course, came against a backdrop of a pandemic, its number of fatalities rolled out daily on TV screens. Sports took its place in the grim procession, even if COVID-19 was not listed on the death certificate. For fans of a certain age, it was as if the lights dimmed on a generation of players who long illuminated the game. What was left were snapshots and YouTube montages and endless conversations.
Bryant was among nine who died that January day, including 13-yearold daughter Gianna, on his way to a youth tournament. Bryant is the game’s fourth-leading scorer. He spent 20 years with the Lakers, 18 as an All-Star, and won five titles. “It doesn’t make no sense,” the Lakers’ LeBron James said. “But the universe just puts things in your life.”
Maradona was the soul of Argentine soccer whose magic extended to Italy, where he bewitched Napoli fans. He carried Argentina to the 1986 World Cup title, his two goals in a quarterfinal against England among soccer’s greatest: the “Hand of God” goal — he later acknowledged it came with his hand, not head — and another in which he shredded an entire defense. He died at 60, his health undercut by cocaine and obesity.
Kaline spent 22 years with the Tigers, elegantly covering right field and in 1955 hitting .340 at age 20 to become the youngest player to win the American League batting title. In Cincinnati, Morgan, his elbow twitching at the plate like the wing of an agitated chicken, was a maestro at second base, a two-time MVP and vital part of the Big Red Machine before becoming a TV voice.
Ford was the dependable “Chairman of the Board,” a left-hander who played on six title winners and might have been the greatest starting pitcher in Yankees history. In St. Louis, Gibson won seven straight World Series starts and in 1968 had a 1.12 ERA. A month earlier, Cardinals fans also grieved for Brock, who became one of the game’s great leadoff hitters and base stealers.
Three days earlier, it was Seaver. He was “Tom Terrific” and “The Franchise,” both nicknames apt. He was a three-time Cy Young Award winner and cornerstone of a team he transformed from woebegone to World Series champion in 1969. Niekro won 318 games and pitched until he was 48, his knuckleball dancing and mystifying batters across the decades.
Larsen was 81-91 over 14 big league seasons, but on one October day in 1956 the gods of the game visited an Everyman. The Yankees pitcher did what no one in baseball ever had — throw a perfect game in the World Series.
Baseball also remembered Dick Allen, a fearsome slugger and seventime All-Star who withstood torrents of abuse in Philadelphia. Two other hard hitters left: Jim Wynn, the Astros’ “Toy Cannon,” and Bob Watson, who later with the Yankees became the first Black general manager to win a World Series.
Three Dodgers went in the space of a week — reliever Ron Perranoski and outfielders “Sweet” Lou Johnson and Jay Johnstone. A trio of second basemen — Glenn Beckert, Frank Bolling, Tony Taylor — died as did John McNamara, who in 1986 managed the Red Sox to within one strike of a World Series crown. And Phil Linz, the light-hitting backup whose harmonica playing on the team bus became part of Yankees lore.
In basketball, Stern became NBA commissioner in 1984 and inherited a league in perilous financial shape. He sprung it to life. Thompson, a towel draped over his shoulder, guided Georgetown to the 1984 NCAA championship. He was the first Black coach to take the title. There was K.C. Jones, the guard who shut down the best of players and won eight straight titles with the Celtics before coaching them to another two. Jones played on those Bill Russell teams with two Hall of Famers who died in 2020: Thompson and Tom Heinsohn, who would go on to coach and broadcast for the Celtics.
Gone, too, were Wes Unseld, with his whipping outlet passes, star sixth man Cliff Robinson, Harlem Globetrotter dribbling wizard Curly Neal and ex-ABA Commissioner Mike Storen. There was a roster of coaches in Jerry Sloan, Eddie Sutton, Lou Henson, Carl Tacy, Billy Tubbs and Morgan Wootten.
The NFL lost dazzling running backs in Sayers, Hornung and Mitchell.
Shula once said that in judging greatness the stats should speak for themselves. Here are his: He guided the Dolphins to the only perfect season in NFL history — 17-0 in 1972 — set a league record with 347 victories and coached in six Super Bowls.
The Packers also mourned defensive greats Herb Adderley, Willie Wood and Willie Davis while the Dolphins did likewise with running back Jim Kiick. Two linebackers were remembered: Mike Curtis, who helped the Colts win a Super Bowl, and Kevin Greene, his long blond hair flowing while in manic pursuit of quarterbacks. Tom Dempsey, born without toes on his kicking foot, made a then-record 63-yard field goal. His was among the COVID-19 deaths. Among the coaches lost: Joe Bugel, Pat Dye, Johnny Majors, Ray Perkins, George Perles, Pepper Rodgers, Harland Svare, Sam Wyche.
Hockey sent off Henri Richard, the diminutive center who won a record 11 Stanley Cups with the Canadiens. He was the “Pocket Rocket” and younger brother of superstar Maurice “Rocket” Richard. There was also Eddie Shack, the always entertaining winner of four Stanley Cups with the Maple Leafs; and Dale Hawerchuk, who spent 16 years in the NHL, notably with the Jets.