Obit of the Day
Looking at the famous, infamous, not-so-famous, and unique lives that have shuffled off this mortal coil.
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Obit of the Day: Most Decorated Athlete in the History of the Olympics
Edoardo Mangiarotti won his first Olympic gold medal as part of Italy’s épée team at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. At 17, he was the youngest medalist at the Games. Mangiarotti would participate in every Games that followed (excluding the 1940 and 1944 Games that were cancelled due to World War II) ending his athletic career after the 1960 Rome Games. When everything was totaled up he had accumulated 13 Olympics medals (six gold, five silver, and two bronze). When his world championship medals were included, Mangiarotti had earned 39 medals, more than any other athlete in any Olympic sport.*
Mangiarotti was the son of an Olympic fencer (1908 London) and the brother of two more: Dario, who won the silver in épée in 1952 - Edoardo won gold - and Carola who participated, but did not medal, in the 1976 and 1980 Olympics.
Although his career as an athlete ended in 1960, he would continue to attend the Games in a variety of roles. By the time he passed away on May 25, 2012 at the age of 93, Edoardo Mangiarotti had attended 17 consecutive Summer Games from Berlin through Beijing. Sadly he missed the London Olympics Games by only 63 days.
(Image courtesy of Sport e Motori 2.0)
* The record for most individual Olympic medals earned is held by Soviet gymnast Larissa Latynina who earned eighteen over three Summer Olympics: Melbourne-1956, Rome-1960, and Tokyo-1964. American swimmer Michael Phelps has 17 medals but also has the most gold medals with fourteen.
Obit of the Day: NCAA, Olympic, and NBA Star Bob Boozer
Bob Boozer was the first overall pick in the 1959 NBA Draft by the Cincinnati Royals*. But Boozer asked to wait a year to join his new team, in order that he could maintain his amateur status and qualify for the 1960 Olympics. (He would play the 1959-1960 season for the AAU Peoria Caterpillars.)
Good choice. The 1960 men’s basketball team is considered the second best Olympic basketball team of all time after the original “Dream Team” which would dominate the 1992 Olympics. The 1960 team, composed entirely of amateurs, won every game they played by an average of 42 points. Of the twelve men on the roster, ten (including Mr. Boozer) would play in the NBA and four would be elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame (Oscar Robertson, Jerry Lucas, Jerry West, and Walt Bellamy). The entire 1960 Olympic team was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010 - along with the 1992 Dream Team.
After winning the gold medal, Boozer returned to the Royals - along with Oscar Robertson who was the number one overall pick in the draft in 1960 - and would begin an 11-year professional career. Boozer would play three full seasons with the Royals before being traded to the New York Knicks in the middle of his fourth. After a season-and-a-half with the Knicks, followed by one with the Lakers, Boozer was selected by the NBA’s newest team, the Chicago Bulls, in the expansion draft following the 1965-1966 season.
Boozer would make his only All-Star appearance with Chicago during the first season, and would play one more with the Bulls before being traded to the Seattle Supersonics. After one year in the Northwest, Boozer would find himself and hour-and-a-half north of Chicago playing with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and the Milwaukee Bucks. The Bucks would win that year’s NBA Championship and Boozer would retire, with a ring on his finger.
Bob Boozer, who also led the Kansas State Wildcats to the 1958 Final Four and a number one ranking in 1959, died at the age of 75.
(Through no fault of his own, Bob Boozer may be part of some of the worst sports card sets in history. All images are courtesy of vintagecardprices.com. Left, 1961 Fleer; Center, 1969 Topps; Right, 1971 Topps )
* The Royals are one of the NBA’s greatest wanderers having started in Rochester, heading to Cincinnati, then Omaha, Kansas City, and eventually finding themselves in Sacramento as the Kings.
Obit of the Day: Diamonds and Sheets
Janet Perkin was a heckuva softball and baseball player. Good enough, in fact, to head out from her home near Regina, Saskatchewan to Kenosha, Wisconson in 1946 to pitch and play outfield for the Comets of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. After playing one season, and finishing with six losses against zero wins and batting a meager .173, she headed back home to where she was truly comfortable - the curling sheet.
Perkin, far left, would skip the 1953 women’s team that would win the Western Canada Championship, the first interprovincial tournament for women. (Her teammates were Phyliss Day, Jean Graham and Joyce Miller who were each awarded a $100 gift certificate for their win.) Eleven years later, in 1964, Perkin would skip a new foursome to a national title.
For her prowess on the ice, Perkin was inducted into the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame as well as the Saskatchewan Legends of Curling Honour Roll. She was also inducted in the Regina Sports Hall of Fame as a member of the 1954 Regina Govins softball team.
Mrs. Perkins passed away at the age of 90.
(Image of the 1953 Perkin team is courtesy of the Saskatchewan Legends of Curling Honour Roll. And, look, REAL BROOMS!)
Ed. note: If you are a regular reader of OOTD, you might be saying to yourself, “A female sports star from Saskatchewan? That sounds awfully familiar.” Because it is. On May 2, OOTD featured Daisy Junor, another inductee into the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame, who played for four seasons in the AAGPBL.
Obit of the Day: Former NFL All-Pro Junior Seau
According to TMZ.com, Junior Seau former linebacker for the San Diego Chargers, Miami Dolphins, and New England Patriots was found dead in his home. The police had responded to call of shot fired at the home. He was found to have committed suicide.
Seau, a six-time 1st team All-Pro and eleven-time Pro Bowler, was the 5th pick in the 1990 NFL draft. A star at the University of Southern California, Seau dominated in the early 1990s. He was named UPI and NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 1992 and was the AFC Player of the year in 1994. When the NFL announced it’s All-Decade Team of the 1990s, Seau was listed as a starting linebacker.
Although he appeared in two Super Bowls, XXIX with the Chargers and XLII with the Patriots, his teams lost both games.
In 1992, Seau also founded the Junior Seau Foundation, “with the mission to educate and empower young people through the support of child abuse prevention, drug and alcohol awareness, recreational opportunities, anti-juvenile delinquency efforts and complimentary educational programs.”
Seau was only 43 years old and leaves behind three children.
Additional sources: football-reference.com, wikipedia.com
(Image courtesy of Chargers.com)
Ed. Note: According to sources, Seau shot himself in the chest. Former Chicago Bear Dave Duerson did the exact same thing, in order to preserve his brain for study. Although no one has connected the two deaths (as well as the April suicide of Ray Easterling), OOTD is interested to see whether Seau suffered from neurological problems. Something to watch.
Apparently former Bears’ linebacker Hunter Hillenmeyer has some of the same questions about Seau’s suicide. Hillenmeyer was forced to retire from the game after suffering numerous concussions. (He was advised to leave the NFL by the Bears’ neurologist.) Here is the Hillenmeyer interview from the Chicago Tribune.
