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He played in the NFL for 10 years. RIP.
Former NFL linebacker Elijah Alexander has died after a nearly five-year battle with cancer. He was 39.
*****
Alexander was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a cancer of the bone marrow, in 2005, four years after his career ended in Oakland.
The former Kansas State player spent nine seasons with four teams. After one year with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1992, Alexander spent three seasons each with the Denver Broncos and Indianapolis Colts. He made 29 starts in 30 games for the Raiders during the final two years of his career in 2000-01.
He won 20 games for the 1956 Detroit Tigers and once was selected for the All-Star game. R IP.
From Baseball Library- Hoeft was a mainstay in the Tigers starting rotation in the 1950s, then embarked on a second career as an itinerant lefthanded reliever, changing teams six times between 1959 and 1966. He spent most of his rookie season in the Detroit bullpen, then struggled as a starter in 1953-54, winning only 16 games over the two seasons. In 1955 Hoeft was still only Detroit’s third starter in terms of starts and innings, but he led the AL with seven shutouts on his way to a 16-7, 2.99 record and a spot on the AL All-Star team. In 1956 Hoeft became the first Tiger lefthander since Hal Newhouser to win 20 games, posting a 20-14 mark, but after mediocre seasons in 1957-58, Hoeft returned to the bullpen for the balance of his career.
He was traded to the Red Sox for Ted Lepcio and Dave Sisler in May, 1959, then shipped to Baltimore for Jack Harshman six weeks later. Hoeft enjoyed his best seasons in relief with the Orioles, recording a 2.02 ERA in 1961 and four wins plus seven saves in 1962, then was traded to the Giants and later to the Braves, spending single seasons with each club. On July 14, 1957 Hoeft hit two of his three career home runs.
He also won 3 consecutive NCAA relay championships while attending UCLA. RIP.
Wayne Collett, a silver medalist in the 400-meters at the 1972 Munich Olympics who starred in the hurdles, sprints and relays at UCLA, died Wednesday. He was 60.
He passed away at St. Vincent Medical Center in Los Angeles after a long battle with cancer, the university says after being informed of his death by family friends and his former college coach Jim Bush.
At the 1972 U.S. Olympic trials, Collett ran the fastest 400 time in history at sea level before finishing second in Munich.
He competed for UCLA from 1968-71, winning Pac-8 titles in the 440-yard intermediate hurdles and the 440-yard dash. He anchored three consecutive NCAA championship mile relay teams.
He won a silver at the 1952 games in addition to a gold at the 48 Summer Olympics. RIP.
Henry Wittenberg, an amateur wrestler who went undefeated for more than 300 matches and won a gold medal at the 1948 London Olympics, has died. He was 91.
His family said Wittenberg died Tuesday at his home in Somers, N.Y.
Wittenberg began wrestling at City College, becoming a star under the tutelage of coach Joe Sapora. He graduated in 1940 and went on to dominate national and international freestyle wrestling in his weight class while working as a New York City police officer.
With World War II canceling the Olympics, Wittenberg served in the Navy. He came back to win gold in the London Games at 191.5 pounds. His unbeaten streak ended when he won silver at the 1952 Helsinki Games, losing to Wiking Palm of Sweden in the title match.
Wittenberg won his eighth and final Amateur Athletic Union national title in 1952. He was also a two-time champion at the Maccabiah Games, the international competition for Jewish athletes in Israel.
He retired as policeman in 1954 and went on to coach wrestling at Yeshiva University and City College and guided the U.S. Greco-Roman team at the 1968 Mexico City Games. He was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in 1977.
The 1974 League MVP was a great player and not a shabby actor either. RIP.
Merlin Olsen, a Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive lineman who was part of the Los Angeles Rams’ “Fearsome Foursome” line of the 1960s, has died after a lengthy battle with cancer. He was 69.
Olsen, who was diagnosed with mesothelioma last year and had been undergoing chemotherapy, died Wednesday night, Utah State assistant athletic media relations director Zach Fisher said.
The burley giant from northern Utah joined Deacon Jones, Lamar Lundy and Rosey Grier on the Rams’ storied “Fearsome Foursome” defensive line known for either stopping or knocking backward whatever offenses it faced. The Rams set an NFL record for the fewest yards allowed during a 14-game season in 1968.
Olsen was rookie of the year for the Rams in 1962 and is still the Rams’ all-time leader in career tackles with 915. He was named to 14 consecutive Pro Bowls, a string that started his rookie year, and was voted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1982.
Olsen was also an established television actor with a role on “Little House on the Prairie,” then starring in his own series, “Father Murphy,” from 1981 to 1983 and the short-lived “Aaron’s Way” in 1988.
Olsen was a consensus All-American at Utah State and won the 1961 Outland Trophy as the nation’s best interior lineman. The Rams drafted Olsen third overall in 1962 and he spent the next 15 years with the team before retiring in 1976.
Utah State honored Olsen in December by naming the football field at Romney Stadium “Merlin Olsen Field.” Because of his illness, Olsen’s alma mater didn’t want to wait until football season and made the announcement during halftime of a basketball game.
Willie Davis was an excellent defensive center fielder and a very good player overall but this was obscured by a variety of reasons.
The three errors he made in one inning of a 1966 World Series game
That he played his prime years in a pitcher’s era(the late 1960′s
That Davis made his living trying to hit in Dodger’s Stadium, one of the toughest hitter’s parks in baseball during his time.
Davis still amassed very good numbers. 2561 career hits, .279 career batting average, and more. I grew up watching and remember Davis very well. Thanks for the memories Willie and RIP.
Known as “Three Dog” for his ability to often hit triples and because he wore number three on his uniform for most of his career, Davis played on the Dodgers’ World Series championship teams in 1963 and 1965.
Davis set a Dodgers team record in 1969 with a 31-game hitting streak and remains the franchise’s all-time leader in hits, extra-base hits, at-bats, runs, triples and total bases.
“He was beloved by generations of Dodger fans and remains one of the most talented players ever to wear the Dodger uniform,” Dodgers owner Frank McCourt said in a statement.
“Having spent time with him over the past six years, I know how proud he was to have been a Dodger. He will surely be missed and our sincere thoughts are with his children during this difficult time.”
Davis was found dead in his California home on Tuesday by a neighbor who often brought him breakfast, Burbank police told Reuters. There were no signs of foul play and police said they expect Davis died of natural causes.
Davis spent his first 14 seasons with Los Angeles from 1960 to 1973 before going on to play for Montreal, Texas, St. Louis, San Diego and California.
During his career, Davis won three Gold Glove Awards, led the league in triples twice, and stole 20 or more bases in 11 consecutive years.
His son, Ahmad, currently plays for the San Francisco 49ers. RIP.
Bill Brown knew of Perry Brooks’ NFL career. The former Hylton football coach also knew Brooks as a person and it’s a feeling Brown will never forget.
“He was one of those parents that was very supportive,” said Brown, who coached Brooks’ sons, Perry Jr. and Ahmad, at Hylton. “He was always so personable. Everything was always positive with Mr. Brooks. He was 100 percent behind us at Hylton.”
Brown cherished the friendship he shared with the 55-year-old former Washington Redskin, who died Monday at Sentara Potomac Hospital.
“I always enjoyed the relationship I had with Mr. Brooks,” Brown said. “He was a fun guy, so upbeat and always had a smile on his face. My wife is five-foot-one and he was six-foot something. He’d hug her and she would disappear. He was an upbeat person. He was fun to be around.”
Perry Brooks played football for Southern University before the New England Patriots selected him in the seventh round of the 1976 draft.
He played for the Redskins from 1977-84 as a defensive lineman. He was a member of two Redskins Super Bowl teams, the first of which was the Redskins win over Miami in Super Bowl XVII.
Brooks’ best season came in 1984, when he totaled 5.5 sacks.
After his career ended, Brooks served as a salesman at Cowles Nissan in Woodbridge.
He held the school’s career homerun mark for over three decades. Small also played very briefly in the major leagues with the Atlanta Braves. RIP.
Hank Small, whose 48 career home runs from 1972-75 stood as the USC record for more than three decades, was 56. David Small said his brother fell Tuesday night while moving into his new home in Griffin, Ga.
Hank Small lost his balance on the steps in front of the house, fell backward and struck the back of his head on the pavement, according to his brother. He lost consciousness and never regained it due to massive trauma, David said.
*****
Small was the first true home run hitter at USC. In the nine-year period leading to Small’s first season, USC hit 42 home runs. Small hit six more than that the next four years himself.
Teammates called Small “Hams,” which was short for “Hammer,” because the 6-foot-3, 205-pound first baseman/outfielder was every bit the power hitter that Hank “The Hammer” Aaron was for the Atlanta Braves at the time.
“It was just an amazing feeling when you could look around the infield and you’ve got Hams at first,” Bass said. “We just knew nobody could ever beat us.”
Although Small was known for his prodigious home runs, he was the consummate hitter, possessing the ability to drive the ball to the opposite field.
“He attacked everybody. He was such an intimidating force at the plate,” Bass said. “He had such an aggressive style of hitting. You may get him on one pitch, but the next one he would hit the ball so hard.”
Small batted .379 as a freshman in 1972 with four home runs, then slumped to .282 as a sophomore with eight homers. Aluminum bats were used for the first time in 1974, Small’s junior season.
“People were scared of him,” Bass said. “He was strong. He was big. With aluminum bats, he didn’t have to pull everything. He could drive the ball anywhere.”
Small batted .360 his junior year with a school-record 17 home runs and was a second-team All-American. Then, as a senior, he batted .390 and broke his record with 19 home runs and earned first-team All-America honors.
His home run total as a senior stood as the USC single-season record until Joe Datin hit 23 in 1985. His 48 career home runs stood as the school record until Justin Smoak hit 62 from 2006-08.
“I don’t want to take anything away from what (Smoak’s) done,” Small said two years ago as Smoak approached his career record. “I just think college baseball is so much more hitting than it is pitching today. College now is a hitting game.”
Small’s career coincided with the rise to big-time baseball for USC under coach Bobby Richardson, who arrived for the 1970 season.
“Not only was he a tremendous ball player, but he was a tremendous individual as well,” Richardson said. “I just thought the world of him, and I’m saddened and shocked to hear not that he’s no longer with us.”
The ’74 club made USC’s first appearance in the NCAA tournament, and the following year USC advanced to the College World Series. USC lost the championship game to Texas, 5-1, with Small’s homer accounting for USC’s run.
“I feel like that team I was lucky enough to be on was, in my mind, probably the greatest team I ever saw in college,” said David Small, who was a teammate of his brother’s on the ’75 team and now works in building supply sales in the Atlanta area.
George Henry Small was born in Atlanta on July 31, 1953. June Raines recruited Small out of Atlanta to play for Richardson. Raines, who left for professional baseball, returned after Small had finished his USC career.
“They made Carolina baseball,” Raines said of Small and Bass. “They sure did put the program on the map.”
Small was selected in the fourth round of the Major League Baseball draft by the Atlanta Braves. He advanced quickly through the minor-league system and batted .289 with 25 home runs and 101 RBIs for Richmond of the Class AAA International League in 1978.
He earned a late-season call-up to the major leagues and played in one game for Atlanta on Sept. 27. Small went hitless in four at-bats in his only big-league game.
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His son Lofa is currently a NFL linebacker. Very sad and RIP.
Mosi Tatupu (MOE’-see tah-TOO’-poo), a fan favorite who played 13 seasons for the New England Patriots, has died. He was 54.
Ashley O’Brien, a spokeswoman for Sturdy Memorial Hospital in Attleboro, Mass., said Tatupu was pronounced dead at the hospital Tuesday. She did not give a cause.
Tatupu was chosen by the Patriots in the eighth round of the 1978 draft out of Southern California. He stayed with the team until 1990.
The running back rushed for 2,415 yards and 18 touchdowns. He was better known for his special teams play.
Tatupu had his own cheering section known as “Mosi’s Mooses.”
He coached his son, Lofa, now a linebacker with the Seattle Seahawks, at King Philip Regional High School in Wrentham.
Strickland was mostly a utility infielder who backed up Bobby Avila, Al Rosen, and Chris Carrasquel for the Cleveland Indians. After his playing days were over he was a coach for Cleveland who had brief stints as the team’s manager in 1964 and 66. Before his career in Cleveland, he played for the Pittsburgh Pirates. He also coached in the major leagues for the Minnesota Twins and Kansas City Royals. RIP.
George Strickland, the slick-fielding shortstop for the Indians in their historic 1954 season and a two-time interim manager for the team, died on Sunday at 84.
The Indians acquired Strickland in a trade with the Pittsburgh Pirates on Aug. 18, 1952. Playing in an era when the value of middle infielders was determined by their fielding and not their hitting, Strickland batted .233 with 22 home runs and 213 runs batted in for the Indians before he was released on Aug. 3, 1960.
For much of his time with the Indians, Strickland’s glove ably backed the Indians’ famed “Big Four” starting pitchers: Hall of Famers Bob Feller, Bob Lemon and Early Wynn, and all-star Mike Garcia.
Strickland played 112 games, batting .213 with six homers and 37 RBI, in 1954, when Cleveland set what was then an American League record for wins, finishing 111-43 before being swept in the World Series by the New York Giants.
Strickland was an Indians coach from 1963-69, usually stationed at third base. His first stint as Cleveland’s interim manager began on April 2, 1964, one day after manager Birdie Tebbetts suffered a heart attack, and days before the start of the season. The Indians went 33-39 with Strickland at the helm, before Tebbetts returned on July 5.
Cleveland began the 1966 season 27-10, but had slumped to a 66-57 record when Tebbetts was dismissed as the manager on Aug. 19. Strickland took over, and Cleveland went 15-24 the rest of the way to finish 81-81. Strickland went back to his duties as the third base coach when Joe Adcock was hired as the manager.
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