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He was also a talented baseball player and was selected in the 1968 draft by the Chicago White Sox.RIP.
Former San Francisco 49ers Pro Bowl punter Tom Wittum, who was drafted by the Chicago White Sox but opted for a standout baseball and football career at Northern Illinois, has died. He was 60.
Wittum died of cancer Friday at his home in the northern Chicago suburb of Antioch, his son, Matt Wittum, said Tuesday.
A fifth-round pick of the Chicago White Sox in 1968, Wittum instead chose to attend Northern Illinois. He set 10 school kicking records as a place kicker and punter, including the career, single-season and single-game records for punts, punting yards and punting average.
Equally skilled as a third baseman, Wittum helped lead Northern Illinois to a 24-8 record in 1972 — the first year the Huskies were invited to the NCAA baseball tournament.
Wittum was drafted by the 49ers in 1972. The two-time Pro Bowler played in 70 games with San Francisco from 1973-77, kicking 380 punts for 15,494 yards with a 40.8-yard gross average, according to the team.
He retired from the NFL after a serious car accident left him with several broken bones in 1978, but went on to teach driver’s education and coach for more than 30 years, most of it at Grayslake High School in Grayslake, Ill.
I remember Motton but not due to my watching him play. For one thing he was an American Leaguer and I was a NY Met fan. Sometimes I watched the Yankees on WPIX, but not all that often and Motton was a utility player who didn’t play all that much. His most prolific year was 1968 when he had 218 at-bats.
Why I recall Motton is because at Christmas in 1970 or 1971, I got a game called ‘Gil Hodges Pennant Fever‘. For a few years I played many games, mostly with the 69 NY Mets which GHPF attempted to recreate, but sometimes with the Baltimore Orioles. I used Motton as my primary pinch hitter and still remember that 35 plus years later. RIP.
Former Baltimore Orioles outfield Curt Motton has died after a long battle with stomach cancer.
Motton died Thursday at his Parkton home. He was 69.
Motton played for the Orioles from 1967-71, when he was traded to Milwaukee. He returned to Baltimore in 1973, and finished his playing career in 1974.
Motton also served as a bench coach for the team in 1991.
He was a cousin of Hall of Famer Bob Feller. RIP.
Waukee native and former Major League Baseball player Harold “Hal†Manders died Thursday at The Village at Legacy Pointe in Waukee. He was 92.
Manders, a right-handed pitcher, played parts of three seasons in the majors (1941, ’42 and ’46), mostly with the Detroit Tigers — but also two games with the Chicago Cubs.
He broke into the majors, at age 24, in the same season as future Yankees star Phil Rizzuto. The 1941 baseball season Manders is remembered for Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak — still a major-league record — and the .406 batting average of Ted Williams (no player has hit over .400 since).
In 30 major-league games, Manders produced a 3-1 record and 4.77 ERA, with an equal number of walks and strikeouts (28).
Manders, who attended the University of Iowa, was the cousin of Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Feller.
Very sad and RIP.
Tulane linebacker Sule Osagiede died in a morning car accident in Beaumont, Texas, according to friends who established a facebook.com group in his memory. Tulane confirmed the news moments ago.
Osagiede was a sophomore who suffered a serious neck injury during the preseason and did not play in the Green Wave’s 3-9 2009 campaign.
Osagiede was later medically disqualified to play football again because of his training camp neck injury. As a freshman, he played in nine games and made seven tackles. He missed part of spring workouts with academic issues and then suffered the neck injury in August.
He made his Major League debut with the Philadelphia Phillies where the recently deceased Stan Benjamin was also a player. Later on Bragan would manage three franchises, and be the first skipper of the Atlanta Braves after the team moved from Milwaukee. RIP.
FORT WORTH, Texas — Bobby Bragan, who earned the nickname “Mr. Baseball” and was dedicated to seeing baseball blossom in Fort Worth, died at his Fort Worth home on Thursday night. He was 92.
“We are dealing with the loss of one of the great ones,” former Rangers manager Bobby Valentine told ESPN.com. “He was a true renaissance man. He was amazing, so incredibly special. He had such great knowledge of baseball, such retention. He could talk baseball on one hand, recite poetry on the other. There was no one else quite like him.”
Bragan, a native of Birmingham, Ala., arrived in Fort Worth in 1948 as a player and manager after parts of seven seasons in the majors, ending up with the Brooklyn Dodgers. He was a backup catcher for the Dodgers before spending two years in the military. He returned for the 1947 season. The Dodgers went on to lose the World Series that year to the New York Yankees, and Bragan had a pinch-hit double in his only World Series plate appearance.
The next season he was in Fort Worth helping the Cats become a winner. He stayed through the 1952 season and his teams won regular season titles in 1948 and 1949, never finishing below .500 during his tenure.
Bragan went on to manage in the majors for Pittsburgh (1956-57), Cleveland (1958), Milwaukee (1963-65) and Atlanta (1966). Bragan was the first manager of the Braves after they moved from Milwaukee to Atlanta. He managed Hall of Famers Hank Aaron, Eddie Mathews, Bill Mazeroski, Roberto Clemente, Bob Lemon and Warren Spahn, compiling a 443-478 career record.
Bragan also was a major league coach for the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Colt .45s. His minor league managerial stops also included the Hollywood Stars of the Pacific Coast League.
He led the Bulldogs for over 15 years during two different stints at the school. In addition, Fitzgerald served as Gonzaga’s athletic director. RIP.
Dan Fitzgerald, the coach who built Gonzaga into a national basketball power but resigned before the school began its current run of NCAA tournaments, has died at age 67.
Fitzgerald collapsed Tuesday evening in a restaurant in the suburb of Airway Heights. He was pronounced dead at Deaconness Medical Center in Spokane, according to a nursing supervisor at the hospital.
The cause of death was not immediately released.
Fitzgerald recruited John Stockton to campus, took the Zags to their first NCAA tournament in 1995 and built the coaching staff of Mark Few, Dan Monson and Bill Grier that has put the Zags in every NCAA tournament since the 1999 season.
Fitzgerald was 252-171 as coach from 1978 to 1997, and also served as athletic director.
“He was an unforgettable personality,” Stockton told The Spokesman-Review. “He was loyal — incredibly loyal — above all. He was there for anything and everything I’ve ever needed, ever asked for.”
Republican U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, who represents the Spokane area, said Fitzgerald will be mourned throughout the Northwest.
“Like so many Gonzaga fans, I held Coach Fitzgerald in the highest esteem for transforming Gonzaga’s basketball team into a superpower,” Rodgers said.
Fitzgerald stepped down in December 1997 after a school investigation determined he had been collecting and spending some athletic department funds without the knowledge of the university controller’s office, a possible violation of NCAA rules. Fitzgerald contended that none of the money went to players or into his own pocket.
In recent years, he had worked as community relations manager for the Northern Quest Casino.
Fitzgerald took Gonzaga to its first NCAA tournament in 1995, and he recruited the players who went to the Elite Eight in 1999. Only Hank Anderson (291) and current coach Few (278) have more victories for Gonzaga.
Fitzgerald served as head coach from 1978-1981, and then from 1985-1997. He spent four years concentrating on his duties as athletic director, including renovating the basketball arena that became known as The Kennel.
Known throughout Spokane simply as “Fitz,” the coach had a big personality, and his imprint remains on the Gonzaga program, which is currently ranked No. 15.
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The cause of death is unknown at this time. Very tragic and RIP.
Chicago Bears defensive end Gaines Adams died Sunday morning after he was taken to a Greenwood, S.C., emergency room, the county coroner said.
Greenwood County Coroner James T. Coursey said Adams was taken to the emergency room at Self Regional Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 9 a.m. ET Sunday morning.
*****
Adams, 26, listed at 6-foot-5 and 256 pounds, played in college at Clemson and was drafted by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with the No. 4 overall pick in the 2007 NFL draft. He was traded to the Bears in October.
In 47 games over four seasons with the Bucs and Bears, Adams had 67 tackles, including 13.5 sacks.
Like so many players of his time, Layne lost some of prime baseball years to World War II. He played for the Washington Senators before and after serving in the Army.RIP.
Hillis Layne, 91, a Whitwell native, played in the major and minor pro baseball leagues. For much of his career, Layne played for the Seattle Mariniers of the Pacific Coast League. His play on the field earned him the nickname “Mandrake†after the magician in the comics and the league’s batting championship in 1947.
Other playing stops for Layne included the Chattanooga Lookouts and the major league Washington Senators.
Layne was a scout for many years for the Texas Rangers. Altogether, Mr. Layne spent 40 years playing, managing and as a scout for professional baseball teams.
As coach of the Cougars for 31 years, he worked with Johnny Miller, Mike Weir, Mike Reid, Buddy Allin, and Bobby Clampett. All of whom went on to win on the PGA Tour. RIP.
Karl Tucker, who built BYU’s golf program into a national power and sent dozens of players to the PGA Tour, died Friday at his home in Orem. He was 83.
A member of the Utah Sports Hall of Fame and the Utah Golf Hall of Fame, Tucker is best known for coaching the Cougars to the 1981 NCAA championship. His 31-year career, which ended in 1992, also was highlighted by two second-place finishes and 13 top-five placements in the national tournament, remarkable achievements for a cold-weather school.
“He’s just legendary,” said Bruce Brockbank, who played for Tucker, assisted him and then followed him as BYU’s coach. “There are so many people who were influenced by him.”
Tucker created strong loyalty, as evidenced by the way so many golfers have come back regularly for Cougar Day, joining in a fund-raising tournament for the program. He coached nine first-team All-Americans, including Johnny Miller and Mike Reid, who went on to long and successful tour careers. Mike Weir, a member of Tucker’s last team, won the Masters in 2003.
Known for trademark expressions such as “Just go play” — his way of telling golfers to disregard the weather or any other potential excuses — Tucker usually succeeded in getting the most out of each player.
“His great gift as a coach was he had such a keen understanding of the personalities of college kids,” Reid said. “He knew us so well. He probably never read it in a book, he just knew that everybody was different. Two guys would make the same mistake — one, he would chew out; the other, he would ignore.”
Citing Tucker’s outgoing nature, Reid one joked that nobody played golf for BYU “without learning how to talk.” Miller, Jim Nelford and Bobby Clampett became network broadcasters, while Reid went from being shy and withdrawn to a polished speaker.
“He put BYU golf on the map,” Miller said in a Utah Golf Association posting. “He had a great personality and was a great recruiter. He got people to come to BYU, even with the Utah weather.”
In addition to being the voice of the SuperSonics for 25 years, Blackburn also worked Oregon and Oregon State basketball games during his career. RIP.
Bob Blackburn, the Seattle SuperSonics’ first broadcaster and for 20 years the lone voice of Sonics history, died Friday after a lengthy illness, his wife Pat told The Associated Press. He was 85.
Known for his smooth voice and simple, colorful descriptions, Blackburn educated two generations of basketball fans in the Pacific Northwest. From Lenny Wilkens to Jack Sikma, Blackburn was the narrator for Sonics basketball, including the team’s lone NBA championship in 1979.
“That beautiful voice. I fell in love with that voice,” Pat Blackburn said Friday night.
A year ago Blackburn fell and suffered a severe head injury requiring surgery, his wife said. There were complications following surgery, but Pat Blackburn said her husband of 61 years bounced back. He eventually fell ill with pneumonia.
“He was a gentleman, and he said he wants to be remembered as a kind person,” she said.
Bob Blackburn was already an established broadcaster when he beat out more than 100 other candidates to become the Sonics first play-by-play man in 1967. He held the position for 20 years by himself, serving as his own engineer in the early days before heart surgery in 1983 prompted him to slow down.
He was joined on the broadcast by Kevin Calabro in 1987 and the duo shared play-by-play duties. Blackburn retired in 1992, but it wasn’t by his choosing, his wife said.
Still, the team retired his microphone and a banner honoring “The Voice” hung in the rafters at KeyArena until the team’s move to Oklahoma City before the 2008-09 season. Seeing the Sonics purchased by Oklahoma City businessman Clay Bennett and eventually leave the Northwest to become the Thunder was difficult for Blackburn, his wife said.
“He was tremendously disappointed,” she said.
Along with calling the Sonics, Blackburn spent 18 years calling baseball games for the Portland Beavers of the Pacific Coast League. He also called college sports for Oregon and Oregon State and has been inducted in the Washington and Oregon sports halls of fame.
Pat Blackburn met her husband when she was an undergrad at Fresno State and Bob was calling Fresno State football and basketball. They were married in 1948.
“I’m glad I found somebody like Bob. We had so many interests at heart,” his wife said. “It’s a terrific loss.”Bob Blackburn, the Seattle SuperSonics’ first broadcaster and for 20 years the lone voice of Sonics history, died Friday after a lengthy illness, his wife Pat told The Associated Press. He was 85.
Known for his smooth voice and simple, colorful descriptions, Blackburn educated two generations of basketball fans in the Pacific Northwest. From Lenny Wilkens to Jack Sikma, Blackburn was the narrator for Sonics basketball, including the team’s lone NBA championship in 1979.
“That beautiful voice. I fell in love with that voice,” Pat Blackburn said Friday night.
A year ago Blackburn fell and suffered a severe head injury requiring surgery, his wife said. There were complications following surgery, but Pat Blackburn said her husband of 61 years bounced back. He eventually fell ill with pneumonia.
“He was a gentleman, and he said he wants to be remembered as a kind person,” she said.
Bob Blackburn was already an established broadcaster when he beat out more than 100 other candidates to become the Sonics first play-by-play man in 1967. He held the position for 20 years by himself, serving as his own engineer in the early days before heart surgery in 1983 prompted him to slow down.
He was joined on the broadcast by Kevin Calabro in 1987 and the duo shared play-by-play duties. Blackburn retired in 1992, but it wasn’t by his choosing, his wife said.
Still, the team retired his microphone and a banner honoring “The Voice” hung in the rafters at KeyArena until the team’s move to Oklahoma City before the 2008-09 season. Seeing the Sonics purchased by Oklahoma City businessman Clay Bennett and eventually leave the Northwest to become the Thunder was difficult for Blackburn, his wife said.
“He was tremendously disappointed,” she said.
Along with calling the Sonics, Blackburn spent 18 years calling baseball games for the Portland Beavers of the Pacific Coast League. He also called college sports for Oregon and Oregon State and has been inducted in the Washington and Oregon sports halls of fame.
Pat Blackburn met her husband when she was an undergrad at Fresno State and Bob was calling Fresno State football and basketball. They were married in 1948.
“I’m glad I found somebody like Bob. We had so many interests at heart,” his wife said. “It’s a terrific loss.”
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