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Guest Vern Gagne

Most Tragic Sports Moments

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Guest Vern Gagne

I was just thinking last night about the athletes who died at a young age, or just really tragic events.

 

-Hank Gathers.This one is the most tragic, IMO. LMU was one of the most exiting teams to watch. It was a Sunday night, and it was the top story on the local news. Completley mind numbing. ESPN Classic had a SportsCenter flash back, and it really got to me.

 

-Greg Moore. People die in racing, but the Moore was involved in the most horrific crash I've ever seen. No one could of survived that crash.

 

-Adam Petty. He was so young. It hits you harder when the person is around your age, and should have is entire life in front of him.

 

-Korey Stringer. I remember reading reports about Stringer being in the hospital, and thinking he'll be fine. The next morning, the front page headline announces Korey Stringer had died.

 

-Darryle Kile. A player in any sport isn't killed in the middle of season. Don't get me wrong, someone dieing in the off season isn't any more tragic, but this was such a rarity. My brother told me that Kile was found dead. At first you don't think you heard right, but it was announced that Darryle Kile was found dead.

 

-Chucky Mullens. Alot of this has to do with the meeting between Mullens, and Brad Gammons who caused Mullens paralysis. Mullens later died from complications.

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Guest bob_barron

To me it's Drazen Petrovic of the New Jersey Nets dying in a car accident in the summer of 1993. I was very young when it happened and I was really depressed about it for a week and just couldn't believe that he was actually gone.

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Guest treble charged

Greg Moore's crash was a pretty big deal in Canada. Being from BC, he was always a fan favourite here, and his death was a real shock. The fact that it happened in such a horrific crash didn't help matters, either.

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Guest cartman

Tony Conigliaro: Incredible loss for the Redsox when this 22 year old, at the time, was struck in the head with a fastball. He did not die, but his career was essentially over even though he tried to make a comeback to no avail. Some say he would have smashed homerun records because of the torrid pace he was on at such a young age.

 

Len Bias: Although his death was self inflicted it was still a tragic loss to the NBA and the Celtics in particular. There was NO doubt that he was going to be a special player in the NBA. A definite lesson for drug users.

 

Reggie Lewis: Died in front of thousands of fans right on the court. Noone at that game will ever forget seeing that i'm sure.

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Guest Choken One

Dale Earnhardt Sr.

Greg Moore

Adam Petty

Kenny Irwin

Neil Bonnet

 

 

Darryle Kile

Korey Stringer

Len Bias

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Guest Youth N Asia

#16 Vladimir Konstantinov for the Detroit Redwings...right after the win the stanley cup he's in a limo accident cause the driver was drunk. Brain Damaged and everything, although he's usually at the Joe Louis Arena throughout the season and playoffs, and he looks a little better every year. Just sad to see one of the best defensemen in hockey reduced to that.

 

I think the kid's last name was Roy...the Boston College hockey player that got crash into the boards and paralized his first shift on the ice.

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Guest ShooterJay

Couple of quick corrections:

 

Reggie Lewis didn't die right on the court, he did collapse, which was the first sign of what killed him. He died a little while later, shooting practice hoops at Brandeis.

 

Travis Roy was a BU hockey player, not BC.

 

Both of these events though, were the most tragic I could think of.

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Guest Youth N Asia
Travis Roy was a BU hockey player, not BC.

Thanks...I knew it was one or the other and just took a shot

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Derrick Thomas

 

and even if it was before my time, I'm sure that Joe Delaney was bad (he drowned while trying to save two kids in a river)

 

Brandon Burlsworth is another good example. He was a lineman at Arkansas who was drafted by the Colts. He wore black rimmed glasses and looked like a larger Drew Carey. He was hit and killed by a semi before he played in the NFL

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Guest Steve J. Rogers

This is part of a wrestling site and no one has mentioned Owen Hart?

 

How about this from 1920, Ray Chapman, SS with the Indians was struck in the head with a pitch from Carl Mays, colapsed, rushed to the hospital and died the next morning. The only MLB player to die during a game.

 

There was an ump a few years ago (name is eluding me at the moment, might have been John McSherry) who colapsed and died before a Reds opening day game

 

Do wasted careers/lives count? Then add Mickey Mantle, Darryl Strawberry, Roy Tarpley, Pete Maravich, ect.... to the lists

 

Steve

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Guest MillenniumMan831

I'd say it's the incident involving the death of young Britney Cecil. She was a young teenager in the stands of a Columbus Blue Jacket game when a stray puck struck her head. She left the arena under her own power, however, she passed away the next morning. Very sad situation, and the fact that she seemed okay afterwards makes it that much more tragic.

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Guest Spaceman Spiff

Pelle Lindbergh - outstanding young goalie for the Flyers in the early/mid 80's. Drove drunk and crashed his Porsche into a rock. Brain-dead, and the plug was pulled a few days later.

 

Dmitri Tertyshny (sp?) - had a decent rookie year for the Flyers (1999?), and the summer after the season was on vacation w/ a few teammates. Fell off the boat they were using & got sliced & killed by the propellor.

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Guest the pinjockey

Tertyshny pissed me off beyond belief. For a selfish, I want the Flyers to win, reason. He was the first good young defenseman they had in a long time.

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Guest Vern Gagne

I forgot about Joe Delaney. NFL Films did a story about him, and I started tearing up.

 

Bill Masterson is the only player to die on the ice. The 35th anniversary was a few weeks ago, and my dad said he remembered it.

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Guest iamsherm

Brook Berringer's death was pretty tragic around here. He was the backup quarterback at Nebraska and filled in nicely when Tommie Frazier was out all those games with blood clots. He died in a plane crash shortly before it looked like he was to be drafted by the NFL.

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Guest Vern Gagne
No one mentioned Thurman Munson?

When they announced over the news that Munson had died my brother thought Herman Munster had died.

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Guest phoenixrising

During spring training in 1993, two Indian pitchers, Steve Olin and Tim Crews, were killed in a boating accident. Olin was Cleveland's closer and looked like he was going to be a good one; Crews was a part of the 1988 Dodger team and it was sad to hear that he had passed on.

 

Another one I was thinking of: Rodney Culver, played running back for the Colts and Chargers. He was on the ValuJet flight when it crashed into the Everglades.

 

About Gathers...remember Bo Kimble shooting free throws the way Gathers used to? And they went in every time.

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Guest RepoMan

The Marshall plan crash of 1970 that wiped out almost the entire team and the OK State are the biggest tragidies I can think of in sports.

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Guest Harry Hood

Old school, Ernie Davis from Syracuse. Heisman Trophy winner from 66 and i thought he developed cancer and never played in the NFL.

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Guest DrTom
Pelle Lindbergh - outstanding young goalie for the Flyers in the early/mid 80's. Drove drunk and crashed his Porsche into a rock. Brain-dead, and the plug was pulled a few days later.

I remember that. He was very good. His death is what opened the door for Ron Hextall -- then playing with Hershey in the AHL -- to get called up to the big club and almost single-handedly beat the Oilers in '86.

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Guest Kotzenjunge

Dale Earnhardt's death was huge around here, as churches held services and people mourned as I'd never seen before. It's probably the only sports death that's ever actually saddened me, as dickish as that sounds, and it didn't help that his death was incredibly fitting (and I don't mean it in the way that he deserved it, it was just the best way he could possibly go), in the final lap at Daytona.

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Old school, Ernie Davis from Syracuse. Heisman Trophy winner from 66 and i thought he developed cancer and never played in the NFL.

it was Leukemia in 1962

 

and it also sowed the seeds of Modell firing Paul Brown.

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Guest Vern Gagne

So did Brown no Davis had Leukeima before he drafted him?

 

There was a horse back in the 70's who involved in some sort of two horse race, and it collapased and died on the track.

 

The South Korean boxer who Rey Mancini killed (unintentionally). This has more to with what Manchini and observers at ring side said.

 

Was Steve Chiasion the NHL player who died about 3 years ago in the car crash.

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Actually, Brown didn't draft Davis. The Redskins drafted Davis but he was traded to the Browns for Mitchell.

 

Davis found out that he had leukemia after he was traded to Cleveland but before he could play in the NFL

 

Modell was mad at Brown because he wanted to put Ernie Davis in for one play, but Brown vetoed that idea.

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Guest Slingshot Suplex
Was Steve Chiasion the NHL player who died about 3 years ago in the car crash.

Yeah,Chiasson was going home from the team post season party,I believe, and crashed.

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