Sports world loses players of epic impact in 2023

By David Mullens

The sports world lost some of the most noted professional and amateur athletes, coaches and personalities of the last 100 years in 2023. Gone are arguably pro football’s greatest player and best middle linebacker ever. College basketball said farewell to its most volatile coach. Baseball lost a pair of beloved third basemen, one nicknamed after an appliance and another known as “Captain Sal.” 

And Dallas lost one of the architects of “America’s Team.” 

In May, Cleveland Browns running back Jim Brown, 87, died. In his nine seasons, he led the NFL in rushing eight times. He could not be knocked down, on and off the field. He left the gridiron suddenly, in 1966, to pursue a career in Hollywood. He would become an active voice in the civil rights movement for the rest of his life.

I was dining at a small steakhouse in Los Angeles one evening when Brown walked in with a group and sat at a table nearby. I never recall seeing a man look so strong in a business suit. He was Achilles in Armani. There are few moments in life when time stops. Being that close to Brown was one of them.

If the NFL used a player silhouette in its logo like the NBA uses Jerry West, it might be of Dick Butkus, 80. Recognized by many as the greatest linebacker in NFL history, Butkus personified the Chicago Bears and the gritty early days of the NFL.

In college basketball royalty, John Wooden was as cool as a cucumber. Bob Knight, 83, was as hot as a habanero. 

Both had remarkable success with completely different coaching styles. Knight won more than 900 games, with a noted career at Indiana University sandwiched in between stints at Army and Texas Tech and won three NCAA Championships with Indiana.

Always a gentleman, third baseman Brooks Robinson, 86, played with the Baltimore Orioles for 23 seasons, won 16 Gold Gloves and was the finest fielding third baseman of all time. The Hall of Famer, who earned the moniker of the “Human Vacuum Cleaner,” was a two-time World Champion. 

A three-time World Champion, “Captain” Sal Bando, 78, was the leader of baseball’s revolutionary Oakland A’s of the 1970s. On a team owned by the gregarious Charles O. Finley with personalities like Reggie Jackson, Jim “Catfish” Hunter, Rollie Fingers, John “Blue Moon” Odom, Gene Tenace and others, Bando was the steady leader in the clubhouse. His teammate Vida Blue, 73, whose 1971 season earned him the MVP, Cy Young Award and the cover of Time and Sports Illustrated, passed away in May.

Behind the microphone for the biggest TV games in NCAA basketball history, Billy Packer, 82, will be forever linked with March Madness. Tim McCarver, 81, was on the field for 21 years and in the broadcast booth for 33, earning him the Hall of Fame’s annual Ford Frick Award for excellence in broadcasting. 

In a city with a storied past, the tales in Gotham of New York Knicks center Willis Reed, 80, limping onto the court at Madison Square Garden for Game 7 of the 1969-70 NBA title game would make Batman jealous. Chicago Blackhawks star Bobby Hull, 84, known as the “Golden Jet” and revered in Chicago, played 23 seasons in the NHL and WHA.

With all due respect to Jerry Jones’ ability to market a football team, the Dallas Cowboys Mt. Rushmore of football minds are Tom Landry, Tex Schramm and Gil Brandt, 91. Brandt was with the franchise for decades and served as the Cowboy’s VP of player personnel for 28 years. He introduced analytics to the game that are commonplace today. Dallas Cowboy and rodeo cowboy Walt Garrison, 79, also died. 

Football mourns the losses of stoic Minnesota Vikings head coach Bud Grant, 95 and QB Joe Kapp, 85; wide receivers Homer Jones, 82 and Otis Taylor, 80; Notre Dame star Johnny Lujack, 98; TE Russ Francis, 70; league official Art McNally, 97; Heisman Trophy winner Charles White, 64; the NFL’s “dirtiest player of all-time” lineman Conrad Dobler, 72; Hall of Fame linebacker Dave Wilcox, 80; AFL and NFL kicker Jim Turner, 82 and popular Houston Oilers and Tennessee Titans TE Frank Wycheck, 52.

Norma Hunt, 85, died in Dallas on June 4. Born in Greenville and wife of Chiefs founder Lamar Hunt, Norma was a minority owner of the team and familiar face in the NFL. 

Baseball lost the first big name player in Texas Rangers history (not including manager Ted Williams) when Frank “Hondo” Howard, 87 passed away. At 6-foot-7 and more than 250 pounds, a bat looked like a toothpick in his hands. Also passing in 2023 were 1B Joe Pepitone, 82; Pittsburgh Pirates great Dick Groat, 92; outfielder Jesus Alou, 80, who joined brothers Matty and Felipe in the same San Francisco outfield in 1963; former pitcher and manager Roger Craig, 93, who won the last game in Brooklyn Dodgers and first game in New York Mets history; knuckleballer Tim Wakefield, 57 and former AL MVP and Cy Young Award winner Willie Hernandez, 69.

Basketball greats that passed away in 2023 include former Louisville head coach Denny Crum, 86, former Virginia Cavaliers head coach Terry Holland, 80; former Dallas Maverick Eric Montross, 52; center Felton Spencer, 55; former UT star Lance Blanks, 56; former NBA first round pick and Rookie of the Year Walter Davis, 69 and “Big Mac,” former ABA and NBA star George McGinnis, 73.

Other sports figures who passed away in 2023 include hockey’s Petr Klima, 58, golfers Andy Bean, 70, Marlene Bauer Hagge, 89 and Betsy Rawls, 95; Olympians Ralph Boston, 83, Jim Hines, 76, Pat McCormick, 93, and Wheaties box star pole vaulter Bob Richards, 97 and wrestlers The Iron Sheik, 81, Terry Funk, 79 and Bray Wyatt, 36.

The final episode of HBO’s “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel” ended a 29-season run on December 19. The show introduced America to Rick Hoyt, 61, who had cerebral palsy but was pushed in a special wheelchair by his distance running father, Dick, who died in 2021. Rick died in May.