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Notable deaths in sports in 2012

 

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  • Jan. 22 -- Over a 46-year career Joe Paterno guided the Nittany Lions to 37 bowls and won more 409 victories, including two national championships. A number of those wins were nullified after the program was embroiled in the Jerry Sandusky child sex-abuse scandal. Paterno, who battled lung cancer, died at the age of 85.
  • Feb. 16 -- An 11-time All-Star and three-time Gold Glove award winner, Gary Carter was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2003. Carter played nearly two decades (1974-92) with the New York Mets, Montreal Expos, San Francisco Giants and the LA Dodgers. He was the first player to go into the Hall of Fame with an Expos cap on his plaque. Carter he died after battling brain cancer. He was 57.
  • March 5 -- Boxing historian Bert Sugar, known for his fedora and cigar, was an author and editor of dozens of books; the editor, at various times, of The Ring magazine and Boxing Illustrated; and a television and radio commentator who rarely turned away from a microphone. He was 75.
  • April 19 -- Ray Easterling was member of the Falcons' famed “Grits Blitz” defense of the 1970s and led the defensive secondary that established a team record for interceptions (26) in 1977. He was among a group of players suing the NFL over head injuries. Easterling died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at his home in Richmond, Va. He was 62.
  • May 2 -- Junior Seau, a 12-time Pro Bowl linebacker, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest. Seau spent 19 seasons in the NFL playing for the Chargers, Dolphins and Patriots. He was 43.
  • May 31 -- Orlando Woolridge played 13 seasons in the NBA and was one of the first alley-oop specialists. The sixth overall pick by the Chicago Bulls in the 1981 NBA draft played for the Bulls, Los Angeles Lakers, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Denver, Milwaukee and Detroit. He would later coach the Los Angeles Sparks of the WNBA. Woolridge, who had a chronic heart condition, was 52.
  • June 9 -- Auburn football player Edward Christian, a former star at Lowndes High School in Valdosta, Ga., and former teammate Ladarious Phillips were fatally shot during a pool party near the school's campus. Christian redshirted in 2010 and suffered a back injury that prevented him from playing. Desmonte Leonard is charged in the shooting that left three dead and three others injured.
  • July 3 -- Doris Sams a leading player in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, during her playing days with the Kalamazoo Lassies. Sams, a fast-pitch player from Knoxville, Tenn., who helped inspire the movie
  • July 26 -- Neil Reed, the former Indiana University basketball player went public with a claim that Bob Knight choked him in a 1997 practice. Reed played three seasons at Indiana, making 72 starts. Following his junior season, his teammates voted him off the team and Knight agreed. Reed later transferred to Southern Mississippi. He died after collapsing in his Central California home. He was 36.
  • Aug. 23 -- Hall of Fame running back Steve Van Buren led the Philadelphia Eagles to NFL titles in 1948 and 1949. Van Buren finished his eight-year career with 5,860 rushing yards and 77 TDs. He died of pneumonia at the age of 91.
  • July 4 -- Jimmy Bivins was a heavyweight boxer who in the 1940s and ’50s beat eight future world champions but never got a shot at the title himself. Between 1940 and 1955, he beat a parade of fighters who would go on to become champions, among them Gus Lesnevich, Joey Maxim, Ezzard Charles and Archie Moore. Bivins finished with a record of 86-25-1 in 1998. He was 92.
  • Sept. 6 -- Art Modell owned the Cleveland Browns franchise from 1961 before the infamous move to Baltimore in 1996. A marketing executive who helped negotiate the NFL's first television contract. His Baltimore Ravens won Sper Bowl XXXV in 2001. Modell ended 43 years of active ownership in the franchise in 2004. He was 87.
  • Oct. 10 -- Alex Karras played his entire NFL career with the Detroit Lions (1959-62 and 1964-70). The defensive tackle went on the have a successful acting career in film (
  • Nov. 24 -- Hector
  • Nov. 28 -- An economist and labor leader, Marvin Miller built the major league players union into a force that revolutionized the game. When Miller was named executive director of that group in 1966, the reserve clause in players’ contracts bound them to their teams for as long as the owners wanted them, leaving them with little bargaining power. By the time Miller retired at the end of 1982, players had won free agency and were hiring agents to issue their own demands. Miller's model was duplicated by unions in basketball, football and hockey. He was 95.
  • Dec. 1 -- Jovan Belcher, an inside linebacker for the Kansas City Chiefs, committed suicide after, police say, he fatally shot his girlfriend. Belcher , 25, was confronted by Chiefs staff before he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at the team's facility in Kansas City, Mo.
  • Dec. 1 -- Longtime college basketball coach Rick Majerus died in Los Angeles while awaiting a heart transplant. Majerus had only one losing team in 25 seasons, at Marquette, Ball State, Utah and St. Louis. He had a career record of 517-216 and coached in 12 NCAA tournaments. Majerus was 64.
  • Dec. 20 -- A four-year starter and a two-way player at center and linebacker for Georgia Tech, Larry Morris was three times first-team All-SEC and a team captain as a senior. He was a bright star during the peak years for Dodd, when the Jackets had a 40-5-2 record over Morris’ four seasons, won two SEC titles, four bowl games and a share of the 1952 national championship with a 12-0 record. He was 79.
  • Dec. 20 -- Jerome Whitehead, a key member of Marquette's 1977 championship team was found dead in his home. Whitehead played 12 years in the NBA for Utah, Dallas, Golden State and San Antonio. He was 56.
  • Dec. 23 -- Former Major League Baseball player Ryan Freel died of a presumed self-inflicted gunshot wound. The career of the speedy Freel was cut short after eight seasons by head injuries. He spent six of his eight big-league seasons with the Cincinnati Reds and finished his career in 2009 with a .268 average and 143 steals. He was 36.
 

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