Goose Gossage

Richard Michael "Goose" Gossage (born July 5, 1951) is a former Major League Baseball right-handed relief pitcher. During a 22-year baseball career (1972–1994), he pitched for nine different teams, spending his best years with the New York Yankees and San Diego Padres.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Gossage was one of the earliest manifestations of the dominating modern closer, with wild facial hair and a gruff demeanor to go along with his blistering fastball. He led the American League in saves three times and was runner-up twice; by the end of the 1987 season he ranked second in major-league career saves, trailing only Rollie Fingers, although by the end of his career his total of 310 had slipped to fourth all-time. When he retired he also ranked third in major-league career games pitched (1,002), and he remains third in wins in relief (115) and innings pitched in relief (1,556); his 1,502 strikeouts place him behind only Hoyt Wilhelm among pitchers who pitched primarily in relief. He also is the career leader in blown saves (112). From 1977 through 1983 he never recorded an earned run average over 2.62, including a mark of 0.77 in , and in he finished third in AL voting for both the MVP Award and Cy Young Award as the Yankees won a division title.
Respected for his impact in crucial games, Gossage recorded the final out to clinch a division, league, or World Series title seven times. His eight All-Star selections as a reliever were a record until Mariano Rivera passed him in 2008; he was also selected once as a starting pitcher. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2008. He now works in broadcasting.
Career.
Gossage grew up near N. Cascade Avenue in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He graduated (1970) from Wasson High School where he played on the baseball and basketball teams and was included in the school's athletic "Wall of Fame." His wife Corna Gossage also graduated from Wasson High. The Chicago White Sox selected him in the ninth round of the 1970 Major League Baseball draft.
Gossage led the American League (AL) in saves in 1975 (26). After the 1976 season, the White Sox traded Gossage and Terry Forster to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Silvio Martinez and Richie Zisk. He became a free agent after the 1977 season, and signed with the New York Yankees.
Gossage again led the AL in saves in 1978 (27) and 1980 (33). On October 2, , he earned the save in the Yankees' one-game playoff against the Boston Red Sox for the AL East title, entering with one out in the seventh inning and a 4–2 lead following Bucky Dent's home run; although he allowed two runs in the eighth inning, he held on to preserve the 5–4 victory, getting Carl Yastrzemski to pop up to third baseman Graig Nettles with two out and two men on base in the ninth inning to clinch the division championship. He was also on the mound five days later when the Yankees clinched the pennant in the ALCS against the Kansas City Royals, entering Game 4 in the ninth inning with a 2–1 lead and a runner on second base; he earned the save by striking out Clint Hurdle and retiring Darrell Porter and Pete LaCock on fly balls. He was on the mound ten days later when they captured the World Series title against the Los Angeles Dodgers for their second consecutive championship, coming on with no one out in the eighth inning of Game 6; he retired Ron Cey on a popup to catcher Thurman Munson to clinch the win.
One of his most impressive performances was on September 3, 1978, in a game vs. the Seattle Mariners. Replacing Sparky Lyle in the top of the 9th with runners on second and third and no outs, he preserved a 4–3 lead by striking out the next three batters in 11 pitches.
He missed some of the 1979 season with the Yankees with a thumb injury sustained in a locker-room fight with teammate Cliff Johnson. Ron Guidry, the reigning Cy Young Award winner, volunteered to go to the bullpen to replace him. In the first game of a doubleheader on October 4, , Gossage pitched the last two innings of a 5–2 win over the Detroit Tigers, earning his career-high 33rd save as New York clinched another division title. On October 10, George Brett of the Royals hit a tide-turning three-run homer off Gossage into Yankee Stadium's right-field upper deck to lead the Royals to a three-game sweep in the AL Championship Series, after the Yankees had defeated the Royals in three consecutive ALCS from 1976 to 1978. Almost three years later during the regular season, Brett got to the Goose again in the Bronx, blasting a go-ahead two-run home run in the top of the ninth in a game memorialized as the "Pine Tar Game".
Gossage recorded saves in all three Yankee victories in the 1981 AL Division Series against the Milwaukee Brewers, not allowing a run in innings, and he was again the final pitcher when they clinched the 1981 pennant against the Oakland Athletics. In , his last season with the Yankees, Gossage broke Sparky Lyle's club record of 141 career saves; Dave Righetti passed his final total of 150 in . Gossage holds the Yankees' career record for ERA (2.14) and hits per nine innings (6.59) among pitchers with at least 500 innings for the team.
In eight of his first ten seasons as a closer, Gossage's ERA was less than 2.27. Over his career, right-handed hitters hit .211 against him.
Gossage became upset with Yankees' owner George Steinbrenner for meddling with the team. In 1982, he called Steinbrenner "the fat man upstairs", and disapproved of the way Yankees' manager Billy Martin used him. Gossage became a free agent after the 1983 season, and insisted that he would not resign with New York. He signed with the San Diego Padres. In 1984, Gossage clinched another title, earning the save in Game 5 of the NL Championship Series and sending the Padres to their first World Series; after San Diego had scored four runs in the seventh inning to take a 6–3 lead against the Chicago Cubs, Gossage pitched the final two innings, getting Jody Davis to hit into a force play for the final out. During game 5 of the 1984 World Series versus the Detroit Tigers, Gossage, after receiving signs from the coaches on the Padres bench and a visit to the mound by Padres manager Dick Williams, refused to intentionally walk right fielder Kirk Gibson. On the second pitch Gossage and the Padres would regret that decision as Gibson homered to deep right field leading to a World Series win for the Detroit Tigers. On August 17, , Gossage struck out Pete Rose in Rose's final major-league at bat.
Before the 1988 season, the Padres traded Gossage and Ray Hayward to the Cubs for Keith Moreland and Mike Brumley. On August 6, , while with the Cubs, Gossage became the second pitcher to record 300 career saves in a 7–4 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies, coming into the game with two out in the ninth and two men on base and retiring Phil Bradley on a popup to second baseman Ryne Sandberg. Released by the Cubs in March 1989, he signed with the San Francisco Giants in April. The Yankees selected Gossage off of waivers in August. He pitched for the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks of Nippon Professional Baseball in 1990.
Gossage signed with the Texas Rangers for the 1991 season. On July 23, , a statistical coincidence was noted when he recorded his 308th career save to preserve Nolan Ryan's 308th win. Gossage signed one-year contracts to pitch for the Oakland Athletics in 1992 and 1993.
Gossage signed with the Seattle Mariners for the 1994 season. On August 4, , Gossage became the third pitcher in major league history to appear in 1,000 games. Gossage entered a game against the California Angels with two out in the seventh inning and runners on second and third base, trailing 2–1; he picked up the win when the Mariners scored three times in the eighth for a 4–2 victory. In his final major league appearance on August 8, he earned a save of three innings—his first in over 15 months—in the Mariners' 14–4 win over the Rangers, retiring all nine batters he faced; José Canseco flied out to left field to end the game.
Gossage had a record 112 career blown saves. ESPN.com noted that blown saves are "non-qualitative", pointing out that the two career leaders—Gossage and Rollie Fingers (109)—were both inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Fran Zimniuch in "Fireman: The Evolution of the Closer in Baseball" wrote, "But you have to be a great relief pitcher to blow that many saves. Clearly, [Gossage] saved many, many more than he did not save." More than half of Gossage's blown saves came in tough situations, with the tying run on base when the pitcher entered. In nearly half of those blown tough saves, he entered the game in the sixth or seventh inning. Multiple-inning outings provide more chances for a reliever to blow a save, as he needs not only to get out of the initial situation but also to pitch additional innings in which to possibly lose the lead.
Pioneer of the closer role.
The New York Yankees of the late 1970s and early 1980s arguably pioneered the set-up/closer configuration, which was a standard baseball practice until the 2010s. The most effective pairing was Ron Davis and Gossage, with Davis typically entering the game in the 7th or 8th innings and Gossage finishing up. During one stretch with that pairing, the Yankees won 77 of 79 games in which they led after six innings.
Gossage and top relievers of his era were known as "firemen", relievers who entered the game when a lead was in jeopardy—usually with men on base—and regardless of the inning and often pitching two or three innings while finishing the game. Gossage had 17 games where he recorded at least 10 outs in his first season as a closer, including three games where he went seven innings. He pitched over 130 innings as a reliever in three different seasons. He had more saves of at least two innings than saves where he pitched one inning or less. The ace reliever's role evolved to where he was reserved for games where the team had a lead of three runs or less in the ninth inning. Mariano Rivera, considered the greatest closer of all time, earned only one save of seven-plus outs in his career, while Gossage logged 53. "Don't tell me [Rivera's] the best relief pitcher of all-time until he can do the same job I did. He may be the best modern closer, but you have to compare apples to apples. Do what we did," said Gossage.
During his career, Gossage pitched in 1,002 games and finished 681 of them, earning 310 saves. Per nine innings pitched, he averaged 7.45 hits allowed and 7.47 strikeouts. He also made nine All-Star appearances and pitched in three World Series.
Pitching style.
Gossage was one of the few pitchers who employed basically just one pitch, a fastball. However, his fastball was one of the best of all time, routinely throwing in the 98-to-102-mph range in his prime, with pinpoint accuracy. Occasionally he would throw a slurve or a changeup. Despite his reputation as a pitcher who intentionally threw at hitters, Gossage stated that he threw at only three hitters in his career: Ron Gant, Andrés Galarraga, and Al Bumbry. Even into his 40s, in the early 1990s, he still threw regularly in the mid-90s, though he did not close games as often as he did in his youth, serving as a capable and intimidating setup man.
Gossage had a reputation as a no-nonsense no-frills pitcher who wasted no time on the mound. Throwing only one kind of pitch left little need for communicating with the catcher. He would stand on the mound and pitch from the stretch position as soon as the batter was in the batter's box.
Nickname.
The nickname "Goose" came about when a friend did not like Gossage's nickname "Goss", and noted he looked like a goose when he extended his neck to see the signs given by the catcher. Although Gossage is otherwise generally referred to as "Rich" in popular media, a baseball field named after him bears the name "Rick".
Retirement.
Gossage lives in his home town, Colorado Springs, Colorado, and is active in the community promoting and sponsoring youth sports. In 1995, the city of Colorado Springs dedicated the Rick "Goose" Gossage Youth Sports Complex, which features five fields for youth baseball and softball competition. He also owned hamburger restaurants in Greeley and Parker, Colorado, called Burgers N Sports.
He has written an autobiography, released in 2000, entitled "The Goose is Loose" (Ballantine: New York).
His son, Todd, is a professional baseball player who has played for the Sussex Skyhawks, Newark Bears, and Rockland Boulders of the Can-Am League.
Gossage coached the American League team in the Taco Bell All-Star Legends & Celebrity Softball Game in Anaheim, California on July 12, 2010.
At the Hall of Fame induction in 2008, Gossage expressed gratitude to a number of baseball people who had helped him through his career, and several times described his Hall of Fame week experience as "amazing". The inductions included Dick Williams, his manager at San Diego. After the ceremonies, the two of them sat together for an ESPN interview on the podium, taking audience questions and gently ribbing each other, especially about the upper-deck home run Kirk Gibson hit off Gossage in Game 5 of the 1984 World Series.
The Yankees honored Gossage with a plaque in Monument Park on June 22, 2014.


Jimmy Delaney

James Delaney (3 September 1914 – 26 September 1989) was a Scottish footballer who played as an outside right. He had a 24-year playing career interrupted by World War II, his longest spells at club level spent with Celtic in Scotland and Manchester United in England. He was capped 15 times for the Scotland national team, scoring six goals.
Career.
Club.
Celtic.
Delaney joined Celtic on provisional forms in 1933 from Stoneyburn Juniors, signing a permanent contract the following year. Delaney suffered the misfortune of a badly broken arm in a home game against Arbroath in April 1939. The injury sustained being further exacerbated by the opposition player Attilio Becchi (who was apparently a Celtic fan) accidentally stepping on Delaney's arm. Delaney's torn football shirt was sold at auction for £564 in 2002. He spent 13 years with the Glasgow club, making 327 appearances in all competitions including wartime tournaments.
Manchester United.
Delaney was held in high regard as a player by Matt Busby who, when the war ended in 1946, signed him for Manchester United in a £4,000 deal. Delaney helped United win the 1948 FA Cup Final and finished his United career with 28 goals from 184 total appearances.
Late career in Scotland and Ireland.
He moved back to Scotland at the age of 36, joining Aberdeen in November 1950 and made his "Dons" debut in a 5–1 defeat of Falkirk. A year later he joined the "Bairns", where he spent three seasons. In January 1954, Derry City paid £1,500 to sign him, a record fee for the Irish Football League, remarkable in that he was by this stage 39 years old. Two years later he joined Cork Athletic as player-manager before eventually retiring after a season with Highland League Elgin City in 1957.
Delaney has the distinction of having won the Scottish Cup with Celtic in 1937, the English FA Cup with Manchester United in 1948, and the Irish Cup with Derry City in 1954. He also came close to a fourth different national trophy in the Republic of Ireland, earning a FAI Cup runners-up medal with Cork Athletic in 1956.
International.
Delaney won 15 caps for Scotland and scored 6 goals. He also represented the Scottish League XI six times. On 15 November 2009, he was inducted into the Scottish Football Hall of Fame.
Personal life.
Son of Patrick Delaney and Bridget Nash from Crettyard, Queen's County (now County Laois) in Ireland, Jimmy was born in Cleland, North Lanarkshire. His son Pat Delaney was also a footballer whose longest spell was with Motherwell, and his grandson John Kennedy played as a defender for Celtic, Norwich City and Scotland.
Delaney died in September 1989, shortly after his 75th birthday.
Honours.
Celtic
Manchester United
Falkirk
Derry City
Scotland
Individual


Bill Fitch

William Charles Fitch (born May 19, 1932) is an American former National Basketball Association (NBA) coach who had been successful in developing a number of teams into playoff contenders. Before entering the professional ranks, he coached college basketball at the University of Minnesota, Bowling Green State University, the University of North Dakota, and his alma mater, Coe College. Fitch's teams twice qualified for the NCAA tournament. He won the Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award for the 2012–13 NBA season.
Fitch was a United States Marine Corps drill instructor, a fact that Larry Bird credited in his book "" as an important reason for Bird's own strong work ethic. Bill Fitch was elected to the National Basketball Hall of Fame in 2019.
College coaching career.
Fitch coached at four universities, the University of Minnesota, Bowling Green State University, the University of North Dakota, and his alma mater, Coe College. He led North Dakota to three NCAA Division II Men's Basketball Tournaments and he led Bowling Green to the 1968 NCAA University Division Basketball Tournament in his only season with the team after winning the Mid-American Conference title with an 18–7 record and 10–2 in conference play. At Minnesota, he coached the Golden Gophers to 12–12 and 13–11 in his two seasons there.
Pro coaching career.
During his 25-year pro coaching career, Fitch was often hired in an attempt to improve failing teams. Although Fitch currently ranks tenth among NBA coaches in all-time number of victories (with 944), he is also ranked second in all-time losses (with 1,106) behind Lenny Wilkens. In 1996 Fitch was named one of the NBA's Ten Greatest Coaches of All-Time. In 2016, Fitch was honored with an honorary bench by the Hall of Fame, which surrounds a statue of James Naismith along with other granite benches in honor of great coaches, done so by a $150,000 donation by Rick Carlisle.
Cleveland Cavaliers.
Fitch was hired by the Cleveland Cavaliers as coach on March 19, 1970 for the 1970–71 season, the inaugural season for the team. In his first season, the Cavaliers went 15–67. The Cavaliers did not have a season as bad as that one until the 1981–82 season, which also garnered 15 wins. The team gradually rose in wins for the next two years, winning 32 in his third season, although they slipped slightly the following year. In his first four years, they finished last each time in the Central Division.
His fifth season (1974–75) resulted in marked improvement as the Cavs won 40 games while finishing third, their first season without a last place finish. By this point, the team had a clear leader in its #1 draft pick from 1971, Austin Carr. He had become the leading scorer for the team, but a serious knee injury curtailed Cleveland's hopes for a playoff berth.
The following season of 1975–76 was the pinnacle of his career with Cleveland. The team, now fabled as "The Miracle of Richfield", was led by team captain Carr, scoring small forward Campy Russell, shooting guard Bobby "Bingo" Smith, and a supporting cast of largely unknown players such as starting center Jim Chones, and an aging Nate Thurmond. The team won 49 games (a team record for 13 seasons) and the Central Division title. They defeated the Washington Bullets in seven games to advance to the Conference Finals, where they were defeated in six games by the Boston Celtics, with Chones being sidelined by a broken foot in practice two days before the conference finals. The Cavaliers did not win another playoff series until 1992. Fitch was awarded the NBA Coach of the Year Award at the end of the season.
Fitch led the team to two more playoff berths, although they did not win either series. After a 30–52 record for the 1978–79 season, he resigned on May 21, 1979.
Boston Celtics.
On May 23, 1979, he was hired by the Boston Celtics, taking over for Dave Cowens, who had coached them to a 29–53 record as a player-coach the previous season.
His first season also happened to be the first for Larry Bird. Fitch helped lead the Celtics to 61 wins along with an Atlantic Division title. In the playoffs that year, the Celtics were defeated in the Conference Finals to the Philadelphia 76ers in five games. Fitch won his second Coach of the Year Award after the season.
In his second season, the Celtics drafted Kevin McHale and acquired Robert Parish, both through a trade with the Golden State Warriors. Fitch's team won 62 games along with a second Atlantic title. They went on to beat the Houston Rockets in six games to win the 1981 NBA Finals, Boston's first title since 1976.
Fitch led the Celtics to a third consecutive Atlantic Division title in 1981–82 while winning 63 games, although the team lost in the Conference Finals to the 76ers in seven games. The 1982–83 team dropped in wins (from 63 to 56) while finishing second in the Atlantic Division, and were defeated by the Milwaukee Bucks in four games. On May 27, 1983, he resigned from the Celtics. Fitch cited Harry T. Mangurian Jr.'s announcement that he was selling the team due to difficulties with Delaware North (the owners of the Boston Garden) as the last straw, despite Fitch having three years left on his contract.
Houston Rockets.
On June 1, 1983, Fitch was hired by the Houston Rockets, taking over for Del Harris, who had managed the team to 14 wins the previous season. The 1983–84 Houston Rockets season also happened to be the first season with Ralph Sampson on the team. The team won 29 games that season. The next season was the season in which the Rockets drafted Hakeem Olajuwon, and the team responded with 48 wins and a playoff berth, although they were beaten in five games by the Utah Jazz. His third season was his best season with the team as they won the Midwest Division title along with the Western Conference title after beating the Los Angeles Lakers in five games. They met Fitch's old team, the Celtics. Boston beat the team in six games to win the Finals. Fitch's following two seasons led to playoff berths, although they did not advance past the Conference Semifinals. Fitch was fired on June 6, 1988.
New Jersey Nets.
On August 21, 1989, Fitch was hired by the New Jersey Nets, replacing Willis Reed, who had gone 26–56 the previous season. The team acquired Sam Bowie on draft day in order to try and start a rebuilding process, although the team went 17–65 for the season, the fewest wins for the Nets since joining the NBA. Fitch gradually raised the team up, acquiring Derrick Coleman, Dražen Petrović, and Terry Mills helping the team qualify for a playoff berth in the 1991–92 New Jersey Nets season. The team went to the playoffs with a losing record of 40–42, sixth-best in the 14 team Eastern Conference. They lost in the First Round to Fitch's old team, the Cavaliers in four games. On May 12, 1992, he resigned as coach of the team.
Los Angeles Clippers.
On July 28, 1994, Fitch was hired by the Los Angeles Clippers, replacing Bob Weiss, who had gone 27–55 the previous year. In four seasons with the team, he could not reverse the tide of a franchise that had gone on a downward spiral since making the playoffs in consecutive seasons in 1992 and 1993. However, he led them to a playoff berth once, doing so in the 1996–97 season (the last playoff berth for the team until 2006), although they were swept in the First Round by the Jazz. They made the playoffs despite going 36–46, qualifying by just two games. The following season was a disaster, with the team finishing 17–65, the worst season since finishing with that same record in the 1994–95 season. Two days after the season ended, Fitch was fired on April 20, 1998.


Willie Henderson

William Henderson (born 24 January 1944) is a Scottish retired footballer. He played most of his career for Rangers, and spent the latter part of his career with Sheffield Wednesday, in Hong Kong with Hong Kong Rangers and with Airdrieonians. He also featured at international level for Scotland.
Henderson made his career debut in 1960 at the age of 16. He was a very pacy right-winger, and as he was only 5 feet 4 inches tall he became known as "Wee Willie".
Playing career.
Club.
During his time with Rangers he made over 400 appearances and won two Scottish league championships, the Scottish Cup four times and the League Cup twice, including a treble in 1963–64. He was also part of the Rangers team that got to the final of the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1966–67 and was part of the campaign that eventually brought the trophy to Ibrox in the 1971–72 season; however, he was not involved in the 3–2 final victory over FC Dinamo Moscow in Barcelona in May 1972 as he had left Rangers just prior, having fallen out with manager Willie Waddell. Henderson later admitted that missing that game was one of the worst moments of his career. Thus while he sat on a beach in South Africa, his former teammates had their names carved onto the trophy.
Henderson signed for Sheffield Wednesday for the 1972–73 season and made his debut on 12 August 1972 in a 3–0 victory over Fulham. He was a great favourite with the Wednesday fans in the two seasons that he was there even though the club had little success. He made 50 appearances for Wednesday with six as substitute, scoring five goals in his two seasons there. His last appearance for the club was on 27 April 1974, the last match of the 1973–74 season against Bolton Wanderers, a match Wednesday had to win to avoid relegation to Division Three – they won the match 1–0. Henderson left Wednesday at the end of that season and went to play for Hong Kong Rangers. In November 1976, he moved to Caroline Hill. He spent three years in the colony and captained the Hong Kong League XI (a team made up of foreign professionals plying their trade in Hong Kong) before returning to Scotland for a final season with Airdrieonians.
International.
He made his debut for Scotland on 20 October 1962, against Wales in a 3–2 victory for Scotland, in which he scored the winning goal. He also scored in his second game for Scotland in a 5–1 victory over Northern Ireland. He went on to gain a total of 29 caps and five goals. His last game for Scotland was on 21 April 1971, in a 2–0 defeat by Portugal. Henderson remains one of the youngest players to represent Scotland at 18 years and 269 days, and won more caps than his main rival for the position at right wing, the highly regarded Jimmy Johnstone of Celtic. In an interview with the "Scotland on Sunday" newspaper in April 2006, Henderson admitted that Scotland's failure to qualify for the 1966 and 1970 World Cups was a great disappointment to him as Scotland at that time had one of the best teams in Europe. "I can't believe that we had so many players who were genuine world class yet we didn't reach the best-ever finals of the biggest tournament of them all," said Henderson. He also represented the Scottish League XI.
Later career.
Whilst playing for Rangers, Henderson owned and ran a hairdresser's shop in Glasgow. Upon his retirement he opened a pub alongside Alfie Conn, Jr. in Coatbridge. He later operated a hotel in Lanarkshire and worked for Rangers at Ibrox on match days as a hospitality host.
Personal life.
Henderson is short sighted and wore contact lenses. People found this amusing as they would often wonder how good a player he would have been had his eyesight been better. Legend has it that late on in an Old Firm encounter he inquired on the sidelines, "How long to go, how long to go?" Jock Stein replied: "Go and ask at the other dugout, you bloody fool – this is the Celtic bench!".


Ab Box

Albert George "Ab" Box (March 8, 1909 – July 30, 2000) was a Canadian professional football halfback, quarterback and punter.
Born in Toronto, Box attended Malvern Collegiate Institute where he played on the football team and later on the Malvern Grads junior team from 1928-1929 under coach Ted Reeve. Box then moved to the senior Ontario Rugby Football Union, again playing under Reeve with the Toronto Balmy Beach Beachers from 1930-1931, winning the Grey Cup in 1930. Box then played three seasons with the Toronto Argonauts, winning another Grey Cup in 1933 and being voted the Jeff Russel Memorial Trophy winner as the most valuable player for 1934. He returned to Balmy Beach in 1935 and played another four years there.
Box also played on championship baseball and softball teams.
He has been inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame (1965) and Canada's Sports Hall of Fame (1975). Box died in Toronto at age 91.


Freddie Lindstrom

Frederick Charles Lindstrom (November 21, 1905 – October 4, 1981) was a National League baseball player with the New York Giants, Pittsburgh Pirates, Chicago Cubs and Brooklyn Dodgers from 1924 until 1936. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1976.
At the age of 23, Lindstrom hit .358 for the Giants and was named The Sporting News Major League All Star team's third baseman ahead of Pittsburgh's Harold "Pie" Traynor. Two years later, he repeated the honor while scoring 127 runs and batting .379, second only to Rogers Hornsby among right-handed batters in National League history.
In 1930, Giants manager John McGraw ranked Lindstrom ninth among the top 20 players of the previous quarter century. Babe Ruth picked him as his NL all-star third baseman over Traynor for the decade leading up to the first inter-league All Star game in 1933. Modern-day statistics guru Bill James, who rates Lindstrom No. 43 on his all-time third basemen list, placed him among the top three under-21 players at that position and called the 1927 Giants infield of Lindstrom, Hornsby, Travis Jackson and Bill Terry the decade's best.
From his rookie season in 1924 through 1930 as a Giants third baseman, a span of seven years during which he batted .328 and played brilliantly in the field, Lindstrom seemed headed for a place among the game's all-time greatest players. "Those hands of his (Lindstrom's) are the talk of the baseball world. Sensational playing places him among greatest in game," wrote sports writer Pat Robinson of the "New York Daily News" in the spring of 1929, after Lindstrom finished second the previous year to St. Louis Cardinal first baseman Jim Bottomley in the National League's Most Valuable Player balloting. "The best third sacker in the National League, one of the greatest third basemen the game has ever produced," gushed William Hennigan in the "New York World". "Lindstrom hit peaks of third basing never before attained during the final month of last season," added Ken Smith in the "New York Evening Graphic". "An outstanding individual of the game, another Hornsby, Wagner, Cobb, or Speaker, this kid, ace fielder, hitter, thinker and runner."
Joe Foley, in "This Sporting Life", echoed a common theme among baseball writers during that stretch of Lindstrom's career when he named his perfect team: "Sisler on first, Lajoie at second, Wagner at short, Lindstrom at third, Ruth, Speaker and Cobb in the outfield, Kling catching and Brown, Walsh, Bender and Mathewson taking turns pitching."
In 1931, injuries - including a chronic bad back and broken leg - brought about his switch to the outfield where for several years he remained an above-average but no longer All Star player. He retired after 13 seasons in 1936.
Early life.
Born on Chicago's South Side not far from Comiskey Park, Lindstrom as a youngster was an ardent White Sox fan, often playing hooky from school to watch their games. He was devastated when his hero, Shoeless Joe Jackson, and other teammates were banned from baseball for allegedly throwing the 1919 World Series. Three years later, after a tryout with the Cubs didn’t pan out, he signed a contract at the age of 16 with the New York Giants. A sophomore at Chicago's Loyola Academy at the time, he was assigned to the Toledo Mud Hens where he played for two years with such future Giants teammates as Travis Jackson and Bill Terry.
New York Giants.
Called up in 1924 and eventually replacing the injured Heinie Groh at third base, 18-year-old Lindstrom batted .333 in the World Series including four hits in one game against Washington's Walter Johnson while playing errorless baseball in the field. The youngest player ever in a post-season game, he was described by Johnson after the fifth game as "a wonder, easily the brightest star in this series." But a bad-hop bouncer over his head in the 12th inning of the seventh game gave the series to the Senators and became an enduring moment in baseball lore. "So they won it," Lindstrom later recalled. "(Giants pitcher) Jack Bentley, who was something of a philosopher, I think summed it up after the game. ‘Walter Johnson,’ Bentley said, ‘is such a loveable character that the good Lord didn't want to see him get beat again.’"
Playing in an era when fielders’ gloves were little more than padded strips of leather with a baseball-sized pocket in the palm, Lindstrom for three of the next four seasons led National League third basemen in fielding percentage. He also topped the league in assists in 1928, finishing second with 34 double plays and 506 total chances. All while posting 231 hits in both 1928 and 1930 including nine hits in a double header, a record never surpassed to this day. A million-dollar infield," said writer Arnold Hano of the late-1920s Giants quartet. "Fans would come early just to watch their fielding-practice magic." In an essay on Willie Mays’ famous 1954 back-to-the-plate catch off Cleveland's Vic Wertz, Hano claimed that an even more sensational play was Lindstrom's full-length, leaping grab before crashing into the outfield wall in a 1932 Giants-Pirates game that the "New York Herald Tribune" later called "the greatest catch ever made in the Polo Grounds."
During his nine seasons with the Giants, Lindstrom batted .318 (fourth on the team's all-time list in the 20th century), while demonstrating his ability to come through in the clutch with pennant-chasing hitting streaks in September 1928 that raised his average from .342 to .358 and in 1930 from .354 to .379. As late as 1935 while playing center field for the Chicago Cubs, his .427 batting average during a stretch of 21 consecutive victories was credited by such Chicago newsmen as John P. Carmichael and Warren Brown as the main factor in the Cubs’ drive for the NL championship.
Often referred to as "the last of the great place hitters" on McGraw teams that emphasized advancing runners into scoring position rather than relying on the long ball, Lindstrom in 1931 was led to believe that he would succeed the long-time Giants manager. "We’re making that change we spoke about next year," Lindstrom, recuperating from a broken leg, said he was told by Giants’ club secretary Jim Tierney. "McGraw is going out and we want to make you manager." Instead, for reasons that some traced to Lindstrom's leadership role in a player revolt against their often dictatorial manager (a charge he consistently denied, although admitting that he often spoke out against the feisty skipper nicknamed Little Napoleon), club owner Horace Stoneham chose first baseman Bill Terry to replace McGraw. Although the two remained friends, Terry traded Lindstrom to Pittsburgh in 1933 because, Terry said, "Fred no longer has that burst of speed he used to have."
Pirates, Cubs, and Dodgers.
Playing in the outfield between Lloyd and Paul Waner, Lindstrom regained his elite status as a player by finishing second on the Pirates to shortstop Arky Vaughan by four percentage points with a .310 batting average (eighth highest in the National League), hitting 39 doubles and leading the league's center fielders with a .986 fielding average.
But after one outstanding season, Lindstrom again found himself involved with a team expected to contend for a pennant struggling with controversy. First, George Gibson was fired as manager 51 games into the season with the Pirates mired in fourth place. His replacement, Pie Traynor, moved Lindstrom to left field and then to the bench after breaking his finger in a fungo game. At season's end, despite fielding .990 and again outhitting Lloyd Waner while playing in 43 fewer games, Lindstrom was traded to the Chicago Cubs where he quickly became what Cubs manager Charley Grimm later called "a vital asset" in the team's 1935 league championship. Starting at third base ahead of Stan Hack, he was later shifted to fill a void in center field. There, Grimm said, as boss of the outfield he allowed only seven pop flies to fall safely during that 21-game streak. He also drove in the winning run, or scored it, in seven of the games including three singles and a double off Dizzy Dean of the St. Louis Cardinals in the pennant-clinching contest. "And why isn’t Lindstrom in the Hall of Fame?" Grimm asked in a 1968 interview.
After the Cubs lost to the Detroit Tigers in the World Series, however, the following January he was released and later signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers. After only 26 games and a .264 batting average on a Casey Stengel-led team known as the Daffy Dodgers for their often inept play (Stengel was fired at season's end), the onetime Boy Wonder turned Silver Fox at the age of 30 for his prematurely graying hair abruptly retired from baseball following a collision with infielder Jimmy Jordan while going for a routine pop fly. "I have been in this league 12 years," Lindstrom reportedly said, "and it never happened to me until I put on a Brooklyn uniform."
In 13 years in the major leagues, Lindstrom was in 1438 games played, compiling a .311 batting average (1747-5611), with 895 runs, 301 doubles, 81 triples, 103 home runs and 779 RBI. His on-base percentage was .351 and slugging percentage was .449. He hit .300 or better seven times. Lindstrom recorded six 5-hit games. He hit for the cycle on May 8, 1930. In 11 World Series games (1924 and 1935), he hit .289 (13-45) with four RBI.
Later career and personal life.
In later years, Lindstrom managed minor league teams at Fort Smith, Arkansas, and Knoxville, Tennessee. After coaching the Northwestern University baseball team for 13 seasons, he was appointed postmaster of Evanston, Illinois, a position he held until 1972. He died nine years later and is buried with his wife, Irene, in Chicago's All Saints Cemetery. The youngest of their three sons, Chuck Lindstrom, played briefly for the 1958 Chicago White Sox, walking and tripling for a perfect 1.000 batting average and on-base percentage in two plate appearances.
Legacy.
Although many modern-day baseball historians refer to Traynor as the era's premier fielding third baseman, the Pirate Hall of Famer led the league in errors five times including 37 in 1931 and 27 in both 1932 and 1933. Lindstrom's high mark was 21 errors in both 1928 and 1930. For the seven comparable seasons that Lindstrom played third base, his fielding percentage tops that of Traynor each year.
McGraw's list shows no bias for Giants, naming only Hornsby at No. 7 in the Top 10 and the great Christy Mathewson at No. 16. The first five, in order, were Honus Wagner, Ty Cobb, Willie Keeler, Eddie Collins and Babe Ruth. No other third baseman was cited.
Donald Dewey and Nick Acocella (All Time All Star Baseball Book, Elysian Fields Press, 1992) list Lindstrom as the New York Giants all-time third baseman. The esteemed sportswriter, Red Smith, placed him at third base on an all-time New York all-star team that had no room for the likes of Mickey Mantle, Duke Snider or Mel Ott
John Kieran (Sports of the Times), reported the following: "Arthur Nehf was sitting in the Chicago dugout talking about the Giant hitters. He talked of Roush, Jackson, Terry and Hogan and then remarked decisively that Freddie Lindstrom was the cleverest of them all at the plate and the hardest man to fool in the clutch."
Lindstrom's four hits in Game 5 of the 1924 World Series stood as the rookie record until matched by San Francisco's Buster Posey in the 2010 series.
Along with a 24-game hitting streak in 1930 and a 25-game streak in 1933, Lindstrom also ranks among the all-time top 10 in lifetime strikeouts to batting average ratio, 276 strikeouts to .311 batting average in 6,104 plate appearances. Lloyd Waner, Pie Traynor and Arky Vaughan are also on the list. (Graham Womack, "Baseball Past & Present", May 25, 2011.)
Lindstrom led the league in outfield assists in 1932 and putouts in 1933. He came to the Pirates as "a strong defensive player and even better right-handed line drive hitter." (Dave Finoli and Bill Rainer: "The Pittsburgh Pirates Encyclopedia", 1933.)
Lindstrom was included in the balloting for the National Baseball Hall of Fame starting in 1949, but never received more than 4.4% of the vote from the Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA). Former Giants teammates Terry and Frankie Frisch joined the Veterans Committee in 1967, and aided the elections of several of their former teammates, including Jesse Haines in 1970, Dave Bancroft and Chick Hafey in 1971, Ross Youngs in 1972, George Kelly in 1973, Jim Bottomley in 1974, and Lindstrom in 1976.
Lindstrom's selection, along with some of the other selections made by Terry and Frisch, has been considered one of the weakest in some circles. According to the BBWAA, the Veterans' Committee was not selective enough in choosing members. Charges of cronyism were levied against the Veterans' Committee. This led to the Veterans Committee having its powers reduced in subsequent years. In 2001, baseball writer Bill James ranked Lindstrom as the worst third baseman in the Hall of Fame.


Darren Clark

Darren Edward Clark (born 6 September 1965 in Sydney, New South Wales) is an Australian retired sprinter who specialized in the 400 metres.
His personal best time of 44.38 seconds, achieved at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, is the current Oceanian record. This time would have placed Clark in second place in the 2008 Beijing olympics 400 m final. Clark also co-holds the Oceanian record in 4 x 400 metres relay with 2:59.70 minutes, established with teammates Bruce Frayne, Gary Minihan and Rick Mitchell at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.
Clark achieved fourth place in two consecutive Olympics, 1984 and 1988.
Clark took a break from the track in 1991, playing a season in the New South Wales Rugby League for the Balmain Tigers. Playing mostly in reserve grade, he played on the , scoring 11 tries, and also competed in the pre-season World Sevens Tournament. While playing for the Tigers, Clark was billed as the "Fastest white man alive".
He returned to the track in 1992 and was selected for the Barcelona Olympic team, but was forced to withdraw due to an Achilles tendon injury.
Clark was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 2000 and the Athletics Australia Hall of Fame in 2014.


Angelo Mosca

Angelo Mosca (born February 13, 1937) is a former Canadian Football League player and professional wrestler. He is also known by the wrestling nicknames King Kong Mosca and The Mighty Hercules. Mosca has a son, Angelo Jr., who also wrestled. He was elected to the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 1987, the Hamilton Sports Hall of Fame in 2012, and the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame in 2013.
CFL career.
Mosca attended the University of Notre Dame and was drafted by the NFL's Philadelphia Eagles in 1959 in the 30th round (350th overall.) He had already decided to play in the CFL, in 1958 for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. He was traded to the Ottawa Rough Riders for Hardiman Cureton on August 15, 1960, and played for the Rough Riders in 1960 and 1961 before joining the Montreal Alouettes in 1962 for 5 games. He played his remaining years, 1962 to 1972 in Hamilton. He was a five-time all star.
Mosca played in nine Grey Cup games, more than any other player in CFL history, tied with his teammate John Barrow. Mosca's teams won five Grey Cup games, one with the Ottawa Rough Riders and four with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. He is infamous for the 51st Grey Cup game out-of-bounds and late hit on B.C. Lions star running back Willie Fleming. With Fleming out of the game, the Tiger-Cats went on to win the Grey Cup and Mosca's reputation as being the meanest CFL player grew. It was a reputation he later promoted as the notorious professional wrestler "King Kong" Mosca.
On August 25, 2015, the Tiger-Cats announced that they would retire Mosca's jersey number 68. This is only the second jersey number the club has retired, the other being Hall of Fame quarterback Bernie Faloney's number 10.
Wrestling career.
Mosca was brought into wrestling by Montreal promoter Eddie Quinn. He began wrestling in the off-season, and became a full-time wrestler after his retirement from football. He wrestled all across North America, always at or near the top of the card, and almost always as a heel, even in Toronto until the late 1970s, then he became a face, and in the early 1980s, the lead face. He often used a sleeper as his finisher in later years.
In 1981 in the World Wrestling Federation, Mosca wrestled as (often – in a reversal of his character in Canada) as the promotion's most hated heel due to his brutal style. He became a top challenger to WWF Champion Bob Backlund's World Championship, but was not successful in winning the belt. He also engaged in a feud with Pat Patterson, a part-time wrestler who also did color commentary on the WWF's syndicated programs, after Mosca attacked Patterson at a television taping with a water pitcher; Patterson had grown disgusted with Mosca's rulebreaking tactics and, setting off the attack, publicly thanked a referee for disqualifying Mosca for refusing to pin his jobber opponent.
Mosca retired from wrestling in the mid-1980s and was the colour commentator for the WWF TV tapings in Ontario from August 1984 until January 1985. After being fired by the WWF, Mosca promoted the NWA in Ontario in 1985-87. He and Milt Avruskin hosted a TV show featuring compilations of NWA matches. Mosca organized an NWA card in Hamilton in February 1986 called "Moscamania" that drew an excellent house of 12,000 but the follow-up a year later drew only 3,200.
Mosca's son, Angelo Mosca Jr., had a brief but successful wrestling career.
Personal life.
Mosca has lived in and around Hamilton for many years, and currently lives in St. Catharines, Ontario with his wife, Helen, a real estate agent. He first met her in 1996 at a Ticats game; they married in 1998. He had been divorced once and widowed prior.
He authored a book with Steve Milton called Tell Me To My Face, published by Lulu Canada Inc. The book was released in September 2011.
In 2011, Mosca got into a fight with former B.C. Lions quarterback Joe Kapp at a CFL alumni luncheon regarding a controversial hit Mosca had made in the 1963 Grey Cup game, where Mosca ended up hitting Kapp on the head with his cane. The video of the fight went viral, receiving over 647,000 views on YouTube and mentions on ESPN's "Monday Night Football" and on Fox TV's "The O'Reilly Factor". Mosca auctioned off the cane he used against Kapp at the following year's alumni luncheon for $7700, with the money going towards the alumni association's "dire straits" fund for struggling former players.
Mosca appeared on several Canadian TV commercials in the 1970s and 1980s. Mosca still makes PR appearances for the league and the Ticats and for other businesses.
In February 2015, he revealed that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.
His number 68 football jersey was retired by the Hamilton Tiger Cats football club on August 27, 2015 at a ceremony at Tim Horton Field in Hamilton.
In July 2016, Mosca was named part of a class action lawsuit filed against WWE which alleged that wrestlers incurred traumatic brain injuries during their tenure and that the company concealed the risks of injury. The suit is litigated by attorney Konstantine Kyros, who has been involved in a number of other lawsuits against WWE. US District Judge Vanessa Lynne Bryant dismissed the lawsuit in September 2018.


Deacon Jones

David D. "Deacon" Jones (December 9, 1938 – June 3, 2013) was an American professional football player who was a defensive end in the National Football League (NFL) for the Los Angeles Rams, San Diego Chargers, and the Washington Redskins. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1980.
Jones specialized in quarterback "sacks" stats, a term which he coined. Nicknamed "the Secretary of Defense", Jones is considered one of the greatest defensive players ever. The "Los Angeles Times" called Jones "most valuable Ram of all time," and former Rams head coach George Allen called him the "greatest defensive end of modern football".
Early life.
Jones was born in Eatonville, Florida, and lived in a four-bedroom house with his family of ten. Jones attended Hungerford High School, where he played football, baseball, and basketball. During high school, Jones developed a lump in his thigh and learned that it was a tumor; he had surgery to remove it.
Late in life, Jones told The San Diego Union-Tribune that when he was 14 years old, he witnessed a carload of white teenagers laughingly hit an elderly black woman with a watermelon. The woman died days later from the injury, and Jones recalls that there was never a police investigation. "Unlike many black people then, I was determined not to be what society said I was," Jones later recounted. "Thank God I had the ability to play a violent game like football. It gave me an outlet for the anger in my heart."
College career.
Jones' college football career consisted of a year at South Carolina State University in 1958, followed by a year of inactivity in 1959 and a final season at Mississippi Vocational College in 1960.
South Carolina State revoked Jones' scholarship after they learned that he participated in a protest during the Civil Rights Movement. However, one of the assistant football coaches at South Carolina State was leaving to coach at Mississippi Vocational, and told Jones and some of the other African-American players that he could get them scholarships at the new school. While he was playing at Mississippi Vocational, he and his African-American teammates had to sleep in cots in the opposing team's gym because motels would not take them on numerous occasions.
Professional career.
Due to a lack of television coverage and modern scouting networks, Jones was largely overlooked. According to an NFL Films interview with writer Ray Didinger, “Deacon was discovered kinda by accident. The Rams were scouting some running backs and they found this defensive tackle who was outrunning the running backs that they were scouting.” Jones was drafted in the 14th round of the 1961 NFL Draft by the Los Angeles Rams. He then earned a starting role as a defensive end and teamed with tackle Merlin Olsen to give Los Angeles a perennial All-Pro left side of the defensive line. He became a part of the Fearsome Foursome defensive line of the Rams (along with Lamar Lundy, Rosey Grier, and Olsen), which is now considered to have been one of the best defensive lines of all time.
Jones won consensus All-Pro honors five straight years from 1965 through 1969 and was second-team All-Pro in 1964, 1970, and 1972. He was also in seven straight Pro Bowls, from 1964 to 1970, and was selected to an eighth after the 1972 season with the San Diego Chargers. He was voted the team's Outstanding Defensive Lineman by the Los Angeles Rams Alumni in 1962, '64, '65, and '66. In 1971, Jones suffered a severely sprained arch, which caused him to miss four starts, and he ended the season with 4½ sacks, his career-low to that point.
Jones was traded along with Lee White and Greg Wojcik from the Rams to the San Diego Chargers for Jeff Staggs, a second-rounder in 1972 (30th overall–Jim Bertelsen) and a second and third-rounder in 1973 (31st and 60th overall–Cullen Bryant and Tim Stokes respectively) on January 29, 1972. He was named San Diego's defensive captain and led all Chargers' defensive linemen in tackles and won a berth on the AFC Pro Bowl squad. He concluded his career with the Washington Redskins in 1974. In the final game of his NFL career, the Redskins allowed him to kick the point-after-touchdown for the game's last score. Along the way, Jones was named the Associated Press NFL Defensive Player of the Week four times: week 14, 1967; week 12, 1968; week 11, 1969; and week 10, 1970.
An extremely durable player, Jones missed only six games of a possible 196 regular-season encounters in his 14 National Football League seasons.
Sacks.
Jones was considered by many to revolutionize the position of defensive end. He was credited with coining the phrase "sacking the quarterback". In 1999, Jones provided an "L.A. Times" reporter with some detailed imagery about his forte: “You take all the offensive linemen and put them in a burlap bag, and then you take a baseball bat and beat on the bag. You’re sacking them, you’re bagging them. And that’s what you’re doing with a quarterback.”
What separated Jones from every other defensive end was his speed and his ability to make tackles from sideline to sideline, which was unheard of in his time. He also was the first pass rusher to use the head slap, a move that he said was, "...to give myself an initial head start on the pass rush, in other words an extra step. Because anytime you go upside a man's head … or a woman; they may have a tendency to blink they [sic] eyes or close they eyes. And that's all I needed. " “The head slap was not my invention, but Rembrandt, of course, did not invent painting. The quickness of my hands and the length of my arms, it was perfect for me. It was the greatest thing I ever did, and when I left the game, they outlawed it.”
"Pro Football Weekly" reported he accumulated 173½ sacks over his career, which would be third on the all-time sack list. (Jones would have ranked first all-time at the time of his retirement, and since has been surpassed by two fellow Hall of Famers Bruce Smith and Reggie White.)
In 1967, Jones had 21½ sacks in only 14 games; he tallied 22 sacks in 14 games the following year. If official, this would have stood as an NFL record until Harvey Martin's 1977 campaign, in which he totaled 23 sacks. (The term "sack" had not yet been coined at the time, and official sack statistics were not recorded by the NFL until 1982.)
After football.
Acting.
Jones worked as a television actor, and appeared in numerous TV programs since the 1970s, most often appearing in cameo roles. He appeared in an episode of "The Odd Couple" where he and Oscar were in a television commercial selling shaving products. He appeared on "The Brady Bunch", and in a "Bewitched" episode in 1969, he played a guard to the Giant's castle in "Sam & the Beanstalk". Jones also played himself on an episode of "Wonder Woman" in 1978.
In 1978, he played a Viking named Thall in "The Norseman". Fellow Hall of Famer Fred Biletnikoff joined Jones in the film, also portraying a Norseman. That same year, Jones portrayed a fierce defensive lineman named Gorman in the film "Heaven Can Wait".
In the series "G vs E", he played himself, but as an agent of "The Corps". He also played a role in the hit show, "ALF", where he played a father figure to Alf.
Broadcasting.
Jones served as a color analyst for Rams broadcasts on KMPC radio in the 1994 season, teaming with Steve Physioc and Jack Snow. In 1998, shortly before Super Bowl XXXII between the Denver Broncos and Green Bay Packers, Jones correctly predicted the Broncos, 11 1/2 point underdogs, would win the game and Terrell Davis would be named MVP of the game.
Business.
Jones worked for many companies, including the Miller Brewing Company, Haggar Clothing, Pacific Coast Medical Enterprises, and Epson America, and represented the NFL and Champion Products as spokesman for their Throwback campaigns. Jones was also chairman for AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals in their national hypertension awareness program.
Community involvement.
NFL.com reported that Jones made several trips to Iraq to visit the U. S. military.
Jones served as the president and CEO of the Deacon Jones Foundation, an organization he founded in 1997 "to assist young people and the communities in which they live with a comprehensive program that includes education, mentoring, corporate internship, and community service."
Bringing the NFL back to Los Angeles.
Jones was one of the many former L.A. Rams players who disliked the team's controversial relocation to St. Louis in 1995. He was adamant in interviews and appearances that he played for Los Angeles, not St. Louis, and considered the Rams franchise there a different team that should have a different name. He participated in many grassroots efforts to bring NFL football back to L.A. and also voiced support on many new stadium proposals . The Rams eventually returned to Los Angeles in 2016 after Jones had died.
Honors.
He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility in 1980, and was named to the NFL's 75th Anniversary All-Time Team in 1994. In 1999, he was ranked number 13 on "The Sporting News" list of the 100 Greatest Football Players, the highest-ranked player to have played for the Rams franchise, the highest-ranked defensive end, and the second-ranked defensive lineman behind Bob Lilly. The same year, he was named by "Sports Illustrated" as the "Defensive End of the Century". In 2010, he was named to the inaugural class of the Black College Football Hall of Fame.
Personal life.
Jones stated that he gave himself the nickname Deacon after joining the Rams because too many David Joneses were in the local phone book. "Football is a violent world and Deacon has a religious connotation," he told the "Los Angeles Times" in 1980. "I thought a name like that would be remembered."
Deacon Jones's wife Elizabeth is the chief operating and financial officer of the Deacon Jones Foundation, based in Anaheim Hills, California, the community in which the couple lived.
Jones was a rhythm and blues singer during his football days, and was backed by the band Nightshift, which later became the group War. Jones sang onstage with Ray Charles, performed on "The Hollywood Palace" in 1967 and 1968, and on "The Merv Griffin Show" in 1970. Jones was the inspiration for the name of the 1977 song "Deacon Blues" by Steely Dan.
Death.
On June 3, 2013, Jones died at 74 of natural causes after suffering from lung cancer and heart disease at his home in Anaheim Hills, California. Jones's death left Rosey Grier as the last surviving member of the Fearsome Foursome, the L.A. Rams defensive line which is widely considered the best such unit in the history of the NFL. Of the former defensive standout, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said, "Even with his fellow Hall of Famers, Deacon Jones held a special status. He was an icon among the icons." Washington Football Team General Manager Bruce Allen, son of Jones's longtime coach George Allen, called him "one of the greatest players in NFL history. Off the field... a true giant." "Sports Illustrated" columnist Peter King noted at his death that Jones had a profound effect on the way defense was played in the NFL and cited the influence on such later NFL stars as Lawrence Taylor, Deion Sanders, and Michael Strahan. As a tribute to Jones, the NFL created the Deacon Jones Award, which will be given annually to the league leader in sacks.


Clifford Wells

W. R. Clifford "Cliff" Wells (March 17, 1896 – August 15, 1977) was an American basketball coach and administrator. As a high school basketball coach in Indiana he led his teams to winning more than 50 tournaments, including two Indiana state championships in 1919 and 1934. He was the Tulane University head coach from 1945 to 1963. He was the first full-time executive secretary and director of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, serving from 1963 to 1966. He was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in 1965. He was enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame as a contributor in 1972. Wells died on August 15, 1977, of an apparent heart attack, at his home in Garland, Texas.


Ron Finneran

Ronald James Finneran OAM (born 1944) is an Australian Paralympic athlete and sports administrator, from Merimbula, New South Wales.
Skiing career.
Finneran was born in the Sydney suburb of Maroubra. He lost the full use of both his legs and his right arm after contracting polio aged about 20 months. He took up skiing in 1972 after a visit to the Thredbo Ski Resort and trained in the United States and Canada. He was Australia's only participant at the 1976 Winter Paralympics in Örnsköldsvik, Sweden, where he marched in the opening ceremony. However, he did not compete, as there were no events for his disability. He remained in Sweden after the Games until 1978 to study and train. At the 1984 World Championships in Switzerland he came 4th in the downhill.
Sports administration.
In 1978, with Canadian ski instructor Bruce Abel and Australian ski instructor Nick Dean, he formed the Australian Disabled Skiers Federation, now Disabled Wintersport Australia (DWA). He retired as Executive Director of DWA in January 2010 after 31 years in the role. Whilst in the role of Executive Director, he was able transform disabled skiing in Australia particularly in terms of facilities, training programs, talent development and government support. In 1992, Australian Disabled Skiing Federation opened its own ski lodge called Finsko's Lodge, the name of the lodge recognized Finneran's considerable work to its development. He also played a major role in the establishment of the Jindabyne Winter Academy, a program designed to assist elite and talented able bodied and disabled alpine skiers. The result of Finneran's worked culminated in 2001 with the Australian Institute of Sport establishing a Paralympic Alpine Skiing Program in conjunction with the Australian Paralympic Committee.
In 1989, he was a member of a working group that helped to establish the Australian Paralympic Federation in January 1990. He was a Board Member of the Federation from 1990 to 1995. He was also president of the Australian Paralympic Federation in 1993. In 1993, he was Chairman of the Bid Committee for the 2000 Sydney Paralympic Games.
Besides his participation at the 1976 Winter Paralympics, he was Chef de Mission/Team Manager of the Australian teams at the 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992 and 1994 Winter Paralympics.
Other sports administration roles included: Member of the Advisory Committee to the Australian Bicentennial Authority's National Disabled Sports Program (1984 to 1988) and Chairman of the New South Wales Advisory Committee for Athletes with a Disability (1987 to 1992).
After receiving his OAM in 2005, he stated "To have had just a small part in profiling the abilities of people with disabilities, be it in recreational activities to the very elite in Paralympic sport, has been an enormously rewarding experience."


Foolish Pleasure

Foolish Pleasure (March 23, 1972 – November 17, 1994) was an American bay Thoroughbred race horse who won the 1975 Kentucky Derby.
Background.
Foolish Pleasure was a bay horse bred at Williston, Florida by Waldemar Farms, Inc. He was owned by John L. Greer and trained by LeRoy Jolley, who had previously been partners in the colt Ridan. He was sired by What A Pleasure, who won the Hopeful Stakes in 1967 before becoming a successful breeding stallion. His dam, Fool-Me-Not, was descended from the British broodmare Becti (foaled 1929), who was the female-line ancestor of many major winners including Mrs McArdy, Borgia, and Boreal.
Racing career.
Foolish Pleasure was undefeated as a two-year-old. In 1975, at age three, he won the Flamingo Stakes and Wood Memorial Stakes before contesting the Kentucky Derby. Ridden by Jacinto Vásquez, he raced well off the pace on the inside before making a forward move approaching the final turn. He was switched to the outside in the straight and produced a strong late burst to win from Avatar.
Although heavily favored to win, Foolish Pleasure finished second to Master Derby in the Preakness. He then finished runner-up to Avatar in the Belmont Stakes.
In July 1975, a match race was arranged between Foolish Pleasure and the unbeaten filly Ruffian. Vásquez chose to ride Ruffian, with Braulio Baeza taking over on Foolish Pleasure. While on the lead, Ruffian broke down, allowing Foolish Pleasure to win unchallenged.
Foolish Pleasure remained in training as a four-year-old and won the Donn Handicap and Suburban Handicap.
Retirement.
Foolish Pleasure was placed at Greentree Stud after being syndicated for $4.5 million USD. He later spent time at Mint Lane Farm and Spendthrift Farm in Kentucky before being moved out to Kerr Stock Farm in California. He was purchased by Ron Vanderhoef in September 1993 and moved to Horseshoe Ranch in Dayton, Wyoming, where he remained until he died from a gastric rupture on November 17, 1994.
Foolish Pleasure was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1995. In the Blood-Horse magazine ranking of the top 100 U.S. thoroughbred champions of the 20th Century, he was ranked #97.


Bong Coo

Bong Coo (born June 3, 1948) is a 4-time World Champion Filipino bowler. She is the most decorated Filipino athlete, regardless of gender, in any sport per Philippine Republic Act 9064 also known as "Athletes Incentives Act of 2001". As a member of the Philippine national team, she has amassed a total of 78 medals won in regional and world competitions, 37 of which were gold medals. She is also the first Filipino athlete to make it to the Guinness Book of World Records. She has won a total of 137 championship titles with at least one Masters title for 28 consecutive years.
Bong Coo is also 5-time Asian Games Gold Medalist and a 14-time Asian Championships Gold Medalist.
She became one of the first ever inductees when the International Bowling Hall of Fame was inaugurated in 1993. The other inductees were compatriot Paeng Nepomuceno and Sweden's Annete Hagre. The International Bowling Hall of Fame and Museum is located in Arlington, Texas.
She was named one of the "Greatest International Bowlers of All-Time" by the prestigious Bowlers Journal International in its November 2013 100-year anniversary issue and "Top 24 International Bowlers of All-Time" by the Bowlers Journal International edition in September 2004
She was inducted to the Philippine Sports Hall of Fame with fellow bowlers Paeng Nepomuceno and Lita Dela Rosa on November 22, 2018.
She was honored by the Philippine Sports Association (PSA) a Lifetime Achievement award on February 26, 2019,
 where she was a four time Athlete of the Year awardee, among its Athletes of the Millennium and a member of its Hall of Fame.
During opening ceremonies of 30th edition of South East Asian Games held in Manila in 2019, she was honored as one of the "Greatest of All Time" athlete flag bearers of the South East Asian Games Federation flag, with legendary sprinter Lydia de Vega, Swimmers Akiko Thompson and Eric Buhain, Basketball star Alvin Patrimonio,
fellow champion bowler Paeng Nepomuceno, billiards great Efren "Bata"Reyes and Olympic silver medalist Onyok Velasco.
At present, she is the Chairman of the Women in Sports Commission of the Philippine Olympic Committee (NOC of IOC) since February 2021.
Career.
Asian Games.
The quadrennial Asian Games is the most prestigious and important Games next to the Olympic Games among Government of Asian countries.
Bong Coo owns the most number of Asian Games gold medals among all Filipino and Asian bowling Athletes, winning five gold medals in consecutive participations in 1979 and 1986, minus New Delhi in 1983 where bowling was excluded. In addition to her five gold medals, she won two silver and one bronze medals.
Bong Coo achieved what experts believe to be a historic record by winning all the individual events at the 1978 Asian Games in Bangkok Thailand, she won the Singles, topped the All-Events, and won the Masters..
After three decades, her total five gold medal record haul was equaled by Lee Na-young when she was part of the Korean 6-women Team Gold medal winner at Palembang, Jakarta in 2018. Lee Na--young won the Gold medals in Doubles, Trios, Masters and All Events at the 2014 Games.
All Events Champion.
All Events is the combined scores in 4 events: Singles, Doubles, Trios and 5-Team Event. Events are held over consecutive days and played in varying lane conditions and pace totaling 24 games, and the winners are determined by the combined performance in all. This category is regarded as the most prestigious medal in world bowling "(see WTBA World Tenpin Bowling Championships)". The international federation member of the International Olympic Committee, International Bowling Federation (IBF; known as the Fédération Internationale des Quilleurs (FIQ) between 1952 and April 2014) and World Bowling (WB) between 2014 and November 2020, recently changed the name of this medal event to "Most Valuable Athlete" MVA.
Bong Coo is the only bowling athlete who has won the All Events titles in bowling's quadrennial and biennial competitions such as the regional games, Zone championships and World Championships. She owned the All Events records on those tournaments at one time in 1986, consequently, she was named World Bowling Writers Female "World Bowler of the Year" that year.
Major All Events Titles and records
Other major individual and masters titles.
Bong Coo also won the QubicaAMF Bowling World Cup (1979), quadrennial Asian Games Singles and Masters (1978), the biennial Asian Championships Masters (twice, 20 years apart 1972 and 1992), the biennial FIQ Zone Championships Singles (twice 1978 and 1984) and the biennial South East Asian Games Masters (1981).
Other World Championships Medals.
Bong Coo and Lita dela Rosa won the Doubles Gold and Trios Silver medal with Nellie Castillo at 1979 World Championships in Manila. Bong and Lita repeated the Silver medal with Arianne Cerdeña in the 1983 World Championships in Caracas, Venezuela.
Asian Championships.
Until 2020, international bowling is divided into three geographical Zones. America, European and Asia which includes Australia and the Western Pacific. International bowling now has five different geographical zones, adding Africa and Oceana where Australia and New Zealand now belongs.
Bong Coo won the most gold medals in the biennial Fédération Internationale des Quilleurs (FIQ) Zone Championships now known as the Asian Bowling Championships, with 14 gold medals in 12 consecutive tournament participation. Her Zone Masters titles were acknowledged by the World Bowling Writers Hall of Fame Committee equivalent to world medals. To this day she still holds the most gold medals won in the FIQ Zone Championships in one celebration with 5 gold medals in 6 events.
Southeast Asian Games.
The Southeast Asian Games (also known as the SEA Games), is a biennial multi-sport event involving participants from the current 11 countries of Southeast Asia. It is supervised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Olympic Council of Asia..
The Philippines hosted the Southeast Asian Games for the first time in 1981. Bong Coo emerged as its most successful Filipino campaigner. She won six medals in six events, four of which were gold medals where she set six individual game records. Bong won the gold in Ladies Doubles with Lita de la Rosa and averaged 221 in Trios en route to an Individual All Events gold medal and became the South East Asian Games Masters champion.
Other Awards.
In 2000, Bong Coo was voted one of the Philippines Athlete of the Millennium and was awarded an Achievement Diploma by the International Olympic Committee president Juan Antonio Samaranch in recognition of her outstanding contribution in promoting the development and participation of women and girls in sports, she was 17-years earlier awarded the Philippine Olympic Medal of Honor. She was also named one of the Ten Outstanding Women for the Nations Service (TOWNS) in 1986. The TOWNS award is conferred every three years by the TOWNS Foundation on Filipino women who have rendered outstanding service to the nation.
Retirement.
Retired from active competition, she teaches Sport Bowling Physical Education under the Department of Human Kinetics at the University of the Philippines Diliman since 2001. Her syllabus was approved by the Philippine Department of Education in 2001.
She briefly participated in seniors competitions where she won two Seniors Master Titles in 2008 at age 60 and in 2012 at 64.
A major bowing ball manufacturer released the MVP-Bong Coo ball in 2001 and in 2003, they are approved by the USBC (United States Bowling Congress) for use in international competitions. In 2003, the Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) bowlers honored her through the Filipino bowlers of UAE in the "Bong Coo MVP Cup"
 participated in by OFW's from Brunei, Malaysia, Guam, California, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong and Singapore. She provides free bowling training to youth bowlers from OFW families.


Langfuhr (horse)

Langfuhr (foaled 1992 in Ontario) is a Canadian Hall of Fame Thoroughbred racehorse.
Background.
Owned and bred by noted German-born Canadian horseman Gus Schickedanz, he was named for Langfuhr the former German name for one of the boroughs of the Northern Polish city of Danzig. Langfuhr's sire Danzig was named after that city.
Racing career.
Langfuhr raced in Canada and the United States where he won three Grade 1 races. However, he is better known as the sire of a number of accomplished racehorses.
In 1996, Langfuhr's wins included the American Grade II Forego Handicap at Saratoga Race Course and the Grade I Vosburgh Stakes at Belmont Park. His performances that year earned him Canadian Champion Sprint Horse honors.
After winning the 1997 Carter Handicap at Aqueduct Racetrack in April and May's Metropolitan Handicap at Belmont Park, an injury ended Langfuhr's racing career and he was retired to stud.
Stud career.
Retired to stud duty at Lane's End Farm in Versailles, Kentucky, Langfuhr was the 2005 leading sire in North America by number of winners and as of September 8, 2007 has sired 49 stakes winners including:


Gino Fracas

Gino Fracas (April 28, 1930 – October 29, 2009) was a professional Canadian football player and hall of fame CIS football coach. He was professor of Human Kinetics at the University of Windsor from 1967 to 1995.
Early years.
Fracas was born in Windsor, Ontario, on April 28, 1930, and attended Assumption College Catholic High School, where he was named to the All-City football team in 1947 and 1949 and to the all-Ontario team in 1948 as a halfback. He won consecutive provincial championships with his high school team and another championship with the 1950 Assumption College Junior Ontario Rugby Football Union team. He also played first base in baseball for the Windsor Sterlings in the Detroit Federation League and, in 1951, played semi-professional for the Frood Tigers in Northern Ontario.
Fracas was a running back and linebacker at the University of Western Ontario and played on the Mustangs Yates Cup championships teams in 1952 and 1953.
Professional career.
Fracas was drafted first overall by the Ottawa Rough Riders in 1954, but played his CFL career with the Edmonton Eskimos from 1955 to 1962 and was team captain. He won two Grey Cups in 1955 and 1956 with the Eskimos.
Coaching career.
After his playing career, Fracas became a university football coach. He coached the Alberta Golden Bears from 1963 to 1967 and lead them to National and Conference Championships in his final year. From 1968 to 1986 he coached the Windsor Lancers. He founded the football program in Windsor and lead the Lancers to CCIFC championship in 1969 and OUAA Championship in 1975.
Honours and awards.
University of Windsor's Coach of the Year Award and CIS Football Volunteer Coach of the Year were named in his honour. In 2011 he was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame.
Death.
Fracas died in 2009 at age 79 in London, Ontario and is survived by his wife Leona.


Danny Bass

Danny Bass (born March 31, 1958) is a former linebacker for the Toronto Argonauts in 1980, Calgary Stampeders from 1981–1983 and the Edmonton Eskimos from 1984-1991 of the Canadian Football League. He won a Grey Cup for the Eskimos and played in another two for them. Bass was voted one of the CFL's top 50 players (#44) by Canadian sports network TSN.
Bass was the MVP of Michigan State University, his senior season of 1979. He is the all-time leader in career tackles for the Spartans.
Bass was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 2000.


Edwina Kennedy

Edwina Jane Kennedy (née Kirkby born 1959) is a former Australian amateur golfer. During her career, Kennedy was the first Australian to win the British Ladies Amateur upon her victory in 1978. In team events, she was a member of the Australian Espirito Santo Trophy team that won gold in 1978 and silver in 1980. After ending her golf career in 1993, she was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame that year. Additional awards that Kennedy received include the Medal of the Order of Australia in 1985 and the Australian Sports Medal in 2000.
Early life and education.
In 1959, Kennedy was born in Sydney, Australia. During her childhood, Kennedy played at a golf club in Wentworth Falls, New South Wales. For her post-secondary education, Kennedy went to Macquarie University for a degree in economics.
Career.
During the 1970s and 1980s, Kennedy won multiple amateur golf championships throughout Australia. Some of her Australian championship titles during this time period include back to back wins at the Australian Girls' Amateur from 1976 to 1979 and the Australian Women's Amateur in 1986. While competing in golf, Kennedy worked in industrial relations after completing her university degree. In specific parts of Australia, Kennedy first won the Women's New South Wales Amateur Championship in 1979 before adding back to back NSW wins from 1984 to 1986.
Outside of Australia, Kennedy became the first golfer from Australia to win the British Ladies Amateur in 1978. Years later, Kennedy won the 1980 Canadian Women's Amateur. In team events, Kennedy was a member of the Australian golf team that won gold at the 1978 Espirito Santo Trophy and silver at the following Espirito Santo event in 1980. In New Zealand, Kennedy won multiple events in 1985 including the amateur championship. Kennedy ended her golf career in 1993 while working in workers' compensation.
Awards and honors.
Kennedy received the Medal of the Order of Australia in 1985 and the Australian Sports Medal in 2000 for her golf career. For hall of fames, Kennedy was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1993.


Dickie Harris

Dickie Harris (born May 24, 1950 in Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey) is a former all-star defensive back with the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League.
A graduate of the University of South Carolina, Harris started his 10-year career with the Alouettes in 1972, spanning 134 games. He was an 8-time all-star and won the Grey Cup in 1974 and 1977. His 38 interceptions for 631 yards are team records as is his 118-yard interception return. He retired in 1980, but returned to the Montreal Concordes in 1982 for 3 games.
He was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 1999. In November, 2006, Harris was voted one of the CFL's Top 50 players (#33) of the league's modern era by Canadian sports network TSN.


List of members of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame

The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, located in Springfield, Massachusetts, honors players who have shown exceptional skill at basketball, all-time great coaches, referees, and other major contributors to the sport. It is named after Dr. James Naismith, who conceived the sport in 1891; he was inducted into the Hall as a contributor in 1959. To be considered for induction, nominees must meet certain prerequisites. Players must have been retired for at least three years before becoming eligible. Referees must have either been retired for at least three years, or, if they are still active, have officiated for at least 25 years at high-school-level programs or higher. Coaches must have either been retired for at least three years, or, if they are still active, have coached for at least 25 years at high-school-level programs or higher and from 2020 on must have coached for at least 25 years and reached the age of sixty years. Those being considered for induction as contributors may be inducted at any time; the Hall of Fame and its committees evaluate whether contributions are significant enough for the nominee to be inducted as a contributor. Teams are also inducted at the committees' discretion.
Members.
Coaches.
As part of the inaugural class of 1959, three coaches were inducted (Forrest C. "Phog" Allen, Henry Clifford Carlson and Walter E. Meanwell); in total, 100 coaches have been inducted into the Hall of Fame. Ten of the inducted coaches were born outside the United States: Cesare Rubini (Italy, 1994), Alexander Gomelsky (Soviet Union, now Russia, 1995), Antonio Díaz-Miguel (Spain, 1997), Aleksandar "Aca" Nikolić (Yugoslavia, now Serbia, 1998), Geno Auriemma (Italy, 2006), Alessandro "Sandro" Gamba (Italy, 2006), Mirko Novosel (Yugoslavia, now Croatia, 2007), Pedro Ferrándiz (Spain, 2007), Lidia Alexeeva (Soviet Union, now Russia, 2012), and Lindsay Gaze (Australia, 2015). Six of them have won championships in the EuroLeague or its historic predecessor, the FIBA European Champions Cup. Ten of the inducted coaches are women: L. Margaret Wade (1985), Jody Conradt (1998), Pat Head Summitt (2000), Sandra Kay Yow (2002), Sue Gunter (2005), Cathy Rush (2008), C. Vivian Stringer (2009), Tara VanDerveer (2011), Alexeeva (2012), and Sylvia Hatchell (2013). Four coaches have also been inducted as players: John Wooden, Bill Sharman, Lenny Wilkens, and Tom Heinsohn. The most recent coaches to be inducted are Tom Izzo and John McLendon; the latter, inducted as a contributor in 1979, is the first individual to be inducted separately as a coach and contributor.
Most of the inductees have been college head coaches. Thirty-two have led a team to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) men's championship and six have led a team to the NCAA women's championship. Twenty inductees have coached in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Twelve of them have won at least one NBA championship as head coaches; one other, Don Nelson, has five NBA championships as a player. Additionally, Bobby "Slick" Leonard won three titles in the former American Basketball Association. Larry Brown is the only inductee to coach both a college basketball team and a professional basketball team to a title, having coached the Kansas Jayhawks (NCAA) and the Detroit Pistons (NBA) to championships.
Six coaching inductees have received the Hall's John Bunn Award, given annually for significant contributions to the sport—Red Auerbach, Henry Iba, Ray Meyer, Summitt, Wooden, and Morgan Wootten.
Twelve inductees have, either before or after their induction, won an Olympic medal coaching a men's national team to a top-three finish in the Olympic tournament. Eight coached the U.S. national team, while the other four coached foreign national teams. Six inductees—Summitt, Yow, Auriemma, Van Chancellor, VanDerveer, and Alexeeva—have led a women's national team to a top-three finish in the Olympics. Alexeeva led the Soviet Union to two golds, while all the others led the USA to golds (Auriemma after his induction, the others before being inducted).
Six individuals inducted as coaches were associated with teams that have been inducted to the Hall as units. Donald L. "Don" Haskins, inducted in 1997, was the head coach of the 1966 Texas Western basketball team, which was inducted into the Hall in 2007. Chuck Daly, inducted in 1994, was the head coach of the "Dream Team", the USA team at the 1992 Olympics that featured 11 Hall of Fame players and was inducted as a unit in 2010. Wilkens, inducted as a coach in 1998, and Mike Krzyzewski, inducted in 2001, were Daly's assistants in 1992. Dutch Lonborg, inducted in 1973, was team manager for the 1960 U.S. men's Olympic team that was also inducted as a unit in 2010. Cathy Rush, inducted in 2008, was the head coach of the Immaculata College women's team of 1972–1974 that was inducted in 2014.
Contributors.
For a person to be inducted to the Basketball Hall of Fame as a contributor, they must have made "significant contributions to the game of basketball". Of the inaugural Hall of Fame class of 1959, seven individuals were inducted as contributors, including James Naismith, the inventor of basketball. All former NBA commissioners (Maurice Podoloff, J. Walter Kennedy, Larry O'Brien, and David Stern) have been inducted. Fourteen individuals inducted as contributors have won the John Bunn Award, awarded by the Hall annually to a significant contributor: John Bunn (its inaugural recipient), J. Walter Kennedy, Cliff Fagan, Edward Gottlieb, Danny Biasone, Larry O'Brien, Dave Gavitt, C. M. Newton, Tex Winter, Meadowlark Lemon, Tom Jernstedt, Tom "Satch" Sanders, George Raveling, and Rod Thorn. Three inductees in this category are women: Senda Berenson Abbott and Bertha Teague (both inducted in 1985), and the most recent contributor to be inducted, Rebecca Lobo, who entered the Hall in 2017.
The exact number of individuals enshrined as contributors (as well as the number of player inductees) is subject to debate because of the Hall's treatment of 2014 inductee Nathaniel "Sweetwater" Clifton, one of the first African Americans to play in the NBA. While he was initially announced as a contributor, the Hall now classifies him as a player inductee.
Six inductees in this category were associated with teams that have been inducted to the Hall as units. Naismith organized The First Team, the group of players involved in the first-ever basketball game in 1891 and also inducted as part of the inaugural Class of 1959. Robert L. Douglas, inducted in 1972, was the founder and owner of the New York Renaissance, inducted in 1963. Pete Newell, inducted in 1979, was the head coach of the 1960 U.S. Olympic team inducted in 2010. Three were associated with the Harlem Globetrotters, inducted in 2002. Abe Saperstein, inducted in 1971, was the team's founder and owner. Kennedy, although best known for his time as NBA commissioner, had been the Globetrotters' public relations director in the 1950s. Lemon, inducted in 2003, was one of the team's most enduring on-court stars.
Ten individuals inducted in this category were born outside the United States—Naismith and Newell in Canada, Podoloff and Gottlieb in modern-day Ukraine (part of the Russian Empire when they were born in 1890 and 1898 respectively), Douglas in Saint Kitts and Nevis (part of the British West Indies at his birth in 1882), Saperstein in the United Kingdom, Biasone and Renato William Jones in Italy, Ferenc Hepp in modern-day Hungary (Austria-Hungary at his birth in 1909), and Borislav Stanković in what is now Bosnia and Herzegovina (the Kingdom of Yugoslavia at his birth in 1925).
In total, 65 or 66 individuals, depending on how Clifton is classified, have been inducted as contributors.
Players.
As part of the inaugural class of 1959, four players were inducted, including George Mikan, who was the first NBA player to be enshrined. In total, 177 or 178 players, depending on Nathaniel Clifton's classification, have been inducted into the Hall of Fame. Of these, 110 or 111, again depending on Clifton's classification, have played in the NBA. The 1993 class had the most player inductees, with eight. No players were inducted in 1965, 1967, 1968 and 2007. Four players have also been inducted as coaches: John Wooden in 1973, Lenny Wilkens in 1998, Bill Sharman in 2004, and Tom Heinsohn in 2015.
Twenty-two player inductees are women: Lusia Harris-Stewart (1992), Nera D. White (1992), Ann E. Meyers (1993), Uļjana Semjonova (1993), Carol A. Blazejowski (1994), Anne T. Donovan (1994), Cheryl Miller (1995), Nancy I. Lieberman (1996), Joan Crawford (1997), Denise M. Curry (1997), Lynette Woodard (2004), Hortência de Fatima Marcari (2005), Cynthia Cooper-Dyke (2010), Teresa Edwards (2011), Katrina McClain Johnson (2012), Dawn Staley (2013), Lisa Leslie (2015), Sheryl Swoopes (2016), Rebecca Lobo (2017), Katie Smith (2018), Tina Thompson (2018), and Teresa Weatherspoon (2019). Among these, Lieberman, Woodard, Cooper-Dyke, Edwards, Staley, Leslie, Smith, Swoopes and Lobo have played in the Women's National Basketball Association. Harris-Stewart is the only female drafted by an NBA team, while Meyers is the only one to have been signed by an NBA team.
Two player inductees have won the John Bunn Award—Bob Cousy and Wooden.
Twenty player inductees were born outside the United States. Canadian-born Robert J. "Bob" Houbregs (inducted 1987) was drafted by NBA's Milwaukee Hawks in 1953 and played five seasons in the league. Four inductees were born in the former Soviet Union: Sergei A. Belov, Šarūnas Marčiulionis, Arvydas Sabonis, and Uljana Semjonova. Belov, inducted in 1992, was born in modern-day Russia; Sabonis and Marčiulionis, respectively inducted in 2011 and 2014, were born in today's Lithuania. All three won gold medals for the USSR at the Olympic Games. Marčiulionis and Sabonis each added two bronze medals for Lithuania after the restoration of its independence in 1990; Marčiulionis is also credited by the Hall with resurrecting the Lithuania national team after independence. Semjonova, inducted in 1993, was born in what is now Latvia. She won two Olympic golds with the USSR women's team. Krešimir Ćosić, Dražen Petrović, Dražen Dalipagić, Dino Rađa and Vlade Divac (inducted in 1996, 2002, 2004, 2018 and 2019 respectively) represented Yugoslavia internationally during their careers. Petrović and Rađa represented Croatia after the initial breakup of Yugoslavia in 1991. Italian-born Dino Meneghin (inducted 2003) spent his entire career playing in the Italian A League. Three Brazilians have represented their homeland internationally: Hortência de Fatima Marcari (inducted in 2005) for the women's national team, Maciel "Ubiratan" Pereira (inducted in 2010) and Oscar Schmidt (inducted in 2013) for the men's national team. American Dominique Wilkins, inducted in 2006, was born in France during his father's posting in that country as a member of the U.S. Air Force. John Isaacs (inducted in 2015) was born in Panama but raised in Harlem. Mutombo (inducted in 2015) was born in the country now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Yao Ming, inducted in 2016, was born and raised in China. Although born in New Jersey, 2017 inductee Nikos Galis played the whole of his professional career in Greece. 2018 inductee Steve Nash was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, and grew up in Canada.
Referees.
The Referee category has existed since the beginning of the Hall of Fame and the first referee was inducted in 1959. Since then, 16 referees have been inducted, with Darell Garretson being the most recent entrant in 2016. Ernest C. Quigley, born in Canada, is the only inductee in this category born outside of the United States.
Teams.
The Team category has existed since the beginning of the Hall of Fame and the first teams were inducted in 1959. Four teams were enshrined before 1963, but the fifth was not enshrined until 2002. All told, 10 teams have been inducted, with the most recent being the Immaculata College women's team of 1972–1974, inducted in 2014.


Michelle den Dekker

Michelle den Dekker, also known as Michelle Fielke, is an Australian netballer from South Australia. den Dekker represented Australia in 84 tests between 1988 and 1995, including a record 71 as captain. She received the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in 1992.
Netball career.
Life member of the Garville Netball Club from 1989 to 1995 and helping the club clinch five premierships in 1989, 1991, 1992, 1994 and 1995. In the national league, den Dekker was captain-coach of the Queensland Firebirds in 1997-98 before returning home to the now defunct Adelaide Ravens.
den Dekker made her Australian debut in 1985, and led Australian to two world championships as captain (1991 and 1995). Michelle played a total of 84 test matches for Australia between 1985 and 1995, including 71 as captain. As captain her team enjoyed a win loss ratio of 92% (65 wins, 6 losses).
den Dekker was voted as Adelaide's greatest netballer to have fronted for the Adelaide Thunderbirds or Adelaide Ravens. She was inducted into the Australian Netball Hall of Fame in 2009.
Coaching career.
den Dekker OAM was appointed Head Coach of Netball Australia’s new Centre of Excellence in Canberra in April 2014.
den Dekker was the Diamonds Assistant coach for the Australian Netball Diamonds until August 2015 (the 2015 Netball World Cup). Currently still works as a consultant for Netball Australia as a Defence Specialist coach and manages her own Netball consultancy business working to develop our next generation of players and coaches in South Australia