Some sportsmen pass away.......

Obituaries in the news
By The Associated Press – 13 hours ago
John Gordy
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — John Gordy, a former offensive lineman for the Detroit Lions and University of Tennessee who helped form the NFL Players' Association, died Friday. He was 73.
The university said in a statement Saturday that Gordy died in Orange, Calif., after a long battle with cancer.
He was a three-time Pro Bowler with Detroit before a knee injury led to his retirement in 1967.
The Lions picked him in the second round of the 1957 draft, and the rookie starter helped the team win the NFL championship, the last time Detroit claimed the league title.
The Nashville native was named All-Southeastern Conference at Tennessee and was captain of the team. The Volunteers were SEC champions that year and went 10-0 before losing to Baylor in the Sugar Bowl.
Gordy served as president and executive director of the NFL Players' Association and was instrumental in negotiating the first collective bargaining agreement in major professional sports.
In his retirement hometown of San Clemente, Calif., he became active with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
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Ingemar Johansson
STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) — Ingemar Johansson, the Swede who stunned the boxing world by knocking out Floyd Patterson to win the heavyweight title in 1959, died Friday. He was 76.
Johansson died at a nursing home in Kungsbacka on the Swedish west coast, longtime friend Stig Caldeborn said. He said he didn't know the cause of death, but Johansson had recently been hospitalized with pneumonia.
Johansson was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and dementia more than 10 years ago when he lived in Stockholm. He spent the rest of his life in Kungsbacka.
Known as "Ingo" to Swedes, Johansson knocked out Patterson in the third round at Yankee Stadium on June 26, 1959, to win the heavyweight title. He floored the American seven times before referee Ruby Goldstein stopped the fight 2:03 into the round.
Back home, hundreds of thousands of Swedes listened to the live radio broadcast at 3 a.m. as Johansson became only the fifth heavyweight champion born outside the United States.
Patterson avenged the upset loss a year later in the rematch in New York, knocking Johansson out in the fifth round. In March 1961, the Swede floored Patterson twice in Miami before being knocked out in the sixth round of the rubber match.
Johansson had four more fights — all wins, one of them a knockout of England's Dick Richardson for the European title in 1962 — before retiring the following year. He finished his career with a 26-2 record, including 17 knockouts.
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Leon Klenicki
MONROE TOWNSHIP, N.J. (AP) — Rabbi Leon Klenicki, an advocate for improving interfaith relations whose efforts were lauded by Pope Benedict XVI, has died. He was 78.
He died Jan. 25 of cancer at his Monroe Township home, his wife, Myra, said Saturday.
Klenicki wrote or co-wrote numerous books and papers aimed at improving relations between Jews and Catholics, according to the Anti-Defamation League, the organization Klenicki served for more than 30 years.
Myra Cohen Klenicki said her husband was exposed to progressive Catholic thinkers such as Jacques Maritain as a youth, and those experiences shaped his later efforts.
He delivered a paper on behalf of the Jewish community in 1968 at the first Latin American meeting of Jews and Catholics in Colombia during Pope Paul XI's visit, according to the league.
Klenicki became director of the ADL's department of interfaith affairs in 1984 and also was the organization's co-liaison to the Vatican.
In 2007, he was made a Papal Knight of the Order of St. Gregory the Great by Pope Benedict XVI, making him only the second interfaith official to receive the honor, according to the league.
After his retirement in 2001, Klenicki taught at Cambridge University and at Belgium's Leuven Catholic University.
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Eddie Logan
ARCADIA, Calif. (AP) — Eddie Logan, who shined shoes at Santa Anita since the racetrack opened on Christmas Day 1934 and was a former boxer and Negro League baseball player, has died. He was 98.
Logan never recovered after suffering a seizure and stroke on Jan. 3, and died Saturday at his home in nearby Monrovia, according to track spokesman Mike Willman.
A self-described "footman," Logan worked at Santa Anita for nearly 75 years, servicing such Hall of Fame jockeys as Eddie Arcaro, John Longden, Bill Shoemaker, Laffit Pincy Jr. and Chris McCarron.
Logan would often lecture horsemen about the care of their boots and shoes and the perils the stable area presented for leather.
Logan played for the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro League in the 1920s and early '30s. He appeared in Santa Anita's winner's circle to present the trophy for the Eddie Logan Stakes on Dec. 27.
A wreath was laid by Logan's shoeshine stand outside the racing secretary's office Saturday and a winner's circle tribute to him was planned between the day's races.
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Robert L. Stone
BOCA GRANDE, Fla. (AP) — Robert L. Stone, a former top executive at the Hertz corporation who hired O.J. Simpson in the 1970s as a pitchman for the car rental giant, died Wednesday. He was 87.
Stone died of heart failure at his home in Boca Grande, his wife, Sheila Muldowny Stone, said Saturday.
Stone became chairman and chief executive of Hertz in 1972, when the car rental company was a subsidiary of the RCA Corporation. It is now known as Hertz Global Holdings Inc.
It was Stone's decision to hire O.J. Simpson as the spokesman for Hertz in a series of iconic television commercials, his wife said.
Under Stone's leadership at Hertz, the company's revenue increased from $21 million in 1972 to $200 million by 1978.
Stone came to Hertz from NBC, where he had been general manager of the television network and president of the network's radio division. He previously worked as the vice president and general manager of the ABC affiliate in New York City.
Stone left Hertz in 1978 to become the chief operating officer for Columbia Pictures. He retired in 1983, but he continued to serve as a consultant. In 1980, Fortune magazine named him one of the 10 toughest bosses to work for.