Remembering those we’ve lost: Notable sports deaths in 2024

Posted December 28, 2024 6:00 am

FILE - Willie Mays smiles prior to a baseball game between the New York Mets and the San Francisco Giants in San Francisco, in this Friday, Aug. 19, 2016, file photo. Willie Mays has won the inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award presented by Baseball Digest. The Hall of Fame center fielder was honored Thursday. April 22, 2021, with a new accolade to be given annually recognizing a living individual who has made 'œsignificant contributions to the national game.' (AP Photo/Ben Margot, File) The Associated Press

Willie Mays. Pete Rose. Fernando Valenzuela. Carl Erskine. And last week, Rickey Henderson.

The sports world lost so many legends in 2024, but it felt like baseball suffered the most notable deaths.

We remember the sports heroes we lost.

January

Franz Beckenbauer, 78. He won the World Cup both as a player and coach and became one of Germany’s most beloved personalities with his easygoing charm.

Jack Burke Jr., 100. He was the oldest living Masters champion and staged the greatest comeback ever at Augusta National for one of his two majors.

February

Lefty Driesell, 92. The Hall of Fame coach whose folksy drawl belied a fiery on-court demeanor that put Maryland on the college basketball map and enabled him to rebuild several struggling programs.

March

Chris Mortensen, 72. The award-winning journalist covered the NFL for close to four decades, including 32 as a senior analyst at ESPN.

Lou Whittaker, 95. A legendary American mountaineer who helped lead ascents of Mount Everest, K2 and Denali, and who taught generations of climbers during his more than 250 trips up Mount Rainier.

April

Carl Erskine, 97. He pitched two no-hitters as a mainstay on the Brooklyn Dodgers and was a 20-game winner in 1953 when he struck out a then-record 14 in the World Series.

Roman Gabriel, 83. The first Filipino-American quarterback in the NFL and the league MVP in 1969.

O.J. Simpson, 76. The decorated football superstar and Hollywood actor who was acquitted of charges he killed his former wife and her friend but later found liable in a separate civil trial.

May

Bill Walton, 71. He starred for John Wooden’s UCLA Bruins before becoming a Hall of Fame center for his NBA career and one of the biggest stars in basketball broadcasting.

June

FILE - Former NBA basketball player and general manager Jerry West smiles before President Donald Trump presents him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, in the Oval Office of the White House, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2019, in Washington. Jerry West, who was selected to the Basketball Hall of Fame three times in a legendary career as a player and executive and whose silhouette is considered to be the basis of the NBA logo, died Wednesday morning, June 12, 2024, the Los Angeles Clippers announced. He was 86.(AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File) AP

Jerry West, 86. Selected to the Basketball Hall of Fame three times in a storied career as a player and executive, his silhouette is considered to be the basis of the NBA logo.

Willie Mays, 93. The electrifying “Say Hey Kid” whose singular combination of talent, drive and exuberance made him one of baseball’s greatest and most beloved players.

Pål Enger, 57. A talented Norwegian soccer player turned celebrity art thief who pulled off the sensational 1994 heist of Edvard Munch’s famed “The Scream” painting from the National Gallery in Oslo.

July

Jacoby Jones, 40. A former NFL receiver whose 108-yard kickoff return in 2013 remains the longest touchdown in Super Bowl history.

August

Juan “Chi Chi” Rodriguez, 88. A Hall of Fame golfer whose antics on the greens and inspiring life story made him among the sport’s most popular players during a long professional career.

Al Attles, 87. A Hall of Famer who coached the 1975 NBA champion Warriors and spent more than six decades with the organization as a player, general manager and most recently team ambassador.

Johnny Gaudreau, 31. An NHL player known as “Johnny Hockey,” he played 10 full seasons in the league.

September

Joe Schmidt, 92. The Hall of Fame linebacker who helped the Detroit Lions win NFL championships in 1953 and 1957 and later coached the team.

FILE - In this June 24, 2016, file photo, former Cincinnati Red Pete Rose waves to the crowd as he is introduced on the field during a ceremony to honor the 1976 World Series champions team, before the Reds' baseball game against the San Diego Padres in Cincinnati. Rose says cheating on the field is bad for the game, and the one thing he never did with his bets is change the outcome of a game. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File) The Associated Press

Pete Rose, 83. Baseball’s career hits leader and fallen idol who undermined his historic achievements and Hall of Fame dreams by gambling on the game he loved and once embodied.

Dikembe Mutombo, 58. A Basketball Hall of Famer who was one of the best defensive players in NBA history and a longtime global ambassador for the game.

October

FILE - Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Fernando Valenzuela pitches against a San Francisco Giants batter during the first inning at Candlestick Park, Oct. 3, 1982, in San Francisco. Fernando Valenzuela, the Mexican-born phenom for the Los Angeles Dodgers who inspired “Fernandomania” while winning the NL Cy Young Award and Rookie of the Year in 1981, has died Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024. (AP Photo, File) AP

Fernando Valenzuela, 63. The Mexican-born phenom for the Los Angeles Dodgers who inspired “Fernandomania” while winning the NL Cy Young Award and Rookie of the Year in 1981.

November

Bobby Allison, 86. He was founder of racing’s “Alabama Gang” and a NASCAR Hall of Famer.

FILE - USA's Kerri Strug is carried by her coach, Bela Karolyi, as she waves to the crowd on her way to receiving her gold medal for the women's team gymnastics competition, at the Centennial Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, July 23, 1996. Strug had two torn ligaments and a sprained ankle from the vault competition. (AP Photo/Susan Ragan, File) AP

Bela Karolyi, 82. The charismatic, if polarizing, gymnastics coach turned young women into champions and the United States into an international power in the sport.

Mary McGee, 87. A female racing pioneer and subject profiled in the Oscar-contending documentary “Motorcycle Mary.”

Lou Carnesecca, 99. The excitable St. John’s coach whose outlandish sweaters became an emblem of his team’s rousing Final Four run in 1985 and who was a treasured figure in New York sports.

December

Fred Lorenzen, 89. A NASCAR Hall of Famer and the 1965 Daytona 500 champion.

Rickey Henderson, 65. Baseball’s all-time stolen base leader and maybe the best leadoff man ever. Born in Chicago.

FILE - Oakland Athletics' Rickey Henderson steals second base against the Minnesota Twins in the first inning of a baseball game at Oakland Coliseum in Oakland, Calif., April 10, 1991. (AP Photo/Alan Greth, File) AP

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