From Kobe to Maradona, a year of staggering losses in sports
FILE - In this Nov. 14, 1993, file photo, Miami Dolphins coach Don Shula is carried on his team's shoulders after his 325th victory, against the Philadelphia Eagles in Philadelphia. Not long after came a seismic jolt, the helicopter crash of Kobe Bryant in the fog-shrouded California hills that reverberated across sports and across continents. Football lost a big piece of its heart: Don Shula, Gale Sayers, Paul Hornung, Bobby Mitchell. The losses, of course, came against a backdrop of a pandemic, its number of fatalities rolled out daily on TV screens. Kurt Thomas in 1978 became the first U.S. male gymnast to win a world title but lost an Olympic shot in 1980 because of the boycott.
Johnny Majors, former Tennessee and Pitt coach, dies at 85
FILE - In this April 14, 2018, file photo, Blue team coach Johnny Majors, a former Pittsburgh NCAA college football coach, is shown before the annual Blue Gold game in Pittsburgh. Majors, the coach of Pittsburghs 1976 national championship team and a former coach and star player at Tennessee, has died. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic, File)KNOXVILLE, Tenn. College Football Hall of Famer Johnny Majors, the coach of Pittsburghs 1976 national championship team and a former coach and star player at Tennessee, died Wednesday. Majors went 33-13-1 in four years there and led Pittsburgh to a 12-0 record and national title in 1976. His father, Shirley Majors, was a longtime football coach at the University of the South in Sewanee.