My significant sports figure deaths for 2023……

The following sports deaths for 2023 were significant for me.  I will begin this year’s list and will continue it again next year in January 2025 for the 2024 year.  Print in black are my comments.  Print in red are from Athlete and sports figure deaths in 2023 (usatoday.com).

Bobby Hull (January 3, 1939 – January 30, 2023)

Growing up in the 60’s and being a hockey fan of the Oklahoma City Blazers, our local minor league team, one level below the NHL, Hull was one of the greats that I followed, along with Bobby Orr, Gordie Howe and Stan Mikita.  I was not a Blackhawks fan but still loved this hockey great with his tremendous play and and scoring skills. And that Blackhawk jersey was just as cool as it could get. 

The “Golden Jet” was one of the greatest hockey players of all time, though off the ice, a controversial figure who battled legal problems as well as defended racist opinions. His slap shot was the stuff of legend, reportedly hitting speeds up to 118 mph, which wowed fans during his 23-year career in the NHL and WHA. Hull was a 12-time All-Star and two-time Hart Trophy winner, ending his time on the ice with a Hall of Fame career. He passed away on Jan. 30, 2023, at 84.

Conrad Dobler (September 30, 1950 – February 12, 2023)

Dobler was a mean SOB in the NFL.  As a dominate offensive lineman for one of my favorite teams, the St. Louis Football Cardinals, he was considered a “dirty” player but I liked that as football is not for the weak hearted.  He looked the part too.  I would always watch his line play during the many games I viewed the Cardinals play on tv during his time in the League.

Dobler spent 10 seasons in the NFL, including with the Cardinals organization, where he was a three-time Pro Bowl selection. He passed away on Feb. 12, 2023, at the age of 72.

Bud Grant (May 19, 1927 – March 10, 2023)

Pioneer Press: Ben Garvin Former Minnesota Vikings coach Bud Grant, the team’s winningest coach, stands with Vikings players during the national anthem before the team played the Chicago Bears at TCF Bank Stadium in Minneapolis in December 2010.

The Minnesota Vikings of the NFL were always a good team in the 60’s and 70’s and their coach Bud Grant was such a dignified man that was always under composure as the games played out.  With many of my favorite players wearing Viking uniforms, such as the Purple People Eaters, quarterbacks Fran Tarkington and Joe Kapp, it was of my liking of this Hall-0f-Fame head coach.  Never a Super Bowl winner, he still won his fair share of games and with that, I was his fan.

Grant was a Pro Football Hall of Fame coach who led the Minnesota Vikings to four Super Bowls during his run and would roam the sidelines (in the CFL and NFL) for 28 seasons. He passed away on March 10, 2023, at 95.

Willis Reed (June 24, 1942 – March 20, 2023)

As I viewed Reed in game 7 of the NBA Finals of 1969 with my Dad at home in OKC, I was so impressed that a player, with a significant injury, would come in the game and take the championship away from the opponent.  Reed was my favorite Knick, future head coach Phil Jackson, my Dad’s favorite, did not play as of injury, but that was ok for him.  On a further note, Reed got to practice at my university, Oklahoma City U, on the famous hardwoods of  Frederickson Field House on campus.  After a workout, Reed commented that the floor in Frederickson was the most springy playing court he had ever set foot on and said he would have loved to play on that floor in college. 

Reed spent 10 seasons in the NBA, creating a Hall of Fame career that included the 1969-70 title with the Knicks—where he famously played Game 7 with a torn thigh muscle suffered in Game 5. Following his playing career, Reed would move into coaching, first in the college ranks, then NBA, and would eventually progress to a front office exec. The Knicks legend passed away on March 20, 2023. He was 80.

Jim Brown (February 17, 1936 – May 18, 2023)

Growing up, there were three running backs in the NFL that were tops for me.  Lenny Moore of Baltimore, the Colts, Gayle Sayers, Chicago, the Bears, and the greatest of them all, Jim Brown, Cleveland, the Browns.  To this day, I consider Brown the greatest running back in the history of football, with respect to Barry Sanders, who I consider an equal to Mr. Brown.  But given a choice of having either on my team, Jimmy Brown is the one I would choose, yesterday, today, and tomorrow.  He was the best there ever was.  But there was more to him than just football.  He was a first line actor and an even better civil rights advocate.  Jim Brown was a significant human being in the development of me as a man.  I rolled with him in my entire life.  

Brown was one of the most dynamic football players in history—with an impact off the field that was equally just as great, if not more substantial. He played only nine seasons in the NFL, leading the league in rushing in eight of those years. After his abrupt retirement in 1966, he led the NFL in all-time rushing yards and touchdowns (currently 11th all-timer), making a case for arguably the greatest back in the game. His legacy post-retirement would genuinely impact society, a continuance of his activist efforts in the 60s that kept momentum for change into the 2000s. The Hall of Famer passed away on May 18, 2023. Brown was 87.

Dick Butkus (December 9, 1942 – October 5, 2023)

Tulsa, Oklahoma, Skelly Stadium, 1965.  The Dallas Cowboys played the Chicago Bears in a pre-season game and Dick Butkus was a rookie playing in his 2nd game with the Bears.  He was the 3 pick in the 1965 NFL draft and I was in attendance in the newly remodeled stadium that night for its first football game after the seating capacity was increased to almost 41,000.  Butkus was a new favorite of mine and that game was a significant one for me.  My top linebacker all-time for me, Butkus was the real deal.  The best defensive player on the other side of Lawrence Taylor. Butkus had bad knees and in his last years his opponents targeted those legs and just beat him on the legs like a dog.  Butkus was the most violent player in NFL history.

Dick Butkus was one of—if not the—greatest linebackers in NFL history. The third overall pick out of Illinois in 1965, he spent his entire career with the Chicago Bears, racking up accolades that included six All-NFL selections, two Defensive Player of the Year awards, and eight Pro Bowl nods. The 1979 Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee died on Oct. 5, 2023. he was 80.