The 1950s: Sports: Deaths

THE 1950s: SPORTS: DEATHS

Grover Cleveland Alexander, 63, Major League Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher, won thirty games for three straight years, 4 November 1950.

Max Baer, 50, won heavyweight championship of the world in 1934 from Primo Camera, 21 November 1959.

Bert Bell, 65, commissioner of NFL from 1946 to 1959, largely responsible for reshaping professional football to the medium of television, 11 October 1959.

Edward Trowbridge Collins, 63, Major League Baseball Hall of Fame second baseman, lifetime batting average of .333, coach, manager, general manager, vice-president of the Boston Red Sox, 25 March 1951.

Hugh Duffy, 87, won first-ever Major League Baseball Triple Crown (.438 batting average, eighteen home runs), his .438 batting average is the highest in baseball history, 19 October 1954.

Clark Calvin Griffith, 85, Major League Baseball player, union leader, general manager and owner of the Washington Senators (1921-1955), largely responsible for the formation of the American League, 27 October 1955.

James Jeffries, 77, heavyweight champion of the world (1899-1905), only loss to Jack Johnson, 3 March 1953.

Napoleon Lajoie, 83, Major League Baseball Hall of Famer (1937), player-manager for Cleveland Indians, considered the greatest fielding second baseman, 7 February 1959.

Connie Mack, 93, managed the Philadelphia Athletics (1901-1950), played Major League Baseball for ten years, inducted into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame, considered one of the greatest tacticians, 8 February 1956.

Mel Ott, 49, Baseball Hall of Fame home-run hitter (511), played twenty-two seasons for the New York Giants, 21 November 1958.

Tris Speaker, 70, one of the best center fielders in baseball history, Hall of Famer with a lifetime .344 batting average, 8 December 1958.

Jim Thorpe, 64, native American, considered by many to be the greatest all-around athlete, gained fame in college football, won pentathlon and decathlon in 1912 Stockholm Olympics, played Major League Baseball, played in National Football League, 28 March 1953.

Bill Tilden, 60, considered the greatest male tennis player of the first half of the century, won U.S. National seven times, one of the first great tennis professionals, 5 June 1953.

Bill Vukovich, 36, the winner of 1953 and 1954 Indianapolis 500, died in an accident in the Memorial Day race, 30 May 1955.

Honus Wagner, 80, a member of the first group of inductees to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1936, 6 December 1955.

Glen ("Pop") Warner, 83, legendary football coach responsible for many innovations that influenced the development of the modern game, lent his name to the largest youth-football league in America, 7 September 1954.

Denton True ("Cy") Young, 88, considered baseball's greatest pitcher, established record for victories (511), baseball's yearly award for the finest performance by a pitcher is named for him, 4 November 1955.

Mildred ("Babe") Didrickson Zaharias, 42, considered the greatest female athlete of all time, won two gold medals (80-meter hurdles, javelin) at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics, All-American basketball star, and cofounder and player in the LPGA, 27 September 1956.