In memoriam: Saying our final farewells to the sports personalities we lost in 2023

For the first time in a generation, Lions fans have legitimate Super Bowl aspirations.

This hope comes in a year when Detroit lost one of the men most associated with football's grandest game. Jerry Green, the only journalist to cover each of the first 56 Super Bowls, died on March 23. He was 94.

Green, who worked for the Associated Press before going on to a lengthy career with The Detroit News, covered every Super Bowl through Super Bowl LVI, before ending his streak in January 2023.

"To me, a proud honorable streak," Green wrote in his column declaring the end of his streak.

"Hard work. A bit of notoriety, lots of deadlines — and dead ideas."

Green joined The News in 1963 and was the Lions beat writer from 1965-72, before becoming a columnist. Even after his official retirement in 2004, he continued to cover the Super Bowl for The News in a deal both parties agreed to, after he decided to retire from day-to-day work.

Green's byline ran in The News until just weeks before his death.

He believed he was the only writer to cover championships for all of Detroit's four major pro teams: the Lions, Tigers, Red Wings and Pistons.

"Jerry Green was synonymous with the Super Bowl," NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement. "He chronicled the story of our game to millions of fans, helping bring them closer to the action. 

"All of us in the NFL mourn his passing."

Green was one of several local media personalities who died in 2023, including Don Shane, the longtime sportscaster and sports director at WXYZ Channel 7. He died Feb. 24 at age 70. On Aug. 7, Jim Price, a member of the Tigers' 1968 World Series-winning team, who later became a TV and radio broadcaster for the team, died at 81. Price, with catchphrases like "the art of pitching," "keyhole," "yellowhammer" and "buggy-whip," was broadcasting on the radio until just days before his death, including calling the Tigers' no-hitter July 8. And on Dec. 11, Don Swindell, a longtime radio personality on Metro Detroit airwaves who wrote and composed many of the most memorable comedy and musical bits for WDFN 1130-AM "The Fan," died at 70.

Here's a look back at other sports personalities, locally and nationally, we said goodbye to in 2023.

IN MEMORIAM: A look back at the sports personalities we lost in 2023

* * * * *

We lost Price from the 1968 World Series championship team. And we lost members of the 1984 World Series-winning team, as well, including closer Guillermo "Willie" Hernandez, who died Nov. 20 at 69.

Hernandez was considered the "missing piece" for the Tigers, acquired just before the start of the 1984 season, and then going on to win the American League MVP and Cy Young awards.

Hernandez had 32 saves in 1984, finishing 68 games and posting a 1.92 ERA.

“He came over so late in spring training that nobody really knew him,” teammate Dan Petry said in 2019. “He got kind of used to the team and what we were all about, then obviously Cy Young and MVP, so the rest is history.”

Roger Craig, the highly acclaimed pitching coach for the 1984 Tigers who taught the split-finger fastball to some of his pupils, including future Hall-of-Famer Jack Morris, died June 4 at 93. Craig went on to manage the San Diego Padres and San Francisco Giants, the latter who made the 1989 World Series that was interrupted by a huge earthquake.

Other Tigers we lost in 2023: catcher Hobie Landrith (April 6, age 93) and pitcher Dennis Ribant (April 24, age 81), both of whom grew up starring on the sandlots in Detroit. Landrith played at Michigan State. Others included: catcher John Sullivan (June 1, age 82), first baseman Mike Ivie (July 21, age 70), outfielder Jerry Turner (Aug. 20, age 69), outfielder Wayne Comer (Oct. 4, age 79) and pitcher Tom Walker (Oct. 23, age 74). Frank Howard, a slugger who was one of four men to hit a home run over the left-field room at Tiger Stadium, died Oct. 30 at age 87. Larry LeGrande, a catcher in the Negro Leagues, including for the old Detroit Stars, died April 13 at age 83.

Nationally, Baltimore Orioles Hall-of-Fame third baseman Brooks Robinson, who won 16 Gold Gloves, died Sept. 26 at age 86. Catcher Tim McCarver (Feb. 16, age 81) and third baseman Mike Shannon (April 29, age 83) were members of the 1968 St. Louis Cardinals team that lost to the Tigers in the 1968 World Series. We lost pitchers Vida Blue (May 6, age 73) and Tim Wakefield (Oct. 1, age 57), and legendary umpire Don Denkinger (May 12, age 86).

* * * * *

The hockey world mourned the loss of two-time MVP and Hall-of-Fame winger Bobby Hull, who led the Chicago Blackhawks to the Stanley Cup in 1961.

Hull, the father of former Red Wing Brett Hull, three times led the league in points.

Hull, the "Golden Jet," died Jan. 30 at age 84.

“Bobby Hull will always be remembered as one of the greatest Blackhawks players of all time," said team owner Rocky Wirtz, who died July 25 at age 70. "He was a beloved member of the Blackhawks family."

Several former Red Wings died in 2023, including Petr Klima (May 4, 58), Vic Stasiuk (May 7, 93), Lou Marcon (May 30, 88), Bobby Baun (Aug. 14, 86), Henry Boucha (Sept. 18, 72) and Ed Sandford (Oct. 25, 95).

Weldy Olson, who was a four-year star player for Michigan State and went on to win gold and silver medals for Team USA at the Olympics, died May 13 at 90.

George Chin, who led Michigan to back-to-back national championships in the 1950s, died Nov. 28 at 94.

* * * * *

The "Bad Boys" Pistons, who won a pair of NBA championships, lost a beloved member of their coaching staff, when Brendan Malone, Chuck Daly's right-hand man, died Oct. 10. He was 88.

Malone went on to become head coach of the Toronto Raptors and Cleveland Cavaliers.

He was the father of current Denver Nuggets head coach Michael Malone.

Chris Ford, who played for the Pistons from 1972-78 and went on to hit the NBA's first 3-pointer, died Jan. 17 at 74. Lance Blanks, a first-round pick by the Pistons in 1990 who went on to become general manager of the Phoenix Suns from 2010-13, died May 3 at 56.

The Pistons family also lost Phil Sellers (Sept. 19, 69), Terry Dischinger (Oct. 9, 82), Roger Brown (Oct. 18, 73) and Eric Montross (Dec. 17, 52).

Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall-of-Famer George McGinnis, an MVP, died Dec. 14 at 73.

* * * * *

The college basketball world said farewell to one of the best coaches of all time, Bobby Knight, who died Nov. 1 at 83. "The General" won 902 Division I games, mostly at Indiana, with whom he won three national championships.

Knight's life and career, of course, also were marred by controversy, with claims of abuse leading to his firing from Indiana in 2000. In 2020, Knight finally returned to Assembly Hall.

“He changed basketball in this state, the way you compete, the way you win,” Steve Alford, the leader of Knight’s last national championship team in 1987, once said. “It started in Indiana, but he really changed college basketball."

College basketball also lost legendary broadcaster Billy Packer (Jan. 26, 83), who called 34 Final Fours, Hall-of-Fame Louisville coach Denny Crum (May 9, 86).

"Jumpin'" Johnny Green, a Michigan State legend who made four NBA All-Star teams, died Nov. 16 at 89. Demetrius Calip, a Flint native who played on the 1989 Michigan team that won a national championship, died Feb. 5 at 53. Willie McCarter, a former coach at Detroit (now Detroit Mercy), died April 18 at 76.

* * * * *

The Pro Football Hall of Fame suffered some great losses in 2023.

Dick Butkus, a legendary NFL linebacker with the Chicago Bears from 1965 through 1973 who went on to make eight Pro Bowls and later became a broadcaster and actor, died Oct. 5 at 80.

Butkus also was in the College Football Hall of Fame.

Hall-of-Fame running back Jim Brown, a Pro Bowler every year he was in the league (1957-65) who won three MVP awards, died May 18 at 87. Gil Brandt, a Hall-of-Fame executive who ran the Dallas Cowboys for nearly three decades, died Aug. 31. He was 91.

Steve Junker, who caught two touchdown passes in Detroit's 1957 NFL Championship Game victory over the Cleveland Browns, died Dec. 13 at 88. The Lions also lost Don McIlhenny (April 18, 88) and Ed Flanagan (May 10, 79).

Ed Budde, who played his entire career with the Kansas City Chiefs, winning a Super Bowl, after the Highland Park native starred at Michigan State, died Dec. 19 at 83. Michigan State also lost former coach Denny Stolz (May 25, 89), who also coached at Alma. Michigan lost Gene Derricotte, a halfback and return specialist who was one of the first Black athletes at the university, March 31 at 96, and quarterback Ryan Mallett (June 27, 35).

* * * * *

The Metro Detroit golf and bowling communities lost legendary figures in 2023.

Stan Aldridge, a member of the Michigan Golf Hall of Fame who bought and revitalized Indianwood Golf & Country Club in Lake Orion, bringing major championships to the facility, died May 5 at 84. Aldridge also owned Lakewood Shores Resort in Oscoda and founded Canterbury Village in Lake Orion.

He famously almost bought the Red Wings in the early 1980s, but was outbid by Mike Ilitch.

"It's a good thing I didn't get it," Aldridge once said. "I would've made George Steinbrenner look like a weenie."

Tom Strobl, owner of Thunderbowl Lanes in Allen Park who helped launch the World Series of Bowling, died April 20 at 81. Other local personalities we lost in 2023 include: Terry McDermott, Olympic gold-medalist speedskater who appeared on the legendary Beatles appearance on the "Ed Sullivan Show" in 1964, who died May 20 at 82; former Michigan State baseball player Matt Byars (July 18, 27); Oakland University trainer Tom Ford (July 20, 67); Detroit Express soccer star Trevor Francis (July 24, 69); and MSU volleyball coach Ginger Mayson (Sept. 7, 68).

The poker world lost the legendary Doyle Brunson (May 14, 89), who educated generations of future card sharks through his books, while the wrestling world said goodbye to "Superstar" Billy Graham (May 17, 79); "The Iron Shiek" (June 7, 81) and Terry Funk (Aug. 23, 79).

tpaul@detroitnews.com

@tonypaul1984