The Graffe's Celebrity Death Pool

[Grindel]

First Canada has to deal with a 2016 Stanley Cup with no Canadian teams, and now they lose their premier athlete of the 20th century

[Delores Mulva]

No, that would be Wayne Gretzky. But Gordie Howe certainly lived up to his nickname, Mr. Hockey. He was what the game was all about.

Canadian sports network TSN's obit, much longer than the previously linked BBC one and one that tells a lot about who he was: http://www.tsn.ca/gordie-howe-1928-2016-1.504811

And an anecdote that isn't in the TSN article, one that is how I remember him:

“Maybe there were times when I was hyper-aggressive,” he once told the Star. “(But) the only guys I’ve ever done anything to are the ones who tried to embarrass me on the ice.”

Or messed with a family member.

For the 1973-74 season, Howe came out of retirement to sign a four-year contract with the Houston Aeros of the fledgling WHA so he could play with his sons Mark and Marty. He’d retired from Detroit two seasons earlier.

During that first season, one opponent made the foolish decision to hold 18-year-old Mark down on the ice after a skirmish. The unfortunate soul then compounded his mistake by cursing the old man when Gordie told him to let the boy go. The miscreant then took his life in his own hands suggesting that dad let his son fight his own battles.

Gordie had heard enough.

“My dad reached over, put two fingers up the guy’s nose and lifted him off Mark,” Marty once recounted. “His nose stretched about a foot it seemed. I almost got sick watching it.”

[PPatty]

An actual discussion at work just now, while discussing how to play the Gordie Howe news:

Me: "It kills me that no one's reading this Gordie Howe obit."

Colleague: "You thinking of dropping it from the page?"

Me: "Maybe. But he's Gordie Howe! He isn't Muhammad Ali, obviously, but he's on the list of greatest North American athletes of all time. In sports, in general, he's at least as significant and well-known as, say, Carl Lewis."

Colleague: "Carl who?"

Me: "Seriously?"

Colleague: "Yeah, Carl Lewis?"

Me: "He won nine Olympic gold medals. In terms of pure sprinting, he's to the '80s what Jesse Owens was to the '30s."

Colleague: "Yeah, sorry, never heard of him."

[Ninetoes]

An actual discussion at work just now, while discussing how to play the Gordie Howe news:

Me: "It kills me that no one's reading this Gordie Howe obit."

Colleague: "You thinking of dropping it from the page?"

Me: "Maybe. But he's Gordie Howe! He isn't Muhammad Ali, obviously, but he's on the list of greatest North American athletes of all time. In sports, in general, he's at least as significant and well-known as, say, Carl Lewis."

Colleague: "Carl who?"

Me: "Seriously?"

Colleague: "Yeah, Carl Lewis?"

Me: "He won nine Olympic gold medals. In terms of pure sprinting, he's to the '80s what Jesse Owens was to the '30s."

Colleague: "Yeah, sorry, never heard of him."

sutherland.jpg

[Merkus]

Pretty damned sure it'd be perfectly acceptable to bludgeon your colleague. Not to death, maybe just short of bloody.

Sent from my SM-G935P using Tapatalk

[Daxil Solshok]

Pretty damned sure it'd be perfectly acceptable to bludgeon your colleague. Not to death, maybe just short of bloody.

Sent from my SM-G935P using Tapatalk

Sent to you from Ben Johnson's Ragin Canadians.

[Delores Mulva]

Your colleague proved your point: he's as well-known as Carl Lewis, which is to say "not well-known amongst a certain subset of people". Gordie Howe (one-off stunt aside) played his last pro game in 1980, had his last significant NHL season in 1971, was at his peak in the 1950's, played the lesser of the big North American team sports, and didn't do anything splashy after his career was over. I can see anyone who isn't a hockey fan not knowing who he was, or caring about his death. Carl Lewis's last gold medal was what, 20 years ago? It may be more of a statement about the value of Olympic medals than anything else.

[Aennyil]

For some reason, I thought Gordie Howe would live forever. Still the toughest mofo that team sports has ever seen, though.

Tougher than Dick Butkus you think?

[Ninetoes]

Tougher than Dick Butkus you think?

Easily.

[Delores Mulva]

"One lesson he taught me that stuck with me throughout my hockey career was not to take dirt from anyone, because if you do they'll just keep giving it to you," he wrote.

Respect equals space, he soon learned.

Rangers tough guy Lou Fontinato ultimately paid the price for carving open Howe's face with his stick in early 1959. Howe bided his time before thumping him up in a one-sided fight that left his rival bloodied with a relocated nose. Howe dislocated a finger during the beating.

In his first game in Montreal, Richard challenged Howe with a shove, and Howe knocked Richard out cold with one punch.

In the opening game of the 1950 playoffs against Toronto, Howe tried to check Teeder Kennedy, took a stick in the face and crashed into the boards. He suffered a broken nose, fractured cheekbone, badly scraped eyeball and a serious concussion.

His head was shaved and a small hole was drilled through his skull above his right ear to relieve pressure on his brain. Doctors didn't know if he'd live. His mother and sister Gladys flew in from Saskatoon to be at his bedside.

Howe emerged from hospital to attend the Stanley Cup-clinching win over the New York Rangers in the old Olympia. When the crowd began chanting, "We want Howe!" he emerged from the corridor to the dressing room with bandages covering his head and received a rousing ovation.

"Luckily, we were in a big city with a big hospital," he said years later about the skull fracture. "If we were in a small town somewhere, I was gone."

The indestructible Howe won the scoring title the next season.

He never forgot a slight. Montreal defenceman J.C. Tremblay once called him a dummy during a summer card game. A year later, Howe dropped Tremblay with an elbow during a game.

In 1974, during an eight-game WHA-Soviet Union series, the Russians were dumbfounded that Howe could be such a force.

"I mellowed a bit as I got older but when I was playing in the WHA against the Russians and one of them hurt (my son) Mark, I went out and played against the guy who did it," Howe recalled. "When I came out of the corner, he didn't."

During his long career, he suffered two serious head injuries, broke a wrist, toe, fingers, ribs and collarbone. He broke his nose at least 14 times, had a hernia, surgery on both knees and took more than 300 stitches to his face.

Howe didn't miss any games the year he broke the wrist. He just wore a cast and shot left-handed.

"I only had three teeth knocked out in my career and, oddly enough, it was in the first game I played," he was quoted in an autobiography. "After that, someone had to come through lumber to get to my mouth.”

Averaged one penalty minute per game on a career that lasted until he was 52 years old. An all-star for 21 seasons, in a game where the vast majority of players won't even play 21 seasons. As one person I saw interviewed said, he was Popeye on skates.

[Merrick ap'Milandra]

Ok, so try throwing on some dark skin, and growing up in segregated Kentucky without an outlet like boxing. Your life would be difficult. You would not be an iconic figure. I didn't throw those points in because I assumed most people knew them.

Yep. You are most certainly not wrong.

I guess is misunderstood your point.

[Merrick ap'Milandra]

As one person I saw interviewed said, he was Popeye on skates.

That is an AWESOME quote.

[Ackar]

ALF actor Michu Meszaros dead at 76

ALF actor Mihaly “Michu” Meszaros died Monday at the age of 76, EW has confirmed. The news comes one week after Meszaros was reportedly found unconscious in his home and hospitalized in Los Angeles, where he slipped into a coma for several days.

At 2-foot-9, Meszaros was unofficially known as the smallest man on Earth. Peforming with the circus since the age of 14, the Hungarian-born actor first rose to prominence in Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus during the ’70s. He toured throughout the U.S. and Canada putting on shows for the likes of Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. He even befriended his idol, Michael Jackson, along the way.

Meszaros later landed a role as the title character on ’80s NBC sitcom ALF, which ran from 1986 to 1990. He performed in the furry alien suit whenever ALF’s full body was shown. (Paul Fusco is the man behind ALF’s voice.)

Meszaros also picked up gigs in Warlock: Armageddon and Freaked in 1993. His additional credits include episodes of Dear John and H.R. Pufnstuf, as well as films Look Who’s Talking and Big Top Pee-wee.

According to TMZ, Meszaros had suffered from health problems since experiencing a stroke eight years ago.

A GoFundMe page was recently launched to help with medical fees as Meszaros fought for his life, and now stands to pay for funeral costs.

[Delores Mulva]

Mordlu, my condolences on your loss.

[Mordlu]

I actually have to let a few people know...

I think I'll have to have a cold creme sundae in his honor.

[anon]

Ann Guilbert from The Nanny and The Dick Van Dyke Show has passed away.

[Mileron]

Meatloaf may be next
http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/e...show-1.3639880

[Merrick ap'Milandra]

Meatloaf may be next
http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/e...show-1.3639880

"We were sort of watching to see if he was going to walk out the back door or be carried out or whatever, but they covered it up and backed the ambulance right up to the back," said Munroe. "They were protecting his privacy very well."

That is the most beautifully Canadian thing I have heard in months.

[Dawlin]

Meatloaf may be next
http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/e...show-1.3639880

Let's hope it's just exhaustion or somesuch.

[Delores Mulva]

Lead singer of P.M. Dawn, Attrell Cordes, dead at 46 from diabetes and renal kidney disease:

http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/18/entert...ies/index.html