Nate Thurmond

popular name: Curt Gowdy

date_of_death: February 20, 2006

age: 86

cause_of_death: Leukemia

claim_to_fame: Sports

best_know_for: In the history of sports broadcasting, few figures have had the power to legitimize an event simply by attending it. For 40 years, Curt Gowdy was that figure. Over the course of a career that spanned five decades and all three broadcast networks, the “Cowboy at the Mic” called hundreds of football, basketball, baseball, Olympic, and outdoorsman events on his way to becoming one of the most heralded sportscasters of all time.

popular name: Bill Monbouquette

date_of_death: January 25, 2015

age: 78

cause_of_death: Acute myelogenous leukemia

claim_to_fame: Sports

best_know_for: Bill Monbouquette was an American professional baseball player and coach. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a right-handed pitcher and was a four-time All-Star player. Monbouquette was a stalwart right-handed pitcher for the Boston Red Sox during one of the leaner periods in the history of the franchise. Born and raised in the Boston area, he played eight of his 11 major league seasons with the Red Sox, from 1958 to 1965, and for much of that time he was the best pitcher on a bad team. During his time with them, the Sox never finished higher than third in the American League. Monbouquette was notable for pitching a no-hitter in 1962 as a member of the Red Sox, and was inducted into the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame in 2000.

popular name: Joe DiMaggio

date_of_death: March 8, 1999

age: 84

cause_of_death: Lung cancer

claim_to_fame: Sports

best_know_for: Joe DiMaggio was an professional baseball center fielder who played his entire 13-year career in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Yankees. Born to Italian immigrants in California, he is considered to be one of the greatest baseball players of all time and set the record for the longest hitting streak (56 games from May 15 – July 16, 1941). DiMaggio was a three-time American League (AL) Most Valuable Player Award winner and an All-Star in each of his 13 seasons. During his tenure with the Yankees, the club won ten American League pennants and nine World Series championships. His nine career World Series rings put him second only to his fellow Yankee Yogi Berra, who won 10. At the time of his retirement after the 1951 season, he ranked fifth in career home runs (361) and sixth in career slugging percentage (.579). He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1955 and was voted the sport's greatest living player in a poll taken during baseball's centennial year of 1969.[2] His brothers Vince (1912–1986) and Dom (1917–2009) also were major league center fielders. DiMaggio is also widely known for his marriage and lifelong devotion to Marilyn Monroe.