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: Pancho González

date_of_death: July 3, 1995

age: 67

cause_of_death: Stomach cancer

claim_to_fame: Sports

best_know_for: Often called "The Greatest Tennis Player to Never Win Wimbledon", Pancho González was one of the greatest tennis player in the history of the sport. During his life time he won 111 titles including 15 major singles titles (including two U.S. National Singles Championships in 1948 and 1949) and 13 Professional Grand Slam titles. He also won three Tournament of Champions professional events in 1957, 1958, and 1959. He was ranked world amateur No. 1 in 1948 and in 1949. González was a prominent professional champion in the 1950s and 1960s, winning world professional championship tours between 1954 and 1961 and was the world #1-ranked male tennis player professional between 1952 and 1961. Sadly he died in near poverty, estranged from his family and few friends he had. Yet even today, in any discussion of the "best tennis player of all time," Gonzalez is named among a group that includes Bill Tilden, Ellsworth Vines, Rod Laver, Jack Kramer, Budge, Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe. He was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1968.