Ted Williams

popular name: Bradley Lord

date_of_death: February 15, 1961

age: 21

cause_of_death: Airplane Crash

claim_to_fame: Sports

best_know_for: Bradley Lord athlete and American figure skater who competed in men's singles. He won the gold medal at the 1961 United States Figure Skating Championships and placed second at the 1961 North American Figure Skating Championships. Lord was en route to the World Championships in 1961 when his plane (Sabena Flight 548) crashed near Brussels, Belgium, killing all 72 people on board and one person on the ground. The fatalities included the entire United States figure skating team, who were travelling to the World Figure Skating Championships in Prague, Czechoslovakia.

popular name: Judy Johnson

date_of_death: June 15, 1989

age: 89

cause_of_death: Stroke

claim_to_fame: Sports

best_know_for: William "Judy" Johnson was an American professional third baseman and manager whose career in Negro league baseball spanned 17 seasons, from 1921 to 1937. Slight of build, Johnson never developed as a power threat but achieved his greatest success as a contact hitter and an intuitive defenseman. As a third baseman, Johnson was often compared with Pie Traynor of the Pittsburgh Pirates, also a Hall of Famer. Johnson hit over .300 seven times in the Negro leagues, with a career high of .416 in 1929, in the days when black players were not permitted to play in the major leagues. Regarded as one of the greatest third basemen of the Negro leagues, in 1975 Johnson was elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame after being nominated by the Negro Leagues Committee. Connie Mack, for 50 years the owner-manager of the Philadelphia Athletics, once said, ''If Judy were only white, he could name his own price.'' Upon his death, he was laid to rest at Silverbrook Cemetery in Wilmington, Delaware.

popular name: Randy Smith

date_of_death: June 4, 2009

age: 60

cause_of_death: Heart attack

claim_to_fame: Sports

best_know_for: Randy Smith was an American professional basketball player who set the NBA record for consecutive games played. From 1972 to 1982, Smith played in every regular season game, en route to a then-record of 906 straight games (since broken by A.C. Green). After college graduation, Smith was chosen by the nearby Buffalo Braves with the 104th pick in the 1971 NBA Draft (in the seventh round). Playing for the Buffalo Braves / San Diego Clippers (1971–1979) Smith surprised everyone in training camp, and he made the final roster cuts. Despite standing only 6-foot-3, he was assigned to play forward. He averaged 13.4 points per game in his rookie season. Smith continued to improve beyond expectation, drawing on his tremendous speed, quickness and leaping ability. His style of play, along with contemporaries like Julius Erving, marked by fast breaks and "above the rim" ball movements influenced the offensive style of the NBA in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Playing alongside league scoring champion Bob McAdoo, Smith averaged 21.8 points per game in the 1975–76 season, and was named to the All-NBA Second Team. Smith continued his successful career with the Cleveland Cavaliers, the New York Knicks, then a return to the San Diego Clippers before retiring after 15 games with the Atlanta Hawks. After retiring as a player, Smith was an NBA league executive whose duties included assisting former players in need, and he was a coach in the Continental Basketball Association before working at Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, where he worked in marketing. Upon his death, he was interred at Forest Lawn East Cemetery in North Carolina.