George Lawrence Mikan Jr., a star center who led the Minneapolis Lakers to five NBA championships, died on June 1. Cause of death was not released. He was 80.
Born in Joliet, Ill., Mikan attended Joliet Catholic High School and Quigley Preparatory Seminary in Chicago, where he considered entering the priesthood. He failed to make the basketball team at Notre Dame and decided to attend DePaul University instead. There he met Ray Meyer, who was in his first year as DePaul’s coach. Meyer worked with Mikan one-on-one for six weeks, making him shoot left-handed and right-handed, a procedure now known as the “George Mikan drill.”
From 1941 to 1945, Mikan became a three-time All-American. Twice named college player of the year, he scored 1,870 points during his four years at DePaul, led the Blue Demons to a National Invitation Tournament title and inspired the passage of the NCAA’s rule prohibiting goaltending. Mikan played one season with the Chicago American Gears of the NBL, a predecessor of the NBA, before moving to the new Lakers franchise in Minneapolis.
At 6 feet 10 inches and 245 pounds, Mikan was considered a big man physically and metaphorically in the NBA’s early years. Although the polite, bespectacled center was known as the “gentle giant,” he attained superstar status on the court for his sweeping hook shot and defensive prowess. In response to Mikan’s size and skill, the NBA doubled the width of the free-throw lane.
During the NBA’s 1948-49 season, Mikan averaged 28.3 points per game and was named the league’s Most Valuable Player. He averaged 23.1 points per game over the course of his career before retiring from injuries in 1956. Mikan coached the Lakers for part of the 1957-58 season, worked in corporate and real estate law, then served as the first commissioner of the American Basketball Association.
Voted the “Greatest Player in the First Half-Century” by The Associated Press, Mikan was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1959. Four years ago, a 9-foot bronze statue of Mikan making his trademark hook shot was erected at the Target Center in Minneapolis.
Despite all the accolades, Mikan had the unfortunate luck to play professional basketball before multimillion-dollar contracts and lucrative commercial endorsements were the norm. Like other athletes who played in the NBA prior to 1965, Mikan never made more than $35,000 a year and drew only a tiny pension. In later years, he spoke out about this issue in hopes that the league and the players’ association would improve pension benefits for “pre-65ers.”
Mikan suffered from diabetes and kidney failure. His right leg was amputated below the knee in 2000, and he endured a diabetes-related wound in his left leg. To pay his medical bills, he sold off most of his memorabilia. Upon learning the Mikan family was struggling financially, Miami Heat center Shaquille O’Neal agreed to pay for Mikan’s funeral costs.
• Career Statistics From Basketball-Reference.com
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Categotry Archives: Sports
Mitsuru Hanada
Categories: Sports
Mitsuru Hanada, a famed sumo stablemaster who was once known as the “Prince of Sumo” in Japan, died on May 30 of oral cancer. He was 55.
Hanada’s family is one of the sport’s most powerful dynasties. He trained under his eldest brother, Katsuji, a grand champion who fought under the name Wakanohana, and fathered two sumo-wrestling champions, former yokozunas Takanohana and the second Wakanohana.
Hanada entered his brother’s stable and made his professional debut in 1965. He was only 18 when he reached the Makuuchi Division, sumo’s elite rank. An immensely popular fighter, Hanada attained the second-highest rank of ozeki despite weighing 243 pounds. Although he was considered a sumo lightweight, the handsome and stylish Hanada spent 16 years in the ring and fought a record 50 consecutive tournaments as ozeki under the name Takanohana.
Hanada won two Emperor’s Cups before retiring in 1981 with a career record of 726 wins, 490 losses and 58 withdrawals. He spent his later years running the Futagoyama stable and working as the director of the Japan Sumo Association. In 2004, Hanada handed over control of the stable to his eldest son, who changed its name to the Takanohana Stable.
Tunney Hunsaker
Tunney M. Hunsaker, the part-time pugilist who lost to Muhammad Ali in the boxing great’s first professional fight, died on April 25 after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease. He was 75.
Hunsaker was a journeyman heavyweight who also served as Fayetteville, W. Va.’s police chief. He had a reputation for being willing and aggressive — and a record of 15 wins, 7 losses — when he fought 18-year-old Cassius Clay at Louisville, Ky.’s Freedom Hall on Oct. 29, 1960. By the end of the sixth and final round, both of Hunsaker’s eyes were swollen shut, and Ali won the fight on points.
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Feroze Khan
Categories: Sports
Feroze Khan, the oldest Olympic gold medalist and one of Pakistan’s most famous field hockey players, died on April 20. Cause of death was not released. He was 100.
Born in Basti Danishmandan, India, Khan was just a child when he first picked up a tree branch and began playing field hockey. As an inside right and center forward, Khan was known for being fast and clever. He played for Uttar Pradesh, Aligarh University and Bombay Customs, then landed a coveted spot on the pre-independence country’s first Olympic hockey team.
During the 1928 Games in Amsterdam, Khan led India to a 9-0 victory against Belgium by scoring five goals, including a hat-trick. The Indian team made its mark in international hockey by taking home the gold.
“I won the gold medal in Amsterdam because of discipline and commitment. That is what the present day players have to strive for,” Khan once told Reuters.
After having a falling out with Indian selectors in the 1950s, Khan immigrated to Pakistan. He never represented Pakistan as a player, but coached several teams and served as a national selector for the Pakistan Hockey Federation. Last September, the International Olympic Committee honored Khan on his 100th birthday for being the oldest living Olympic gold medal winner.
Istvan Danosi
Categories: Sports
Istvan Danosi, the former fencing coach at Wayne State University in Michigan, died on April 8. Cause of death was not released. He was 93.
A native of Hungary, Danosi fled his country in 1956 when Soviet troops invaded in order to quell a national uprising of anti-communist supporters. He and his wife Margrit and their two children first escaped to Austria, and then immigrated to America. In 1957, Bela de Tuscan, Wayne State’s first fencing coach, invited Danosi to move to Detroit and take over the job upon his retirement.
Known as “The Maestro,” Danosi quickly developed a reputation for creating champions. He became a father figure to his athletes and guided their skills to a new level of excellence. His kind-hearted approach helped turn Wayne State into a collegiate powerhouse in the sport of fencing.
During his 25 years at the school, the fencing master’s teams compiled a 283-59 record and won five National Collegiate Athletic Association Fencing championships. He coached 40 All-Americans and 15 national champions, including his son, Steve F. Danosi.
Danosi was inducted into Wayne State’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 1983 and the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame two years later. A former chairman of the U.S. Academy of Arms (National Fencing Coaches Association) and a member of its accreditation committee, Danosi accredited Muriel Bower from San Fernando State College as the first woman fencing master in the United States. Next season, Wayne State plans to hold a tournament in his honor.