This article is dedicated to the families, friends and survivors of those we’ve lost prematurely.



    At least once a year, a news flash will interrupt television and radio programming to alert the public of the untimely death of a sports celebrity. On February 18, 2001, millions of fans watched Dale Earnhardt’s fatal collision on the final lap of the Daytona 500; he was 49. Earnhardt’s car, emblazoned with the famous number “3,” was tapped by Sterling Martin’s car, causing him to lose control; an earlier collision in the same race triggered a multivehicle wreck involving 21 cars.1 In the prior season, three drivers died on the NASCAR circuit, leading NASCAR to initiate some safety innovations, but they weren’t prioritized until his death.1 At least one reporter was brazen enough to write that Earnhardt’s death was “…not a bad way to go.”2

A Dangerous, Deadly Sport
    Several lesser known major league baseball, national football league and NCAA athletes have died from heat stroke, including the Minnesota Vikings’ pro bowl tackle, Korey Stringer at age 27, yet only moderate changes have been enacted by these organizations.3 Compare the relative silence about heat-related deaths to the furor raised in Congress and by the media over performance-drug testing or ephedra. To their credit, many of the sports, particularly the NFL, have enacted rules and regulations reducing sports injuries— older generations will remember terms such as “chop block” and “clothesline.” The Heisman trophy, designed in 1934, still portrays a figure wearing minimal padding and an open-faced leather helmet; vastly different from the modern pads, braces and guards that have some players resembling “RoboCop.”

    On November 13, 1982, fighters Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini and Duk Koo Kim met in a boxing match outside Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas.4 In the 14th round of the fight, Mancini scored a knockout on Kim, who, moments later, collapsed into a five-day coma, subsequently dying at the age of 23. Mancini reportedly suffered from severe depression following Kim’s death; the referee of the fight committed suicide within a year, as did Kim’s mother. Pronounced reforms spread through the many boxing associations to promote fighter safety. Fights were limited to 12 rounds as opposed to 15, pre-fight physicals became more extensive and the “standing eight-count” was instituted. Still, Kim was not the last boxer to die. In fact, several boxing-related deaths occur every year.5