Celebrity Death Thread

[Tony G]

Former Bucs DE Lee Roy Selmon dies

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By Pat Yasinskas
ESPN.com
Archive
TAMPA, Fla. -- Lee Roy Selmon, the first player ever drafted by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, died Sunday, according to a statement from his family that was released by St. Joseph's Hospital.
[+] EnlargeAP PhotoLee Roy Selmon, a six-time Pro Bowler, was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1995.


Selmon was 56.
"It is with very heavy hearts that the Selmon family announces the passing of our beloved husband, father and brother, Lee Roy Selmon," the statement said. "Lee Roy passed away today surrounded by family and friends at St. Joseph's Hospital.
"For all his accomplishments on and off the field, to us Lee Roy was the rock of our family. This has been a sudden and shocking event and we are devastated by this unexpected loss. We deeply appreciate the prayers and support shown by family, friends, the football community and the public over the past two days."
Selmon was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1995. He was drafted by the expansion Buccaneers with the top overall pick in 1976. He was the NFL's Defensive Player of the Year in 1979. He later served as athletic director at the University of South Florida.
The Glazer family, which owns the Buccaneers, called Selmon a "giant."
"This is an incredibly somber day for Buccaneer fans, Sooner fans, and all football fans," the Glazers said in a statement. "Lee Roy's standing as the first Buc in the Hall of Fame surely distinguished him, but his stature off the field as the consummate gentleman put him in another stratosphere. Put simply, he was first class. He was the real deal. We are so blessed to have known this fine man and to have called him one of our own, yet so sad to have lost him so soon."
The Selmon family's statement said funeral arrangements will be announced at a later time.

[DanO]

RIP Lee Roy.

GO LIONS "11" !

[ghandi]

Sheesh alot of former (and current) pro athletes are sure dying young......

[Chuck Cunningham]

The guys in their 40's and above know this guy was GREAT! He and Lawrence Taylor were number 1 and 2 in my lifetime as far as dominant definsive players go. He was the absolute KEY to the BUCS 2 division titles in 1979 and 1981.

[Tony G]

It's the Red Wings turn....

Russian agency confirms crash deaths of ex-Wings McCrimmon, Salei

Ted Kulfan/ The Detroit News

Detroit ? There was a sense of shock and grief around Joe Louis Arena on Wednesday morning after news of a Russian jet carrying the Lokomotiv hockey team crashed near Yaroslavl, killing a reported 43 people.
Former Red Wings assistant coach and defenseman Brad McCrimmon, and defenseman Ruslan Salei ? both of whom were with the Wings last season ? were among those killed, the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry confirmed.
Former Wings goalie prospect Stefan Liv, who was drafted by the Wings in 2000, also died. McCrimmon was 52, Salei was 36 and Liv was 30.
McCrimmon took over as Lokomotiv's head coach in June. Salei signed with the team later in the summer.
Wings coach Mike Babcock and his wife went to McCrimmon's house in Northville on Wednesday ? McCrimmon's wife Maureen, daughter Carlin and son Liam still live in Northville ? but nobody was home.
Babcock and Wings captain Nicklas Lidstrom spoke with reporters Wednesday at Joe Louis Arena.
"Obviously it's a tough day around here," Babcock said. "Our prayers and thoughts go out to the family. We know his kids real well. He's a good man and he's been a big part of the organization here.
"We're just hoping to get good news."
The Russian Emergency Situations Ministry said a Yak-42 plane crashed immediately after leaving an airport near the city of Yaroslavl, on the Volga River about 150 miles northeast of Moscow. The plane was carrying 45 people, including 37 passengers and eight crew members, and the ministry said all but two people were killed in the crash.
Team officials said Russian player Alexander Galimov survived the crash along with a crew member.
The weather was sunny and clear at the time.
The team was heading to Minsk, the capital of Belarus, where it was to play Thursday against Dinamo Minsk in the opening game of the season of the Kontinental Hockey League. The league is made up of several ex-Soviet nations.
McCrimmon spent three seasons of an 18-year career in the NHL with the Wings and was Lidstrom's first defensive partner and roommate.
"I got to know him real well," Lidstrom said. "He helped me out a lot my first year in the league. He brought a lot of experience and helped the younger players (last season).
"The team is feeling pretty down right now. It's pretty quiet in there (the locker room)."
Lidstrom said Pavel Datsyuk told the team of the crash at about 9:30 a.m. ? about 30 minutes before the Wings were to go on the ice for a conditioning skate at Joe Louis Arena.
The Wings begin training camp next week.
"We're getting ready for training camp and that's on our minds," Lidstrom said. "But it's hard when something like this happens."
Salei spent last season with the Wings but was not re-signed over the summer.
Salei spent a portion of last season shuttling between Detroit and southern California to be with his pregnant wife. The couple's third child was born last spring.
"Rusty is a great guy, a family guy," said Babcock, who also coached Salei when both were with the Anaheim Ducks. "He was a big part of our team, and in Anaheim, when we had good years out there. He's a great family guy."
The plane crash would rank as one of the worst ever involving a sports team.
"We're flying almost every other day, all of the time," Lidstrom said. "You try not to think about it. You drive your car to the rink every day and something like that could happen."
The Emergency Ministry said Czech players Josef Vasicek, Karel Rachunek and Jan Marek, Latvian defenseman Karlis Skrastins and Slovakian national team captain Pavol Demitra, who played in the NHL for St. Louis and Vancouver, are also among those killed.
Swarms of police and rescue crews rushed to Tunoshna, a picturesque village with a blue-domed church on the banks of the Volga River. One of the plane's engines could be seen poking out of the river and a flotilla of boats combed the water for bodies. Russian rescue workers struggled to heft the bodies of large, strong athletes in stretchers up the muddy, steep riverbank.
One resident, Irina Pryakhova, saw the plane going down, then heard a loud bang and saw a plume of smoke.
"It was wobbling in flight, it was clear that something was wrong," she said. "I saw them pulling bodies to the shore, some still in their seats with seatbelts on."
President Dmitry Medvedev has announced plans to take aging Soviet-built planes out of service starting next year. The short- and medium-range Yak-42 has been in service since 1980 and dozens are still in service with Russian and other airlines.
In June, another Russian passenger jet crashed in the northwestern city of Petrozavodsk, killing 47 people. The crash of that Tu-134 plane has been blamed on pilot error.
In past plane crashes involving sports teams, 75 Marshall University football players, coaches, fans and airplane crew died in Huntington, W.Va., on Nov. 14, 1970, on the way home from a game. Thirty-six of the dead were players.
Detroit News wire services contributed to this report.

From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20110907/...#ixzz1XIQnj0jp

[Panoptes]

Dang!

RIP to former Duck R. SALEI and all the others that perished.

[Tony G]

Pavel Demitra was another shocker

[kayrone]

How tragic. :(

[Chuck Cunningham]

Looks like nobody posted that Academy Award winner Cliff Robertson died. Charly and Star 80 (he played Hugh Hefner) are excellent movies. He also played a villain on Batman (Shame) http://articles.latimes.com/2011/sep...rtson-20110911

[The Cat]

Thanks for postng that Chuck. I felt he had a lot more talent than he ws given credit for.

[Chuck Cunningham]

He did win a best actor Oscar, can't ask for much more recognition in the film industry than that! As I said good movie (charly) too.

[WingsFan]

RIP

I liked Star 80 a lot, Charley was a weird movie (but a good one also)

[adamiak]

Hi there, Speaking of death prediction, I find it really odd that one of the on-line death prediction services showed me the same death date that I was foretold in my dream about a year ago. http://yourdeathdate.info/1/index.html - I can?t explain this coincidence in any other way except that there must be some kind of magic involved here.

[Islair]

I was foolish enough to click the link, but adam....were you foolish enough to pay for this service?

[WingsFan]

He believes in magic, nuff said.