The MMA world has lost one of its pioneers, as Japanese combat sports lifer Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto died, a month after being diagnosed with cancer. He was 41 years old.

Growing up in North Carolina, there isn’t a whole bunch that precedes college basketball. God (yes, of course). Family (well, depends on the family). But always in that top-three, above friends, work, and health, sits ACC basketball.

Longtime Vikings trainer Fred Zamberletti died Sunday morning, at the age of 86. Zamberletti served in some capacity within the Vikings organization from 1961 to this year, holding down the job of senior consultant and team historian since 2002. Randy Moss, who started his Hall of Fame career with the Vikings and…

Yelena Shushunova, the 1988 Olympic all-around champion, died in St. Petersburg due to complications from pneumonia. She was 49 years old.

Frothing, militaristic football coaching has always relied on the premise that in order to win, players need to be trained and disciplined to the point of breaking down, so that their temperament and habits can be rebuilt in line with the goals and ambitions of the team. It’s a gnarly, brutal way of doing business,…

19-year-old Maryland sophomore Jordan McNair died June 13, two weeks after he was airlifted from an offseason football workout to a local shock trauma center following an on-field collapse. Details of what caused McNair’s collapse and subsequent death were sparse and vague at the time, but a pair of ESPN reports…

In the 1980s, when cable television changed the pro wrestling landscape and push truly came to shove in the industry, only one regional promotion survived in anything close to its original form. That was the Tennessee-based USWA, owned by Jerry Jarrett and his longtime top star, Jerry Lawler. With a history of…

Lauren Geoghegan and Jay Austin wrote that they were trying to see the world by bike. The couple quit their jobs last summer to begin a transcontinental bicycling odyssey of sorts. Their goal was not to break any records, nor even attempt to encircle the entire globe. “We have neither a firm route nor a timetable, a…

Lots of wrestlers cosplayed as commies during the Cold War. Nikolai Volkoff, who died over the weekend, was way closer to the real thing, and took his act far more seriously, than all the rest. He was 70 years old.

Darius Minor, an 18-year-old freshman defensive back on the University of Maine football team, died Tuesday during a preseason workout, per a report on the university’s website:

Masanori “Masa” Saito, known as Mr. Saito to a generation of American wrestling fans, passed away at the age of 76 last weekend following a long struggle with Parkinson’s disease. An Olympic freestyle wrestler in 1964, Saito was a legendarily hard man and among the most universally respected people in the wrestling…

Minnesota Vikings offensive line coach Tony Sparano died suddenly Sunday morning, according to a statement from the Vikings:

Former NHL goalie Ray Emery drowned Sunday morning while swimming at Hamilton Harbour at Lake Ontario, according to multiple reports. Emery reportedly never emerged after diving into the water near a friend’s boat, and a search for a missing swimmer became a recovery operation Sunday afternoon.

Weeks after being crowned the World’s Ugliest Dog, 9-year-old bulldog Zsa Zsa died Tuesday. She was assassinated while delivering a speech at a town hall. No, okay, she passed in her sleep.

Former Kings draftee Tyler Honeycutt, who was found dead by Los Angeles Police Department SWAT officers early Saturday morning after an overnight standoff with police, appears to have died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to multiple reports.

Former UCLA star and Sacramento King Tyler Honeycutt was found dead after a shootout with police late Friday night in Los Angeles, according to multiple reports.

Megan Scraper, Ryker Gamble, and Alexey Lyakh were enjoying an afternoon with friends Tuesday at Shannon Falls, near Squamish, British Columbia, when Scraper slipped and fell into the water. Witnesses who spoke to CBC say that Gamble and Lyakh jumped in to try and save her, but all three were swept over the falls.…

Todd Keeling, a 48-year-old from Minnesota, was found dead inside of a walk-in beer cooler at the Atlanta Braves’ ballpark Tuesday afternoon. The Braves played their game against the Reds as scheduled last night after Keeling’s body was found, and police are still investigating whether or not there was foul play…

Over the course of a few weeks leading up to Big Van Vader’s debut with the promotion, World Championship Wrestling aired videos like this one that showed him making his way to the ring for matches in Japan. Usually, the ads wouldn’t even show him wrestling. They didn’t need to. It was enough to show a 400-plus pound…

Laurence “Dutch” Rennert, a National League umpire from 1974–1992, has passed away at the age of 88. You might not even know his name! You know his strikeout call: