10. Munich Massacre- Tuesday 5th- Wednesday 6th September 1972
The dawn of Tuesday 5th September 1972, began with an 8-man Black September raid and hostage taking of the Israeli Olympic team in Munich, Bavaria in southern Western Germany.
The incident shocked the world of sports to the core. In a poorly-mediated and managed negotiation process, the German police officers attempted a futile rescue mission which led to the brutal murder of all 11 Israeli athletes and coaches, alongside a German police man. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) miscalculated the gravity of the situation which ultimately forced the Black September, a Palestinian terrorist organization to summarily murder the Israeli athlete hostages on a NATO airbase situated at Fürstenfeldbruck tarmac in a gunfire-grenade brief military-style engagement. The Israeli PM, Golda Meir hatched a secret plan with MOSSAD to go after whoever had anything to do with the Munich killings; the result was Operation Wrath Of God and Spring of Youth where top Palestinian terrorist sleeper cells were targeted and their leaders taken out.
9. The Hillsborough Disaster- Saturday 15th April 1989
96 Liverpool FC fans died in a stampede that left some other 766 fatal injured in the deadliest stadium disaster in British history. It also remains one of the most horrible stampedes in the whole world. The Hillsborough stampede was the second of two tragic stadium-affiliated melees involving Mersey-side (Liverpool) fans, the other being the May 1985 Heysel Stadium Disaster at the European Cup Finals in Brussels, Belgium. At the time, almost all United Kingdom football stadiums had highly-placed steel fencing between the pitch and the spectators, in the wake of a violent hooliganism campaign.
At this FA Cup semi-final crunch-time between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest at Sheffield’s, Hillsborough Stadium, culminated one of the most chilling memories in football history. Just a few minutes to kick-off, 2,000 Liverpool supporters scrambled in the stands fenced off by the high-Leppings pane that had been erected in major English stadiums to block hooligan soccer fanatics from hurling objects at players during matches.
As the crowd piled up second by second, the inevitable happened, forcing supporters to trample over one another, in a scrimmage that saw the imminent removal all high-standing barriers at the front of the stands. Among the dead and injured were brave cops who struggled to restore order as the nightmare unfolded.
8. The Demise of Pat Tillman (Saturday November 6th, 1976- Thursday April 22nd, 2004)
Born Patrick Daniel Tillman Jr, as the eldest of 3 sons in Fremont, California, “Pat” was an outstanding footballer from his early high school days at Leland.The 5-feet 11-inches tall played as the Arizona State University line-back, gaining fame since 1994, going on to be voted the Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year. Between 1998 and 2001, the 202 lbs (92 kg) Pat played for the Arizona Cardinals. Out of loyalty for the Cardinals, Tillman turned down a 5-year deal offer worth US $ 9 million from St. Louis.
Academically, Tillman was a marketing major that graduated in 3 and ½ years with a 3.84 GPA. The ultimate sacrifice he made shocked the nation that was already deeply deprived of its “homeland security” by the mid- Tuesday morning 911 attacks. Shortly before the first year anniversary commemorating the terrorist 911 attacks, Pat Tillman made a decision in a secret recording that surfaced later after his untimely death in the battle fields of Afghanistan. The Arizona Cardinals player shockingly turned down a whopping 3 –year NFL contract offer worth US $ 3.6 million to enlist in the US Army Rangers in June 2002. Pat served a number of tours in combat till his last day in the village of Sperah, some 25 miles (40 km) southwest of Khost, near the Afghan-Pakistan border. An Afghan militia insurgent was also killed at a rank of Sergeant in the cross-fire that left other 2 Rangers fatally injured.
However, the Pentagon tried to doctor the true facts leading to Pat’s death, saying he was killed by Taliban insurgent’s enemy fire, but as the truth later surfaced, anger was spilling over like a volcanic eruption. Controversy spun out to confront what exactly happened to the Fort Benning Ranger School graduate. The actual cause of death was covered up, but later revealed by DOD to be fratricide (friendly fire). The former Arizona State University line-back had served in the 2nd Ranger Battalion and 75th Ranger Battalion before he got killed in the most unclear and unfortunate fashion that made headlines all over the United States, shattering millions emotions and hearts. The Bush administration and the US Army tried to use his death as a publicity stunt which turned vile as it later emerged that Pat Tillman died of 3 shots to his head in apparent friendly fire.
In 2010, he was inducted in the College Football Hall of Fame. Posthumously, Tillman has received awards and decorations, such as the Silver Star, Purple Heart, Meritorious Service Medal, Army Achievement Award, National Defense Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Army Service Ribbon, Presidential Unit Citation, Joint Meritorious Unit Award, and the Army Superior Unit Award. Pat was also awarded a posthumous promotion to the rank of Corporal.
7. The Zambia National Football Team Plane Disaster (Tuesday 27th April 1993)
The entire Zambian soccer team got killed when their De Havilland Canada DHC-5 Buffalo plane (reg: AF-319) crashed some 500 metres off the Atlantic shore of Libreville, Gabon, in what Africa football fans will never forget as the worst loss to the game on this talent-studded continent. The Zambian national football team was en route from Lusaka, Zambia, with a first stopped over in Congo-Brazzaville, and the last at Libreville, Gabon before taking off again as the team prepared to play in a FIFA World Cup qualifier against the Senegalese side in Dakar, when the plane plunged into the ocean, killing all 30 passengers, including 18 players, with their national coaching and supporting staff alongside 5 crew members, in what the Gabonese-led investigation concluded that a cocktail of events to have led to this cataclysm. The pilot is alleged to have shut-down the wrong engine after a fire outbreak, besides him being laden with fatigue.
The fateful flight had been specially arranged by the Zambian Elite Air force for the football stars. The journey had originally been scheduled to make 3 stop-overs at Brazzaville, Congo, Libreville, Gabon, and the final one in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire which never came to pass as the in-flight fire resulted into a pilot error that brought the plane down. According to a 2003 inquiry into the accident, the Gabonese investigation team revealed a number of flaws in the engine; nonetheless the flight was cleared for take-off.
The Cipolopolo’scaptain and later national team coach, KalushaBwalya was not on-board the fill-omened flight as he was in the Netherlands where he played for PSV. At the time he was making plans to meet up with his team-mates in Senegal to participate himself in the much-anticipated game.
Against all odds, the legendary Kalusha led a resurrecting team a few months to the highly-anticipated continental African Cup of Nations, played magnificently on to the finals with Nigeria.The Super Eagles came from a one nil deficit to win the game in a dramaticturn of events, scoring 2 goals to take the day. Nevertheless, The Chipolopolos returned to a heroes’ welcome at home.
6. The skeletons in Chris Benoit’s closet (Monday June 25th, 2007)
The Canadian-born professional wrestler snapped, and murdered his own family, wife and son on Friday June 22nd, 2007, before hanging himself 48 hours later in a grisly scene that the police had to solve in pain-staking episodes by all accounts. Christopher Michael “Chris” Benoit weighed 220 lbs (100kg), and stood 1.80 meters tall in the days he was one of the most revered World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) wrestlers, with the world eyeing him at all angles.
So successful, Benoit to-date is the one of the most decorated wrestlers of all-time, having won almost every major championship in his way. The SmackDown!andRaw pro left gobsmackedthe wrestling fraternity as the horrific details came to light as the police entered his house on Monday June 25th, 2007, stumbling upon a gruesome discovery that spread like a wildfire. Over a period of 3 days, Benoit,40 bound before killing his wife, Nancy Benoit, dragged his 7-year old son, Daniel unconscious and then strangled him to death. After the macabre double murder, Benoit then killed himself with a weighing scale. When Benoit’s brain was critically studied by an experienced neurosurgeon, it emerged that it (Benoit’s brain) was in a sorry state, resembling that of an 85-year old Alzheimer’s patient, the grave results of head traumas suffered in the wrestling ring.
WWE had to dedicate a live 180-minute long Raw episode Hard Knocks: The Chris Storyon June 25th, 2007, paying tribute to his life and career, after cancelling the normal schedule. Benoit was known by various soubriquets as “The Rabid Wolverine”, “The Cripper”, “The Canadian Cripper” and the like.
5. The Munich Air Disaster (Thursday February 6th, 1958)
English football is all glittering with a bright history of some of the game’s greatest players of all time, as well as being haunted by some ofthe grimmestcatastrophes in modern history. A British European Airways Flight 609 piloted by CaptainsJames Thain and Kenneth Raymentcrashed on its 3rd take-off attempt from a slush-covered run-way at the Munich-Riem Airport, West Germany killing the “Busby Babes” a nickname given to the Manchester United youthful football players at the time, along with a bunch of supporters and reporters. The chartered aircraft was heading back to Manchester; England from a European Cup match against Red Star Belgrade in Yugoslavia, and had just refueled after stopping over at Munich’s Riem Airport.
Two unsuccessful take-offs were attempted but all in vain. By the time of the third fatal attempt, snow had already started falling, exacerbating the already fragile moment, resulting into a slush layer building at the end of the runway.
When the third attempt was launched at exactly 14:59, clearance was given after a pilots’ dialogue led them to agree to a take-off, informing the control tower of their decision. Some of the last words to ever be said were by Captain Rayment, who exclaimed, “Christ, we won’t make it”as his colleague Captain Thain looked out to see what lay just ahead of them, as they ascended at 207 km/h and begun a sharp descent of 194 km/h.
The aircraft’s takeoff over-shot the runway ramming into a house with its port wing, veering to the right, crashing onto another building then burst into a huge fire-ball. Miraculously, the fuselage did not ignite after impact, enabling a heroic rescue of some 4 injured crew, 9 Manchester United players, their manager Matt Busby who later died in 1994, 3 journalists and photographers and 4 other passengers. .
Legendary striker Sir Bobby Charlton sustained minorhead injuries that were treated. 7 of his team-mates were however not lucky. Others killed were 38 passengers and 6 crew men.
At Old Trafford is a plaque commemorating in the Munich Tunnel all those killed in the Munich crash.
4. The On-pitch collapse of Marc-Vivien Foe (Thursday 26th June 2003)
In African culture, to many this was the old-tale-tell of voodoo and all talk to do with Black magic, but as doctors came to disclose, the Cameroonian international footballer had died of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy as evidenced by a second autopsy. The Manchester City midfielder with a commemoration at Maine Road, died while playing for his national side at the FIFA Confederation Cup game with Colombia in the semi-finals, held at the Stade de Gerland in Lyon, France.
On the 72nd minute of the match, Foe collapsed in the mid-circle, with no players around him. Attempts were made resuscitate him after carrying him off the pitch. Foe was administered mouth-to-mouth revivification and oxygen, but he never played again after 45 minutes spent by medics doing all in their authority to save his life. The first autopsy revealed nothing prompting a second one.
Foe’s death dazed the football fans across the world, getting tributes from all corners of the sporting arena. After scoring against Turkey, the former Arsenal scoring machine Thierry Henry and fellow team mates pointed to the sky in tribute to the fallen African soccer star.Kevin Keegan the Manchester City manager at the time, announced the resting of Foe’s shirt number 23, never to be used again.
Lyon also decided to rest the number 17 shirt that Foe donned during his days at the French club. Withal, fellow Cameroonian Jean II Makoun joined Lyon and was given the same the same number. In his own words, Makoun said,”In memory of Marc, for me and for the whole Cameroon, this will be for something."”
Before kickoff at the 2009 FIFA Confederation Cup final between the US and Brazil, Foe’s son then aged 14, gave a moving brief speech in his father’s memory.
3. The Slaying of Andres Escobar Saldarriaga (Saturday 2nd July 1994)
Nicknamed "El Caballero del Futbol" literally translated into English as “The Gentleman of Football”, the 27-year old was a Colombian football ace who was brutally gunned down in crime-prone Medellin, the same area he was born and raised. At the time engaged to his fiancée Pamela Cascardo, a dentist he had been intimately attached to for five years.
Saldarriaga made his debut on the Colombian national soccer team in 1988, and went on to score his only regular goal against England at Wembley Stadium in a 1-1 draw. Escobar’s infamous goal came at a time his country played the 1994 FIFA World Cup hosts, the United States on WednesdayJune 22nd, 1994. As he stretched out to cut a cross from a US defender John Harkes, the ball deflected off him and straight into the back of the net in the 33rd minute. Colombia strived to get back into the game but was silenced by a second half strike from Ernie Stewart. The USA won 2-1 despite a late goal from Colombia’s Adolfo Valencia .
10 days later, Escobar was on a Saturday evening hanging out with his acquaintances at “El Indio” nightclub in the El Poblado, Medellin neighborhood after a brief visit to his relatives in Las Vegas, Nevada. At 3 a.m in the morning, they parted ways and as he approached his car in the parking lot, he was approached by 3 men and a women who engaged him in a dialogue before an altercation ensued. Two of them took out short-guns, shouting, “"¡Gracias por el gol en propiapuerta!" (Spanish for "Thanks for the own goal", as in the act of scoring one, mimicking Latin American sporting commentators for their calls after a goal is scored) for each of the 12 bullets fired at Pablo. The assailants got back into their Toyota pickup truck and disappeared into the dangerous corners of Medellin. It was 10 days after the own-goal incidence.
He was pronounced dead 45 minutes after he was rushed to the hospital, from bullet wounds sustained from a .38 caliber pistol. Over 120,000 mourners attended his widely publicized funeral. Every year since his death, Colombians honor Escobar by bringing photos of him on the pitch and holding vigils at his burial site. In July 2002, Medellin city unveiled a statue outside the stadium honoring Escobar’s memory.
Humberto Castro, a bodyguard for a powerful Colombian drug cartel member confessed to the murder of the football star, and was sentenced to 43 years in jail initially, but the sentence was later reduced to just 26 years, a slap on the wrist. In 2005, Humberto was released for his good conduct after spending 11 years in incarceration.
2. LokomotivYaroslav Plane Crash (Wednesday September 7th, 2011)
It is the last thing anyone preparing for a big event ahead expects to happen to their national team full of rare spectacular talent, to just perish in the most unfortunate circumstances. At exactly 16:05 Moscow time, the Yak-Service Yak-42 went off the radar, carrying players and the coaching staff of the professional LokomotivYarslavi professional hockey ice-hockey team.
The news was received with grief and utter shock across the former Soviet bloc and the sporting world. As later learnt, the aircraft skidded off the runway before lifting off after failing to gain altitude, struck a tower mast, and went into vast flames that forced it crashing 2 km (1.2 miles) from the Tunoshna Airport. 44 fatalities were officially confirmed alongside a single survivor. Some of the wreckage and human remains were located in the neighboring River Tunoshna, a Volga tributary.
The LokomotivYarslavi, a member of the Kontinetal Hockey League (KHL), a top Russian ice hockey league was on the way to take part in the Minsk 2011-2012, in Belarus. All players from the top light roster including 4 from the youth were killed in this chartered aircraft near the central city of Yaroslavl. The team also had players from Germany, the Czech Republic and Slovakia was scheduled to play Dinamo Minsk the following day (Thursday), which never was the case as the nightmare unfolded the whole world.
From a local policeman on duty that fateful day, he reported seeing a huge explosion that is said to have given off flames towering “9-storeys high”. Russian President Dmitry Medvedvev was due to issue a momentous public address on Thursday, but had to re-schedule his initial plans to visit the horrific crash site. Many blame the appalling state of the Russian aviation sector full of outdated unsafe planes for the tragic take-off accident that happened 250 km (160 miles) north-east of Moscow.
Over 2,000 fans donning replica jerseys gathered outside Lokomotiv’s stadium in Yaroslavl that very Wednesday evening to pay final respects to the deceased ice hockey players. The Turkish President Abdullah Gui also was present at the dolorous laying of wraths outside Arena-2000 in Yaroslavl on Thursday September 6th 2011.
- 1. The Roberto Clemente Story (Saturday August 18th, 1934- Sunday December 31, 1972)
The youngest of 7 Puerto Rican children, Clemente had a life like most great sports personalities never imagined. The Major League Baseball right fielder was born in Carolina, Puerto Rico in 1934 to Don Melchor Clemente and Luisa Walker, in a family with a lot lacking in terms of resources to take care of its needs.
This baseball pro went on to become a humanitarian which ultimately ended his life in a sinister airplane accident as he had gone to deliver relief to the earth-tremor hit Republic of Nicaragua in December 1972. In his off-season, Clemente spent his time participating in charity work, organizing relief flights to deliver supplies to the Nicaraguan capital. Disturbed by reports of corrupt officials of the Somoza government who had diverted his relief suppliesfor their own personal aggrandizement, Clemente volunteered on the fourth trip, from which he was never seen alive again.
On New Year’s Eve 1972, a Douglas DC-7 plane with a history of mechanical shortfalls took off as the Pittsburg Pirates 15-time All-Star was on-board, accompanying 4, 2000 pounds of relief. Almost immediately after takeoff, itcrashed into the coast of Isla Verde, Puerto Rican coast. 24 hours after the crash, the pilot’s body was recovered along with part of the plane’s fuselage. Clemente’s body was never recovered.
A day to his 50th birthday in 1984, the United States Postal Services issued a postage stamp in Clemente’s honor. Clemente’s # 21 is still active in the Major League Baseball, worn by several players, though the number is unofficially rested in the Puerto Rican Baseball League. In 1999, he was named the Number 20 on The Sporting News’s list of Baseball’s Greatest 100 Players.
