Belmont Abbey freshman Michael McGuire collapsed following a pre-season fitness test Aug. 16 and died five days later after being hospitalized. Campus membersset up vigils and organized memorials for him. “It’s just heartbreaking,” said Angelina Starr, a freshman basketball player. “Like the second day and hisparents go home thinking, like, ‘My son’s at college.’ And […]
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U.S. Paralympic leader McCullough succumbs to cancer
[OBITUARY] Jon McCullough, chairman of U.S. Soccer’s Athlete Council and a member of the U.S. Paralympic Team in the 1996 and 2004 Paralympics as a defender, diedSaturday after succumbing to cancer. “We are deeply saddened by the news of Jon McCullough’s passing,” U.S. Soccer President Sunil Gulati said.”Jon lived his life with the embodiment of […]
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Leo Stillitano passes away at age 55
[OBITUARY] Leo Stillitano, the president and general manager of MLS’s Miami Fusion for its launch in 1998, passed away athis home in Weehawken, New Jersey, on Saturday at the age of 55. Stillitano, an All-Ivy player at Columbia, had worked for the 1994 World Cup organizing committee, in MLS and at ChampionsWorld withhis brother Charlie, […]
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Grondona dies after 35 years as Argentine boss
[OBITUARY] Julio Grondona, FIFA senior vice president, died on Wednesday after being admitted to a Buenos Aires hospitalfor an aortic aneurysm. The 82-year-old Don Julio, as he was known in Argentina, had been president of the Argentina soccer federation (AFA) since 1979. During his tenure, Argentina won the World Cuponce and finished runner-up twice. But […]
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WPS owner Borislow dies of heart attack
[OBITUARY] Dan Borislow, the controversial owner of franchise MagicJack in defunct Women’s Professional Soccer, diedTuesday night of a heart attack at the age of 52 after playing in a pickup soccer game. Borislow, owner of the telecom product MagicJack and a soccer dad, bought the Washington Freedom in2011 and moved it to Florida, where he […]
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Veteran college coach Logan Fleck passes away
[OBITUARY] Logan Fleck, a longtime men’s and women’s college head coach who startedprograms at USF and Arkansas-Little Rock, died on Monday at the age of 54. The son of pioneering youth coach Tom Fleck was the men’s coach at Stetson at thetime of his death. “He was a wonderfully caring person, committed to family, friends […]
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Longtime UMass coach Sam Koch dies
[OBITUARY] Longtime University of Massachusetts men’s coach Sam Koch died on Sunday athis home in Hadley, Mass., following a two-year battle with cancer. Koch, 59, had taken over the program in 1991 for what was to be the final year of the program, but he not only savedthe program but built into a respected national […]
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Pioneering soccer photojournalist Phil Stephens dies
[OBITUARY] Phil Stephens, whose pioneering coverage of soccer touched many in the American soccer community for more than40 years, passed away on Thursday morning at the age of 65 in Rowlett, Texas, following unexpected surgery. Stephens chronicled the rise of Dallas soccer from the early days of the DallasTornado and the youth soccer boom in […]
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Alfredo Di Stefano remembered as trailblazer and legend
[OBITUARY] Alfredo Di Stefano, considered one of the greatest players in the history of soccer, died Monday at the age of88. The Argentine has most often been associated with Real Madrid, the club at which he won five straight European Cup titles, scoring in each final. The Argentine never won the World Cup– indeed he […]
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Pedro DeBrito dies following car accident
[OBITUARY] Pedro DeBrito, one of the top players just as the college game started to take off in the early 1980s, died onSaturday in Miami, Fla., of injuries resulting from an automobile accident he was involved two days earlier. DeBrito, who starred at the University of Connecticut, played for Team America in the NASLin 1983 […]