Deaths (Obituaries)

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      Stan Asofsky, Vociferous Courtside Superfan of the Knicks, Dies at 87

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      For decades, beginning in 1959, he was a regular presence at Madison Square Garden (in two locations), befriending players and heckling opposing players and refs.Stan Asofsky was more than a rabid New York Knicks fan. He was a ticket holder with access, reflecting a time when professional sports venues were far less fortified and class-segregated. When one didn’t have to be Spike Lee, or Taylor Swift, to walk in a celebrity athlete’s world.Or play. During the 1960s, Mr. Asofsky delivered crisp bounce passes to Cazzie Russell, a young Knicks forward, while Russell practiced jump shots at the 92nd Street Y, on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Then they would shower and walk a few blocks south to the hot-dog emporium Papaya King, so Russell could rehydrate with a glass of tropical juice.“He wasn’t getting enough minutes, and he wanted the workout,” Mr. Asofsky told me in 2009. “I said, ‘Come to our Y.’ He said, ‘Are there ballplayers there?’”Mr. Asofsky, who died on Sept. 12 at 87, was more than a prideful gym rat with a bum knee, not to mention a superfan; he could also be an accommodating friend: He once set Russell up on a blind date, with a woman who worked with Mr. Asofsky in CBS’s publishing division, as he recalled in the 2009 interview, for a book I was writing about the Knicks’ glory days.Certainly seat location helped in the creation of the insider persona that Mr. Asofsky developed alongside Fred Klein, his front-row companion for a half century at two Madison Square Garden locations.Long before there was such a thing as celebrity row, where Mr. Lee has stretched his vocal cords and enhanced his exposure as a premier filmmaker, Mr. Asofsky and Mr. Klein were the arena’s best-known baiters of Knicks’ opponents and referees alike.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Susie Maxwell Berning, Hall of Fame Golfer, Is Dead at 83

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      She often took time away from the tour for her family. But she tallied 11 championships, including three in the U.S. Women’s Open.Susie Maxwell Berning, a trailblazing three-time champion of the United States Women’s Open golf tournament who was known for her tenacity on the fairway and her grace off it, died on Wednesday at her home in Indio, in Southern California. She was 83.Her daughter Cindy Molchany confirmed the death. She said her mother had had lung cancer for two years.Emerging from Oklahoma City in the 1960s, when women’s professional golf was still a developing sport (she later estimated that there were only about 70 golfers on the tour at the time), she built a glittering career. She shone brightest when the stakes were highest. Four of her 11 wins on the L.P.G.A. tour were in major tournaments, including the Western Open in 1965.The other three were U.S. Open wins in 1968, 1972 and 1973. Berning was one of just six women to win three or more, along with Betsy Rawls, Babe Zaharias, Hollis Stacy, Annika Sorenstam and Mickey Wright — all members of the World Golf Hall of Fame. In 2021, Berning finally joined them in the Hall, which honors both male and female stars of the sport. She was inducted in the same class as Tiger Woods.Berning spoke at her induction into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2022. She was inducted in the same class as Tiger Woods.Sam Greenwood/Getty ImagesFull recognition of her accomplishments came slowly in large part because her career was abbreviated, as she consistently prioritized family.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Robert Lansdorp, Prominent Coach of Tennis Champions, Dies at 85

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      His students, including Tracy Austin, Maria Sharapova, Pete Sampras and Lindsay Davenport, developed their ground strokes through his regimen of intense repetition.Robert Lansdorp, an influential tennis coach whose intense focus on developing ground strokes through ceaseless repetition helped turn four of his students — Tracy Austin, Pete Sampras, Lindsay Davenport and Maria Sharapova — into No. 1-ranked players in the world, died on Monday in West Carson, Calif. He was 85.Stephanie Lansdorp, his daughter, said his death, in a nursing facility, was caused by cardiopulmonary arrest.Lansdorp, who was based in Southern California, worked one on one, mostly with young players — Austin started lessons with him at 7, Sampras at 10 — to build their muscle memory by relentlessly drilling them on their forehands, backhands and other strokes and on their footwork.“He wanted to do it over and over and over again, and he had methods to get there — he had a knack,” Austin said in an interview. “You knew if Robert was pushing you, it meant that he knew there was more to you. He was tough, but there was a soft side to him. He thrived on making people better.”When Austin won the women’s singles title at the U.S. Open at age 16 in 1979, she became the youngest women’s champion in tournament history and the first Grand Slam champion tutored by Lansdorp.“We made our names together,” she said.After Austin’s victory over Chris Evert, Lansdorp told reporters: “There’s room for improvement. There’s only one way to go — up.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Al Attles, a Golden State Warrior in Name and in Spirit, Dies at 87

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      He was known as the Destroyer for his gritty intensity as a player. He later coached Golden State to an N.B.A. championship and served as its general manager.Al Attles, the Basketball Hall of Fame guard who was among the most prominent figures in the history of the Golden State Warriors and their forerunner franchise in Philadelphia, died on Tuesday at his home in Oakland, Calif. He was 87.His death was announced by the Warriors, the team Attles served as a tough, defensive-minded guard, an N.B.A. championship-winning coach, a general manager and, until his death, a community relations representative. His career spanned the Warriors’ Philadelphia years and their decades in the Bay Area.When Attles was selected by the Philadelphia Warriors in the fifth round of the 1960 N.B.A. draft, he was a newly hired junior high school gym teacher in his native Newark.As a little-known player out of a historically Black college, he knew that his chances of making the Warriors’ lineup seemed slim.But he decided to give it a shot at training camp, and for six decades he remained an enduring face of the Warriors’ franchise.The Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., presented Attles with its John W. Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014 and inducted him in 2019. Although he was never an All-Star in his 11 seasons in the backcourt, he was among six players whose numbers have been retired by the Warriors.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Issa Hayatou, ‘the Emperor of African Soccer,’ Dies at 77

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      In his posts atop the governing bodies for African and global soccer, he fought to establish the continent as an equal to Europe and South America.Issa Hayatou, a savvy Cameroonian deal-maker who was hailed as “the emperor of African soccer,” leading its confederation for nearly 30 years and raising its international profile, including helping to steer the 2010 World Cup to South Africa, a first for the continent, died on Aug. 8 in Paris. He was 77.His death, in a hospital during the Olympic Games, was announced by the Confederation of African Football, the governing body of African soccer. It did not cite a cause. He had been receiving kidney dialysis treatment for several years.When Mr. Hayatou took over the confederation in 1988 — he would remain its president until 2017 — it was “an ossified organization that seemed far more concerned with internal power and privilege politics than the development of African football,” New African Magazine observed in 2017.But, the magazine added, he soon “deployed his own substantial diplomatic and leadership skills and his wide contacts to move African soccer swiftly and surely out of the ghetto” and lead it “onto the world stage.”Mr. Hayatou was a member of the International Olympic Committee for 15 years, starting in 2001, and later an honorary member. He was also a vice president of FIFA, global soccer’s governing body, and was its interim president from October 2015 to February 2016 following the resignation of the longstanding president Sepp Blatter amid a corruption scandal that led to the arrest of many FIFA officials.Mr. Hayatou in 2010, the year he helped steer the World Cup to South Africa.Fethi Belaid/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Frank Selvy, 91, Dies; Scored 100 Points in a College Basketball Game

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      The feat, a collegiate record, came in 1954 in South Carolina. As a pro, he missed a shot that would have given the Los Angeles Lakers a championship.All eyes were on Frank Selvy when his basketball team from Furman University took on a fellow South Carolina school, Newberry College, on Feb. 13, 1954.Selvy, a 6-foot-3 guard, was the top scorer in college basketball for a second season, and his family and neighbors made the 250-mile journey from Kentucky to watch him play, joining 4,000 others in the stands in Greenville, S.C., home of Furman’s Paladins, for “Frank Selvy Night.” It would be the first college basketball game televised live in South Carolina.A mismatch loomed. Furman was a Division I team, while Newberry, a small college about 65 miles southeast of Greenville, was Division II, so Furman’s coach figured it was a perfect time to showcase Selvy’s jump shots and hooks. He instructed the team to set Selvy up for a shot whenever it had the ball.Selvy, who was nearing the end of his college career, did not disappoint. He scored a remarkable 100 points against Newberry, setting a single-game record for a Division I player.He died on Tuesday at his home in Simpsonville, S.C., in Greenville County, in the northwest part of the state, according to an announcement by Furman. He was 91.Selvy was an All-American in college and became a two-time All-Star guard in the National Basketball Association, but he was probably remembered most for that winter night in 1954. In an era before the 3-point shot, Selvy scored 41 field goals on 66 shots together with 18 free throws.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Chi Chi Rodriguez, the Golf World’s Swashbuckling Champion, Dies at 88

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      He won eight PGA Tour tournaments and two senior majors — but it was his flair on the greens that made him one of the sport’s most popular players.Chi Chi Rodriguez, whose flamboyance on the course and passion for the game of golf transformed him into one of its most popular players through his more than three decades on the pro tours, died on Thursday. He was 88.His death was announced by the PGA Tour. The announcement did not cite a cause or say where he died.In a sport played out at lush country clubs where respectful crowds idolize often bland players with comfortable roots, Rodriguez broke the mold.Growing up in a poor family in Puerto Rico, he almost died at age 4 from vitamin deficiencies. At 7, he helped out in the sugar cane fields where his father, Juan Rodriguez Sr., whacked away with a machete for a few dollars a day.The boy who would be known as Chi Chi also began caddying at a course that drew affluent tourists. He taught himself to play using limbs from guava trees to propel crushed tin cans into holes he had dug on baseball fields, and when he was 12 he shot a 67 in a real game of golf. After playing in Puerto Rican tournaments, he joined the PGA Tour in 1960.Rodriguez was 5-foot-7 and about 120 pounds. But he used his strong hands and wrists to get off long low drives, and he was an outstanding wedge player, offsetting his sometimes balky putting game. “For a little man, he sure can hit it,” Jack Nicklaus told Sports Illustrated in 1964, relating how Rodriguez often outdistanced him off the tee on flat, into-the-wind fairways.Rodriguez won eight tournaments on the PGA Tour, then became one of the top players on the Senior (now Champions) Tour, capturing 22 events, including two majors: the 1986 Senior Players Championship and the 1987 Senior PGA Championship. He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1992.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Floyd Layne, 95, Basketball Player Tarnished by Gambling Scandal, Dies

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      He helped City College win two national championships in 1950 before pleading guilty in a point-shaving scheme. He later became City’s basketball coach and a mentor.Floyd Layne, who helped City College win both the N.C.A.A. and N.I.T. basketball championships in March 1950 but who shattered his career in a point-shaving scandal, died on Friday. Layne, who eventually found redemption working with young people in recreation programs and as City College’s head basketball coach, was 95.His death was confirmed by Karina Jorge, an assistant director of athletics at City College, who did not say where he died.An outstanding ballhandler and defensive player at guard, the 6-foot-3-inch Layne was among four sophomores in the starting lineup for an unheralded City team that won the National Invitation Tournament and the N.C.A.A. tournament at Madison Square Garden in championship games held 10 days apart.But late in the following season, players from powerful teams like City College, Long Island University, Bradley University and the University of Kentucky were arrested after being accused of taking bribes from professional gamblers to lose games or keep margins of victory within the point spread established to attract bettors.When three of Layne’s teammates were arrested in mid-February 1951, accused of point-shaving, students staged a campus rally to support the squad, and they carried the presumably unsullied Layne on their shoulders.But Layne was soon arrested as well. He was accused of agreeing to help keep City College from exceeding victory margins set by gamblers in their point spreads for games with Missouri, Arizona and Boston College during the 1950-51 season. Layne led detectives to the bedroom of his Bronx home, where he had hidden $2,890 — all but $110 of the bribe money — in a rolled-up handkerchief embedded in the dirt of a flower pot.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More