Greatest tragedies in sport

(Not of the they-picked-that-asshole-instead-of-my-hero kind...)

On Wednesday it is 50 years since the plane crash at Munich that killed half the Manchester United team, as Bobby Charlton recalls.

Certainly that was a shocker, but there were some other worth remembering too... I'd say South Africa's worst (in terms of lives lost and in terms of number of actual sports personalities killed respectively) were the 2001 Ellis Park stadium disaster (43 spectators killed at a soccer match) and the 1988 plane crash in which a number of South Africa's top jockeys were among the 23 killed.

The Hillsborough disaster.

The Hillsborough disaster.

"On Wednesday it is 50 years since the plane crash at Munich that killed half the Manchester United team, as Bobby Charlton recalls."

And 12 months almost to the day later, on 3 Feb 1959, Buddy Holly's plane went down in the icy wastes of Idaho in very similar circumstances.

Oddly, I noticed that the two South African disasters mentioned above both occurred in the second week of April...

Probably the worst involving a national team was the 1993 plane crash that wiped out the Zambian soccer team and five officials.

'72 Games in Munich . . .

I'd think the Munich Olympic Games would be one of the worst involving the deaths of sportsmen.

I saw Charlton on Parky recently. He mentioned that in the Munich crash, all the fatalities were from players sitting in front face seats whereas he and all the others who were sitting in rear facing seats (as they had at the time) only suffered minor injuries.

Ibrox 1971 - 66 dead

Valley Parade (Bradford City) May 1985 - 56 dead

Of course, both the World Wars were tragedies in terms of loss of life of great sportsmen.

The Andes Flight Disaster of 1972 stands out, not so much for the crash itself but the aftermath.

That's the disaster which saw members of a Uruguayan Rugby team eat their own team-mates to survive.

29 people died, 16 survived.

It is both tragic and uplifting at the same time.

Hass wrote:
It is both tragic and uplifting at the same time.

Yeah, nothing like a good old bit of cannibalism to lift the spirit.

It was a story that had to be told. Would you pass a friend without due acknowledgment?

What about incidents of high level sportsmen and women dying on the field.

Outside of motorsport, the main one I can recall is Marc Vivien Foe. I know many have died in cylce races like The Tour as well.

Needless to say, Ayrton Senna's death was truly tragic (and Roland Ratzenberger died that same weekend in practice).

In fact, is Senna the most "elite" sportsman ever to die in competition?

Certainly the most elitist . . .

Seriously though, who is the best boxer to die from injuries suffered in a fight? Other than Apollo Creed.

Trev's been punched around the ring enough to kill most men . . ..

JGK wrote:What about incidents of high level sportsmen and women dying on the field.

Outside of motorsport, the main one I can recall is Marc Vivien Foe. I know many have died in cylce races like The Tour as well.

Needless to say, Ayrton Senna's death was truly tragic (and Roland Ratzenberger died that same weekend in practice).

In fact, is Senna the most "elite" sportsman ever to die in competition?

Jim Clark v Ayrton Senna ... tough call

There's a few jockeys, equestrians, skiiers, and mountain climbers if you really extend the 'sports' envelope.


Probably a few 'elite' bowls, darts, and bridge players have died of natural causes during a game, too.

The loss of Ayrton Senna was very tragic.

It just seemed unbelievable at the time.

Aye, I was watching at the time. The most incredible part about it was that the accident didn't look nearly as bad as dozens of others that have occurred without causing serious injury. Just a freak occurrence.

JGK wrote:
In fact, is Senna the most "elite" sportsman ever to die in competition?

I would think both Alberto Ascari & Jim Clark were held in similar regard to Senna among Formula One drivers although neither were competing in F1 events when they had their fatal crashes.

The Yanks probably rate Dale Earnhardt up there too for his dominant performances in the Winston Cup NASCAR series.

JGK wrote:What about incidents of high level sportsmen and women dying on the field.

Outside of motorsport, the main one I can recall is Marc Vivien Foe. I know many have died in cylce races like The Tour as well.

Needless to say, Ayrton Senna's death was truly tragic (and Roland Ratzenberger died that same weekend in practice).

In fact, is Senna the most "elite" sportsman ever to die in competition?

One of the Brazilian players who played for a football club in India, Junior, died when he was punched by the goalie (no way to prove whether it was intentional or unintentional, most lean towards intentional).

Ofcourse, Raman Lamba hit by the cricket ball while he was fielding.

Ewan Chatfield (hit over the heart by Peter Lever) and Graeme Watson (beaned by Greigy in 1971-2) came horribly close to being stats here. Contractor and Phil Simmons too.