Departures: Legendary football coach dead at 89

Lou Holtz

A legendary college football coach and broadcaster who led six different football programs to bowl games, Holtz died March 4. He was 89. After years as an assistant coach, Holtz took over football operations at William & Mary in 1969, leading his first of six college football programs. After a stint in the NFL coaching the New York Jets in 1976, Holtz returned to the college ranks to coach major powers like Arkansas and Minnesota. He took over Notre Dame in 1986 and returned the flagging program to glory, winning 100 games in 11 seasons, including a national championship in 1988. Holtz later broadcast football commentary first for CBS and then for ESPN after his final retirement from coaching.

Neil Sedaka

A fount of songwriting whose tunes came to dominate pop charts in the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s, Sedaka died Feb. 27. He was 86. The Brooklyn native began writing songs at age 13, finally breaking through in 1959 with the Top 10 hit “Oh! Carol.” Sedaka released his first of three Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hits in 1962 with “Breaking Up Is Hard To Do.” Transitioning to adult contemporary in the 1970s, Sedaka roared back to the top of the charts with “Laughter in the Rain” in 1975—the same year duo Captain & Tennille took his “Love Will Keep Us Together” to the top of the charts. During his decades-long run, Sedaka earned more than 700 songwriting credits and five Grammy nominations.

Bill Mazeroski

A baseball Hall-of-Famer known primarily for his glove who nevertheless hit one of major league baseball’s most famous home runs, Mazeroski died Feb. 20. He was 89. In 1954, the 17-year-­old Mazeroski signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates organization, toiling in the minor leagues before making his major league debut two years later. Slick fielding at second base quickly earned him a full-time starting position with the Pirates. In the seventh game of the 1960 World Series with the score knotted at 9-9, Mazeroski led off the bottom of the 9th inning and crushed a Ralph Terry fastball over the left field fence to secure a World Series victory over the New York Yankees and his place in baseball history.

Jesse Jackson

A protégé of civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr., who became a powerful orator and political leader in his own right, Jackson died Feb. 17. He was 84. Jackson joined in with King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference and quickly rose to leadership. Jackson, who was with King in 1968 when a sniper shot King in Memphis, clashed with other civil rights leaders after King’s death before founding his own social justice organization. Jackson’s Rainbow Coalition and Operation PUSH gave him a forum to pressure corporations for better treatment of blacks, and a stage to push his own left-wing ideas wrapped in soaring classical rhetoric. He garnered millions of votes in Democratic Party presidential campaigns in 1984 and 1988.

Robert Duvall

A screen legend who had a talent for disappearing into almost any role, Duvall died Feb. 15. He was 95. Before breaking in as a Hollywood regular, Duvall shared a New York City apartment with Dustin Hoffman. The duo practiced lines with other struggling actors including Gene Hackman and James Caan. Of them all, Duvall might have had the most prolific career. He broke through as Boo Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird in 1962 and as a villain in the 1970 film M*A*S*H. He played the Corleone family consigliere in the first two The Godfather films and a maniacal Army officer in Apocalypse Now. Duvall won an Oscar for best actor for Tender Mercies and garnered six other Academy Award nominations.