Close Article Return to stream X
Clubhouse •

Athletes Who Tragically Lost a Significant Other

+Read full article

Athletes Who Tragically Lost a Significant Other

Ryan Anderson Gia Allemand
Twitter

Sometimes we seem to think athletes are robots and not everyday people with feelings just like the rest of us. Hopefully this slideshow can bring us back down to Earth, as we take a look at athletes who have tragically lost a significant other.

Eddy Curry

New York Knicks Eddy Curry
Getty Images

Eddy Curry

New York Knicks Eddy Curry
Getty Images

Former first-round pick of the Chicago Bulls, Eddy Curry lost both his ex-girlfriend and nine-month old daughter in 2009. Frederick Goings was convicted of first-degree murder of Nova Henry, Curry’s ex-girlfriend, and nine-month old Ava Henry. Goings had served as Henry’s attorney in a custody case against Curry involving Ava, and was allegedly involved in a relationship with Henry.

Dominic Moore

Dominic Moore
Twitter

Dominic Moore

Dominic Moore
Twitter

Moore married Katie Urbanic in July 2010. Tragically, she died on January 7, 2013 after a nine-month battle with liver cancer. Moore has since created a foundation in her name for cancer patients. Moore sat out the 2012-13 season to tend to Katie, but has since returned and currently plays for the New York Rangers.

Ryan Anderson

Gia Allemand Funeral Ryan Anderson
Getty Images

Ryan Anderson

Gia Allemand Funeral Ryan Anderson
Getty Images

Gia Allemand, a former Bachelor contestant and model, and her boyfriend, New Orleans Pelicans forward Ryan Anderson, got in an argument on the night of August 12. They both said some things that could never be taken back and the two went their separate ways during the fight to cool down. Upon returning to check on her at her apartment, Anderson found Allemand dead. She hanged herself from the second story bannister with a vacuum cleaner cord.

Rory Bushfield

Sarah Burke
Getty Images

Rory Bushfield

Sarah Burke
Getty Images

Bushfield is a former member of Canada’s World Cup team, skiing moguls. He met skiing superpipe legend Sarah Burke when she was 14 at a ski camp and they wed in 2010. Burke was a four-time Winter X Games gold medalist and a gold medal favorite at the 2014 Sochi Olympics. In January 2012, Burke fell and hit her head during training in Park City, Utah. She went into cardiac arrest and passed away 9 days later.

Taylor Pyatt

Taylor Pyatt Vancouver Canucks
Getty Images

Taylor Pyatt

Taylor Pyatt Vancouver Canucks
Getty Images

Just after Pyatt and his Vancouver Canucks team clinched a playoff spot in 2009, he got a call that would change his life forever. His fiancé, Carly Bragnolo, died in a car crash while she was on vacation in Jamaica. Pyatt and Bragnolo had planned to get married that summer.

Tommie Harris

Tommie Harris Chicago Bears
Getty Images

Tommie Harris

Tommie Harris Chicago Bears
Getty Images

Tommie Harris’ wife died just weeks after their wedding. Ashley Harris was admitted to the hospital two days prior to her death following a suspected stroke or brain aneurysm. She had given birth the couple’s second child a few months earlier. Harris was named to three Pro Bowls during his seven seasons with the Chicago Bears.

Rick Rypien

Rick Rypien Vancouver Canucks
Getty Images

Rick Rypien

Rick Rypien Vancouver Canucks
Getty Images

Rypien spent six seasons in the National Hockey League with the Vancouver Canucks and previously played four years with the Regina Pats of the Western Hockey League. In his second season with Regina, his girlfriend died in a car accident while en route to watch him play in Calgary. After a long battle with depression, Rypien committed suicide and was found dead in his home on August 15, 2011.

Al Joyner

Florence Griffith Al Joyner
Getty Images

Al Joyner

Florence Griffith Al Joyner
Getty Images

In 1984, Joyner became the first African American in 80 years to win a gold model in the triple jump. In 1980, at the Olympic trials registration, he met and later married track legend Florence Griffith. He became her coach and she won three gold medals at the 1988 Olympics. Griffith passed away from an epileptic seizure at the age of 38 in 1998.

Chris Draft

Chris Draft wife
Twitter

Chris Draft

Chris Draft Wife
Twitter

Draft, a Stanford alum, had a 12-year NFL career with six different teams. His wife Lakeasha, a former cheerleader for the Charlotte Hornets, died of lung cancer just one month after the couple wed. Lakeasha had never been a smoker and was terminally ill at the time of the wedding.

Scott Schoeneweis

Scott Schoeneweis New York Mets
Getty Images

Scott Schoeneweis

Scott Schoeneweis New York Mets
Getty Images

A left-handed pitcher, Schoeneweis played eleven major league seasons. On May 20, 2009, his wife Gabrielle was found dead in their Arizona home at the age of 39. The autopsy found the cause of death to be an overdose of cocaine and the anesthetic lidocaine. The couple had four children and had celebrated their 10th anniversary in January.

Dean Brett

Dean Brett wife
Twitter

Dean Brett

dean brett wife
Twitter

Brett, a Scottish soccer player, first lost one of his 12-week old twin daughters after she was born three months premature. Soon after, his girlfriend Gemma Porteous was diagnosed with spinal cancer and passed away just a few months later.

Jakub Petruzalek

Katerina Netolicka
Twitter

Jakub Petruzalek

Katerina Netolicka Jakub Petruzalek
Twitter

Petruzalek, a Czech hockey player, was drafted by the New York Rangers in the 2004 NHL Entry draft and played only two NHL games before leaving to play in Europe. His girlfriend of five years, Katerina Netolicka, a top model who appeared as a cover girl for Prada and L’Oreal was found dead in their apartment. Addicted to working out, she died from exhaustion and a heart attack.

Mark Pavelich

Mark Pavelich USA
Getty Images

Mark Pavelich

Mark Pavelich
Getty Images

Pavelich was a member of the 1980 U.S. Olympic “Miracle on Ice” gold-medal team and recorded 329 points in 355 games in seven seasons in the NHL. He married his wife Kara in 1994, two years after he completed his NHL career. She passed away in 2012 after accidentally falling 20 feet from a second-story balcony that had no railing. She was only 44 years old.

Manti Te'o

Manti Te'o Notre Dame
Getty Images

Manti Te'o

Manti Te'o Notre Dame
Getty Images

In the end she wasn’t real, but the entire ordeal still must’ve been extremely hard on Te’o. The tragic story of Lennay Kekua, Te’o’s fictional girlfriend, captured the hearts of college football fans throughout the country. The former Notre Dame linebacker lost his grandmother and girlfriend, or so we thought, in 2012. It turns out, Kekua was actually Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, a family friend of Te’o’s who had developed feelings for the linebacker.

Bill Cowher

Kaye Cowher
Twitter

Bill Cowher

Kaye Cowher
Twitter

One of the best coaches in Pittsburgh Steelers history (and four-year NFL player), Bill Cowher suffered an unimaginable loss in 2010 when his wife, Kaye, passed away after losing her battle with skin cancer. The two met during their days at NC State, and had been together since. She was 54 at the time of her passing.

Seth Lassen is a writer for RantSports. Like him on Facebook.
Your Favorites
 
 
Close Article Return to stream X
Clubhouse• Videos•

Big 10 Champion Wrestler's Mullet Is Topic Of Interview

Sammy Brooks won a Big 10 wrestling championship for the Iowa Hawkeyes recently, but he wasn't interested in discussing anything that happened out on the mat afterward. Instead, during his post-match interview, Brooks, who is clearly a legend, made it all about his epic mullet, and the clip is nothing short of hilarious.

Comment 0 Comments
 
 
Close Article Return to stream X
Clubhouse• Videos•

Watch College Baseball Players Awesomely Joust During Rain Delay

It's become a bit of an art for college baseball players to find entertaining things to do during rain delays. We've seen the dance-offs, the slip-n-slide on the tarp and all the classics, but these two teams stepped it up a notch. Who doesn't find this entertaining?

Comment 0 Comments