13 Unsolved Sports Mysteries.

We may never know the answer to these.

Published 5 years ago in Wtf

We may never know the answer to these.

1
The death of former heavyweight champion Sonny Liston – who lost the title to a young Muhammad Ali – by overdose in his Las Vegas home is questionable in many circles. Liston was a drug user but by all accounts hated/feared needles. He was shot up with heroine. I think it was a case of an OD, but some believe he was murdered. There’s a recent book alleging this.

2
Did tonya Harding help plan the Nancy Kerrigan attack? Consensus is yes, but she’s still adamant that she didn’t. There’s a great 30 for 30 about it called the price of gold.

3
John Brisker was an NBA player who disappeared in Uganda in 1978. It appears that Brisker became friends with Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, who was an avid basketball fan and invited Brisker to his home. Brisker reportedly became a mercenary soldier for Amin, who was thrown out of power in 1979. According to this theory, Brisker was shot by a firing squad consisting of revolutionaries who had overthrown the Amin regime.

4
The disappearance of NBA player Bison Dele. Not really much of a mystery (his brother likely killed him at sea), but a fascinating/sad case nonetheless.

5
What happened to Sweet Jimmy Robinson? He fought Ali early in the 1960s and later became homeless. Someone tracked him down in the 1970s and took photos of him which you can see in the above article. At some point after those photos were taken, he vanished into thin air. He’s almost certainly long dead, but if so where did he go and where is he buried?

6
The death of Spider Sabich. He was an Olympic skiier who was killed when his girlfriend “accidentally” discharged his gun. Many people think, however, that she killed him. Fun(?) fact: that girlfriend played the love interest in Peter Sellers’ film The Party.

7
The Dolly Gray Imposter. He is an unidentified man who played briefly for the Green Bay Packers and the St Louis All-Stars in the early 20s. He claimed to be an all-American from Princeton. Once he started playing it was obvious he was lying but who he actually was remains unknown. An interesting bit from the early NFL days.

8
ANDRES ESCOBAR a Colombian defender whose own goal against the United States helped eliminate his nation from the World Cup, was shot dead by unknown assailants.

9
The odd case of Cal Ripken Junior’s mother’s alleged abduction is still unresolved. She was taken with no ransom demand made and then returned to her neighborhood 24 hours later. No one has been charged.

10
The murder of former NBA player Lorenzen Wright. He disappeared on July 18, 2010, and his body was found on July 28th. It’s still unsolved. His wife is suspected, but there has never been an arrest.

11
Ray Lewis – we’ll never know what really happened, but I think he’s guiltier than he’s led us to believe.

12
[NBA player] Rico Harris disappeared while traveling from California to Seattle to start a new life with his fiancée. They found his car abandoned.

13
Duncan MacPherson. (Warning: If you search for him on google, some images may come up that are NSFW) He was a Canadian professional hockey player who went missing during a ski trip in Austria in 1989. Almost fourteen years later, his body was found near where he was last seen. His death was ruled an accident, but his family believes that he was actually ran over with a snow grooming machine. His body was very mangled when found, and according to his parents, the police mishandled evidence in the case (including the removal of his body).