Farewell

92 | A hard thrower at Harding College (he once fanned 26 in 13 innings), Roe said he had three pitches as a pro: "my change, my change off my change and my change off my change off my change." A five-time All-Star who started in three World Series for Brooklyn, Roe admitted to a fourth pitch—the spitball—in 1955, a year after retiring. "I threw it a little bit," he said later, "but it got so overrated. That kept me out of the Hall of Fame."

GEORGIA FRONTIERE

80 | Her r�sum�—which included stints as a chorus girl, a weathergirl and a club singer—was unique among NFL owners. Frontiere inherited control of the Los Angeles Rams in 1979 upon the death of her sixth husband, Carroll Rosenbloom. Against the wishes of the league she moved the team in 1995 to her hometown of St. Louis, where five years later the franchise celebrated the only Super Bowl victory in its history.

SIR EDMUND HILLARY

88 | In January 1940, with World War II raging, the 21-year-old New Zealand beekeeper and conscientious objector sought a peaceful place to reconsider whether he should enlist. He chose a lodge at the base of Mount Cook, the country's highest peak, and had a revelation: He wanted to climb. Hillary called it "the happiest day I had ever spent." And so began a quest that culminated 13 years later—after a stint in the air force—with his unprecedented summiting of Mount Everest, which had claimed the lives of at least 16 men who had tried to scale it. For years Hillary insisted that he had reached the peak at the same time as his guide, Tenzing Norgay; in '86, shortly before he died, Norgay allowed that Hillary had preceded him. Sir Edmund had known what it would mean to the Nepalese to believe that a native had been the first to the top. Hillary hadn't climbed for glory; it never even occurred to him to have Norgay take his picture on the summit. "Why did I need a photograph?" he said. "I knew I'd been there, and that was good enough for me."

DOCK ELLIS

63 | A hard-partying righty, Ellis insisted that he was a better pitcher under the influence than sober, and the evidence supports him: In 1970 he threw a no-hitter for the Pirates while on LSD. The unpredictable Ellis, who once showed up at a game in curlers after Ebony wrote a story about his hairstyles, had 138 wins for six teams in his 12-year career. He entered rehab after retiring in '79 and later became a drug counselor.

PETE NEWELL

93 | After living on little more than coffee and cigarettes for years, Newell was advised by his doctors to give up coaching in 1960, when he was just 44. He went out on top, though, leading the U.S. Olympic team to gold in Rome. Then Newell, who won the NCAA title with Cal in '59, turned into one of the greatest instructors the game has known, teaching Hakeem Olajuwon and Shaquille O'Neal, among many others, at his big-man camps.

JOE ALSTON