Takao Sakurai, Japanese boxer, Olympic gold medalist (1964), died from esophageal cancer he was 70.

Takao Sakurai (桜井 孝雄 Sakurai Takao^?) (September 25, 1941 – January 10, 2012)^[1] was a professional boxer who won the gold medal at the 1964 Summer Olympics  died from esophageal cancer he was 70..

Amateur career

Born in Sawara, Chiba, Sakurai began boxing in high school, keeping his training secret to his parents. Although there was no trainer in his high school, Sakurai won the Japan's inter-high school championship in the bantamweight division in 1960.^[2][3] Then he entered Chuo University,^[2] and won the All-Japan Amateur Boxing Championships in the bantamweight division in 1963.^[3] Sakurai captured the Olympic boxing gold medal at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics in his senior year. In the finals, he knocked down his opponent 3 times in 2 rounds, capturing the win by RSC, and becoming the only Japanese boxer ever to win Olympic gold. His record in the amateurs was 138-13.^[2]

Olympic results

• Defeated Brian Packer (Great Britain) 4-1
• Defeated Cassis Aryee (Ghana) 5-0
• Defeated Nicolae Puiu (Romania) 5-0
• Defeated Washington Rodríguez (Uruguay) 5-0
• Defeated Chung Shin-Cho (South Korea) RSC

Professional career

Sakurai's feat in the Olympics heightened hopes for his professional career, and he made his professional debut from Misako Boxing Gym^[2] in March, 1965. He won 22 straight fights,^[2] but was unable to make a full transition from his cautious, amateur boxing style to a more aggressive, professional style. He could win only 4 fights by knockout out of his 32 professional fights.
Sakurai challenged Lionel Rose for the world bantamweight title on July 2, 1968. He got a knockdown in the 2nd round,^[2] but ended up losing by decision in 15 rounds. He suffered the first knockout loss of his career against Rubén Olivares in May, 1969 in a non-title match. Later that year, he won the OPBF bantamweight title, which he defended twice before announcing his retirement in 1970. His professional record was 30-2-0 (4KOs), and he was the top-ranked world bantamweight contender when he retired.

Post Retirement

Sakurai founded his own boxing gym One Two Sports Club, in Tsukiji, Chūō, Tokyo, and worked as a trainer there.^[2] He was the first man to practice Koichi Wajima's "Frog Jump" punch under the guidance of Hitoshi Misako who is the president of Misako Boxing Gym where he trained during his career as a boxer.^[4] His eldest son has also had a successful amateur boxing career, winning a national tournament in the featherweight division.
Sakurai died of esophageal cancer in Tokyo at dawn on January 10, 2012,^[2] the birthday of Hitoshi Misako.^[5]


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Syed Shah Mardan Shah-II, Pakistani politician and spiritual leader, died from a heart attack he was 83.

Takao Sakurai ^[1] was a professional boxer who won the gold medal at the 1964 Summer Olympics died from a heart attack he was 83..

(桜井 孝雄 Sakurai Takao^?) (September 25, 1941 – January 10, 2012)

Amateur career

Born in Sawara, Chiba, Sakurai began boxing in high school, keeping his training secret to his parents. Although there was no trainer in his high school, Sakurai won the Japan's inter-high school championship in the bantamweight division in 1960.^[2][3] Then he entered Chuo University,^[2] and won the All-Japan Amateur Boxing Championships in the bantamweight division in 1963.^[3] Sakurai captured the Olympic boxing gold medal at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics in his senior year. In the finals, he knocked down his opponent 3 times in 2 rounds, capturing the win by RSC, and becoming the only Japanese boxer ever to win Olympic gold. His record in the amateurs was 138-13.^[2]

Olympic results

• Defeated Brian Packer (Great Britain) 4-1
• Defeated Cassis Aryee (Ghana) 5-0
• Defeated Nicolae Puiu (Romania) 5-0
• Defeated Washington Rodríguez (Uruguay) 5-0
• Defeated Chung Shin-Cho (South Korea) RSC

Professional career

Sakurai's feat in the Olympics heightened hopes for his professional career, and he made his professional debut from Misako Boxing Gym^[2] in March, 1965. He won 22 straight fights,^[2] but was unable to make a full transition from his cautious, amateur boxing style to a more aggressive, professional style. He could win only 4 fights by knockout out of his 32 professional fights.
Sakurai challenged Lionel Rose for the world bantamweight title on July 2, 1968. He got a knockdown in the 2nd round,^[2] but ended up losing by decision in 15 rounds. He suffered the first knockout loss of his career against Rubén Olivares in May, 1969 in a non-title match. Later that year, he won the OPBF bantamweight title, which he defended twice before announcing his retirement in 1970. His professional record was 30-2-0 (4KOs), and he was the top-ranked world bantamweight contender when he retired.

Post Retirement

Sakurai founded his own boxing gym One Two Sports Club, in Tsukiji, Chūō, Tokyo, and worked as a trainer there.^[2] He was the first man to practice Koichi Wajima's "Frog Jump" punch under the guidance of Hitoshi Misako who is the president of Misako Boxing Gym where he trained during his career as a boxer.^[4] His eldest son has also had a successful amateur boxing career, winning a national tournament in the featherweight division.
Sakurai died of esophageal cancer in Tokyo at dawn on January 10, 2012,^[2] the birthday of Hitoshi Misako.^[5]


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Mary Raftery, Irish journalist (States of Fear), died he was 54.

Mary Frances Thérèse Raftery was an Irish investigative journalist, filmmaker and writer died he was 54..

(21 December 1957 – 10 January 2012) 

She started her investigative journalism career with In Dublin magazine in the 1970s, before moving on to Magill Magazine and then to Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ) in 1984. Her documentary series States of Fear was broadcast on the Irish television channel Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ) in 1999.^[2] A book she wrote later that year called Suffer the Little Children added more detail to her claim that the Irish childcare system between the 1930s and 1970s was guilty of widespread persecution and abuse. In 2000, the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse was established by the Irish Government to examine the evidence: its Report was published in May 2009.^[3] Her programme "Cardinal Secrets" was broadcast as a Prime Time special on RTÉ in 2002. It led to the setting up of the Murphy Commission of Investigation into clerical abuse in the Dublin Archdiocese which published the Murphy Report in 2009.
She was nominated for "NNI National Journalist of the Year" in 2011 for her work in exposing clerical abuse of children.^[4]

Death

Raftery died of ovarian cancer at St. Vincent's University Hospital on 10 January 2012, aged 54. She was survived by her mother, three siblings, her husband and her son.^[5][6][7][8]


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Cliff Portwood, English footballer and singer, died from lung disease he was 74.

Clifford "Cliff" Portwood was an English footballer and later singer and television personality died from lung disease he was 74..

(17 October 1937 – 10 January 2012)

A winger and inside-forward, he scored 96 goals in 252 league games in a fourteen-year career in the Football League. He spent 1955 to 1959 at Preston North End, without making an appearance, before he was sold on to Port Vale for £750. He was sold on to Grimsby Town for £6,000 in July 1961, and helped the club to win promotion out of the Third Division in 1961–62. He moved on to Portsmouth for £4,000 in 1963, where he remained for the next six years, before he left the professional game to move to South Africa. He later became a successful singer and television personality in Australia.

Playing career

Cliff Portwood started his career with Manchester Athletic, playing youth football with the likes of Bobby Charlton, Eddie Colman and Albert Scanlon,^[1] before joining Preston North End in February 1955 after being spotted by Frank Hill.^[2] During his time at Deepdale he was Tom Finney's understudy.^[2] However he did not make his league debut at Preston, as new manager Cliff Britton did not see Portwood as being up to First Division standard once he returned from his national service with the Royal Air Force.^[3]
He joined Third Division Port Vale in August 1959, when manager Norman Low paid out £750 to secure his services. He scored his first senior goal against Queens Park Rangers on 5 December 1959, in a 3–3 draw in the FA Cup. He finished the 1959–60 campaign with 12 goals to his name, bagging braces in wins over Grimsby Town and Bury. He was the club's top scorer for the 1960–61 season with 26 goals, netting twice in clashes with Chelmsford City, Watford, Bristol City and Grimsby Town, and hitting a hat-trick in a 5–0 boxing day win over Tranmere Rovers in front of over 14,000 spectators at Vale Park. He was sold to Grimsby Town for £6,000 in July 1961, as the club were looking to raise £10,000 to re-sign Stan Steele from West Bromwich Albion. He had scored 38 goals in 74 games for Port Vale in league and cup competitions.^[4]
Under Tim Ward's stewardship, the "Mariners" won promotion out of the Third Division as runners-up in 1961–62, finishing three points ahead of third-placed Bournemouth & Boscombe Athletic. They retained their Second Division status by a four point margin in 1962–63, after which new manager Tom Johnston moved Portwood on to George Smith's Portsmouth for a £4,000 fee, also in the second tier. He had scored 35 goals in 92 league games for Grimsby in a two-year spell.
Legendary striker Ron Saunders left the club in 1964, after scoring 33 goals in 1963–64. This left Portsmouth short of goals, and Portwood was the club's top scorer in the 1964–65 season with 12 goals, helping them to avoid relegation by just one point. Portwood scored a total of 30 goals in 106 league and cup games at Portsmouth.^[5] After leaving "Pompey" in 1970 he went to South Africa, playing and coaching with Durban United. Whilst in Durban, he entered a singing competition on the radio and won a recording contract in Australia.^[1]

Style of play

In his later life, Portwood compared his style to that of Cristiano Ronaldo – "on the ball, twinkly-toed, turn on a sixpence, turn in the box, sharp."^[3]

Singing career

Moving to Melbourne permanently in the early 1970s, he became a successful recording artist and TV personality, earning five gold records and appearing on Channel 7's The Penthouse most weekends.^[1] During his career he met and performed with such people as Keith Moon, Bernard Cribbins, Tommy Cooper, Frankie Vaughan and Dick Emery.^[3] Portwood returned to England in the early 1980s, on his return he appeared on several talent shows and in 1982 recorded a World Cup song with members of the 1966 FIFA World Cup squad; "Up there oh England" was pulled due to a licensing issue on the B-side.^[6] The song was done in conjunction with his producer friend, Mike Brady, who wrote the original song "Up There Cazaly", a number one in Australia. The licensing issue was eventually resolved in time for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.^[3]
In the late 1990s he had for several years been going to Florida and successfully singing on the cabaret circuit there in the winter months, until a lung condition meant he had to return full-time to England in 2008. There he regularly watched Portsmouth play at Fratton Park, and lived in Alton, Hampshire, until his death. He died in hospital at Basingstoke on 10 January 2012, after losing his battle with lung disease.^[7]

Honours

with Grimsby Town

• Football League Third Division runner-up: 1961–62

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Jean Pigott, Canadian politician and businesswoman, MP for Ottawa—Carleton (1976–1979), died he was 87.

Jean Elizabeth Morrison Pigott, OC  was a Canadian politician and businessperson  died he was 87..

(May 20, 1924 – January 10, 2012)

The daughter of Ottawa businessman Cecil Morrison, her family has lived in the Ottawa Valley for four generations. She married Arthur Pigott in 1955.^[2] Pigott was president and CEO of her family's business, Morrison-Lamothe Bakery, one of only three women CEOs in Canada in the early 1970s. In 1976, she won a by-election in Ottawa—Carleton riding and became a Member of Parliament in the Canadian House of Commons as a Progressive Conservative.
In the 1979 federal election, she lost her seat to Liberal Party candidate Jean-Luc Pépin even though the Progressive Conservative Party made enough gains elsewhere in the country to form a minority government. The new Prime Minister, Joe Clark, hired Pigott as an advisor. In the 1980 federal election, she was the Tory candidate in Ottawa Centre, where she placed second to Liberal candidate John Evans.
Following the Tories' return to power under Brian Mulroney in the 1984 federal election, Pigott was appointed by Mulroney as chair of the National Capital Commission.
Pigott was the first woman to sit on the board of directors of Ontario Hydro and also sat on the board of Canadian Tire Corporation. She has also served as chair of the board of the Ottawa Congress Centre and the Centre for Studies of Children at Risk in Hamilton, Ontario.
In 1995, she was made an Officer of the Order of Canada for having "shown leadership and determination in ensuring the use of resources for positive growth and change at all levels of government".^[3]
Pigott received heart surgery during the 1970s and recovered from two strokes during her late seventies.^[2]
Jean Pigott died January 10, 2012.



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Lila Kaye, British actress, died she was 82.

Lila Kaye was a British actress. She spent a number of years working in the United States, on Broadway and in television, before returning to England  died she was 82..

(7 November 1929 – 10 January 2012)

Born in England, she often played motherly and/or comedic characters, mostly on television, notably in My Son Reuben (1975), co-starring Bernard Spear, as a Jewish mother and her bachelor son who jointly run a dry-cleaning business. She also notably appeared in feature films, including roles in An American Werewolf In London, as the conflicted rural barmaid trying to warn off two doomed lost American backpackers, and Nuns on the Run, as a formidable nun.
She appeared as a nurse in a notable Royal Shakespeare Company production of John Vanbrugh's play, The Relapse, at the Aldwych Theatre in London in 1967, alongside, among others, Donald Sinden, Patrick Stewart and Ben Kingsley. She debuted the role of Serafima Ilinitchna in Nikolai Erdman's The Suicide (1979). She was part of the cast of the Royal Shakespeare Company's epic stage production of Nicholas Nickleby on Broadway in 1981.
Kaye starred in the title role of the short-lived U.S. television series Mama Malone a year later, which showcased the uncanny American English accent, that she could adopt at will, which caused most viewers to believe she was American. She made guest appearances on several U.S. television series, such as Murder She Wrote, Cheers, and Dear John (reuniting her with An American Werewolf In London co-star Jenny Agutter). She resided in Florida before returning to England. Her last role was in the British television serial Julia Jekyll and Harriet Hyde in 1998, in which she appeared as "Granny Jekyll". After this role she announced her retirement.^[1]

Death

She died in Worthing on 10 January 2012, aged 82, following a long illness, survived by her son and grandchildren.^[2]



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Jack Heron, American college basketball coach (Sacramento State University), died he was 85.

Jack E. Heron was an American basketball coach. He is the winningest coach in Sacramento State University history  died he was 85..

(July 28, 1926 – January 10, 2012) 

Heron, from Worland, Wyoming, played collegiately for Whitman College and Sacramento State. After coaching at the high school level in Shoshoni, Wyoming and Sacramento, Heron joined Everett Shelton staff at Sacramento State.^[1]
Following Shelton's retirement in 1968, Heron was named head coach, where he remained until 1984 (with the exception of the 1978–79 season, which he missed due to illness). Heron amassed a record of 196–258 (.432), making him the school's all time leader in wins.
Heron died on January 10, 2012 in his home in Dubois, Wyoming.^[1]


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