We remember sport stars who left us in 2017

Sport lost some of its greats in 2017‚ Colin Meads and Joost van der Westhuizen of rugby fame and Jake LaMotta‚ the boxer whose character was brilliantly portrayed by Robert de Niro in the movie Raging Bull.

Then there were the lesser-known sports figures who achieved brief fame‚ or notoriety‚ in their demise.

Margaret Lambert was one of the famous.

Born Margarethe Minnie Bergmann in a German village of Laupheim on the Swiss border‚ she was known as Grethe‚ and she was Jewish.

By the time the Nazis came to power‚ she was 19‚ a promising athlete‚ especially in the high jump‚ and aware of the danger of being Jewish in Germany.

She left for Britain‚ winning the national high-jump title there in 1935.

She would have stayed had it not been for international pressure on the Nazis to stop discrimination ahead of the 1936 Olympics.

Grethe’s parents were still in Germany and the Nazis “persuaded” them to get their daughter home.

Grethe returned‚ and a month before the Berlin Olympics she won the high jump at a national event.

“Look at us‚” the Nazis were able to tell the world.

“We even have a Jewish high-jumper.”

But when the German Olympic team was named‚ Grethe’s name was not there.

She left again in 1937‚ this time for the US where she won the national high-jump and shot-put titles in that year.

By some miracle she got her parents out in 1940‚ by which time she had married Bruno Lambert‚ a fellow German athlete and refugee.

Grethe Bergmann‚ now officially Margaret Lambert‚ was determined never to visit Germany but in 1999‚ aged 85‚ she returned to Laupheim where they had named a new sports stadium after her.

She died in July this year aged 103.

Lou Rowan was one of the notorious.

Rowan‚ who died aged 91‚ had been a detective sergeant before his retirement.

He was also a cricket umpire and there is strong circumstantial evidence that suggests a bias in favour of his homeland‚ Australia.

During the Ashes series of 1970/71‚ he stood in five of the seven test matches and didn’t uphold a single LBW appeal for England’s bowlers.

The Aussies were given five.

In a time before neutral officials‚ DRS (decision review system)‚ and match referees‚ umpires were all-powerful.

When England captain Ray Illingworth threatened to take his team off the field at Sydney after the players had been pelted with beer cans‚ Rowan turned copper.

He might as well have put a yellow “Crime Scene: Do Not Cross” banner across the boundary.

Sergeant Rowan proceeded‚ as they say in cop-speak‚ to warn Illingworth that if he and his team left the field they would forfeit the match.

So they stayed‚ and ended up winning the series 2-0 to regain the Ashes.

The Aussies probably considered that the bigger crime.

Ronnie Moran and Sugar Ramos were two other less famous sportsmen who shuffled off this mortal coil in 2017.

Moran‚ 83‚ made his debut for Liverpool as an 18-year-old in 1952.

He went on to be captain‚ reserve-team coach‚ first-team coach‚ physiotherapist and caretaker manager for 49 years.

He won the First and Second Division titles during his 379 appearances between 1952 and 1968 and as part of the famed Anfield boot room‚ was a key influence as the club won four European Cups‚ 13 league championships‚ five FA Cups‚ five League Cups‚ two Uefa Cups and one European Super Cup. Liverpool could use a Ronnie Moran today.

Ramos‚ 75‚ was once world featherweight boxing champion whose fists led to two ring deaths‚ one of them inspiring a Bob Dylan song.

When he won the title in 1963‚ he defeated Davey Moore‚ who slipped into a coma and died two days later.

Dylan later memorialise the bout in the song “Who Killed Davey Moore?”

Of the South African deaths were two golfers‚ Simon Hobday‚ 76‚ who won a major on the US seniors tour among many other titles‚ and Wayne Westner‚ 55‚ who‚ with Ernie Els‚ won the World Cup of golf in 1996.

Westner died by his own hand in a hostage drama on the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast.

Inevitably‚ road deaths claimed at least three South African sportsmen.

Footballers Ntuthuko Radebe‚ 23‚ died in Belgium and Mlondi Dlamini‚ 20‚ in South Africa.

Cyclist Greg Anderson died after being hit by a car while training in Hazyview.