He first played on professional football teams, the San Diego Chargers, the Houston Oilers, and the Kansas City Chiefs, and then found fame and fortune in professional wrestling, a sport that landed him in the World Wrestling Federation Hall of Fame.

He is Ernie “Big Cat” Ladd. And on Saturday night, he died of cancer at the age of 68.

Ladd’s battle with cancer began in 2004. It started in his colon and later spread to his stomach and bones.

“The doctor told me I had three-to-six months to live,” Ladd said in 2005. “I told him Dr. Jesus has the verdict on me.”

It seems the great doctor gave Ladd, the 15th player taken in the 1961 AFL draft, more than a few months, proof that numbers are not everything in the game of cancer.

Ladd, almost 6-foot-10 and more than 300 pounds, started making appearances at wrestling events during his football career. He was first a special events referee and then became a wrestler. It was both a knee injury and the lure of the lucrative wrestling industry that ended Ladd’s football career.

“In what other sport can you pick up a $14 pair of boots, $0.59 socks, spend maybe a total of $50, and convert it into $100,000 a year, if you are sharp and train?” Ladd once said. “My intention was to go back to football, but pro wrestling was so good to me.”

Hank Bauer, wounded World War II Marine and New York Yankees legacy, died on February 9 at the age of 84. The cause of death was cancer.

Bauer, who managed the 1966 Baltimore Orioles to their first World Series title, was a three-time All-Star Yankees outfielder during his time with the team that won nine American League pennants and seven World Series titles in just 10 years. Bauer, a Yankees fixture from 1948-59, set the Series record with a 17-game hitting streak. His record still stands.

Yankees owner George Steinbrenner says, “Hank Bauer is an emblem of a generation that helped shape the landscape of our country. He was a natural leader and a teammate in every sense of the word, and his contributions went well beyond the baseball field. His service to the Yankees, his country, and his family shows why I have been so privileged to call him a friend.”

Bauer’s baseball accomplishments, which also include playing two seasons with and later managing the Kansas City Athletics and scouting for the Yankees and Royals, are not his only claims to fame. He also earned two Bronze Stars and two Purple Hearts for his courageous dedication to the United States.

Enlisting in the Marines shortly after Pearl Harbor, Bauer was wounded in Okinawa when he was hit in the leg by shrapnel just 53 days after he arrived on the island with 64 other men. “Only six of us came out,” said Bauer who signed with the Yankees minor league after his discharge and sported his Marine Corps crewcut throughout the baseball career that landed him with the likes of Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, and a young Roger Maris.

During the same week Bauer lost his life, two other players of his time also passed away — Steve Barber, who pitched for Bauer in Baltimore and Lew Burdette, who played against the Yankees in the 1957 and 1958 World Series.

Bauer is remembered by many.

“I am truly heartbroken,” says Berra. “Hank was a wonderful teammate and friend for so long. Nobody was more dedicated and proud to be a Yankee, he gave you everything he had.”