FILE - In this Nov. 14, 1993, file photo, Miami Dolphins coach Don Shula is carried on his team's shoulders after his 325th victory, against the Philadelphia Eagles in Philadelphia. Not long after came a seismic jolt, the helicopter crash of Kobe Bryant in the fog-shrouded California hills that reverberated across sports and across continents. Football lost a big piece of its heart: Don Shula, Gale Sayers, Paul Hornung, Bobby Mitchell. The losses, of course, came against a backdrop of a pandemic, its number of fatalities rolled out daily on TV screens. Kurt Thomas in 1978 became the first U.S. male gymnast to win a world title but lost an Olympic shot in 1980 because of the boycott.

MIAMI, Fla. Kurt Thomas, the first U.S. male gymnast to win a world championship gold medal, has died. Kurt lived his life to the extreme, and I will be forever honored to be his wife, Beckie Thomas told International Gymnast Magazine. Thomas won the floor exercise in the 1978 world championships in Strasbourg, France, for the first U.S. mens title. The team from Miami Central with Thomas leading the way, won two Greater Miami Athletic Conference (GMAC) Championships in 1972 and 1973. He and Beckie owned and ran Kurt Thomas Gymnastics in Frisco, Texas.