Jamie Squire / Getty Images file

Andre Agassi's tearful goodbye at the U.S. Open was one of the year's lasting images.

Jimmie Johnson, meanwhile, celebrated his first Nextel Cup championship by breaking his wrist. The same driver who came through NASCAR’s grueling season unscathed was “horsing around” on top of a golf cart at a celebrity tournament in December when he fell.

It was his worst ride of the year, which began with a win at the Daytona 500 to start the year and ended with a victory lap through Manhattan during “Champion’s Week.”

“You never know if it will happen again,” Johnson said.

But at least he’ll get the chance to defend his title. Plenty of familiar faces won’t be back next year.

Formula One champion Michael Schumacher, so dominant that even Tiger Woods regarded him with awe, bowed out with seven titles and a record 91 victories after puncturing a tire less than 10 laps into the Brazilian Grand Prix in October.

Andre Agassi bid farewell on a similarly sad note, flat-footed and in pain after losing to Benjamin Becker, the 112th-ranked player in the world, at the U.S. Open. He broke into tennis as a precocious 16-year-old, oozing attitude, leaking talent and marked, it seemed, with a short shelf life. Instead, Agassi departed at age 36 with eight majors and a career Grand Slam in tow, an eminence grise who wrung every last bit of joy from his career.

A handful of greats from across the sports spectrum now leave behind only memories.

Death claimed Byron Nelson, golf’s enduring gentleman, at age 94; Red Auerbach, architect of the Boston Celtics’ dynasty at 89; LPGA pioneer Patty Berg at 88; boxer Floyd Patterson at 71; four-time Iditarod winner Susan Butcher at 51,and Hall of Fame center fielder Kirby Puckett at 45.

Former Wolverines football coach Bo Schembechler died at age 77 on the eve of maybe the best Michigan-Ohio State game ever. Both Schembechler and his mentor, Buckeye coach Woody Hayes, had gone to great lengths to make sure there was never a bad one, a tradition even kids born after the coaches had left the sideline could appreciate.

Just before kickoff, in a tribute so fitting it made you smile, one of those kids hoisted a sign that read, “Bo and Woody in Heaven: Play Nice.”