If you've ever been stuck in traffic behind a diesel bus, choking on it's noxious exhaust, you know how refreshing it is to finally pass the polluting behemoth and gasp that first breath of fresh air. In today's sports world, awash in the nauseating fumes of so many stars du jour, Byron Nelson was that breath of fresh air.

In 1944, he won 13 of the 23 tournaments he played. The following year he won a record 18 times in 31 starts (31 victories in just 54 starts), including 11 in a row - also a record. Nelson finished second seven times in 1945, was never out of the top 10 and at one point played 19 consecutive rounds under 70. His stroke average of 68.33 for the season is still the record - based on rounds played.

This week the world lost more than a mere man, a great golfer and mentor to so many for so long.  Society as a whole lost an example of what it means do be a decent man. Long removed from the spectacle of his records and the adulation on the golf course, Byron Nelson lived his life and comported himself with a civility and dignity that is quickly evaporating from our midst.  The heat of the spotlight and the ego of the fleeting star have reduced sports to a 24-hour ESPN cycle of "me". 

"I don't know very much," Byron Nelson said in a 1997 interview with The Associated Press. "I know a little bit about golf. I know how to make a stew. And I know how to be a decent man." Sadly, the generosity of that generation, the generation of our fathers and mothers, is ending.

It's clich