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UCLA Water Polo Alumnus and Entrepreneur Blake Krikorian Dies at Age 48

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UCLA alumnus Blake Krikorian, 48, died Wednesday after suffering a heart attack while surfing in the San Francisco area, according to a report from Recode. Krikorian is survived by his wife and two children.

As a man dedicated to sports from the start, Krikorian played water polo at UCLA for four years. Despite several injuries and even a shoulder surgery in 1988, he returned to achieve his best season as a Bruin in 1989, with 19 goals, 12 steals, and 11 assists.

Krikorian was also the older brother of Adam Krikorian, former UCLA water polo player and women’s water polo coach. Currently, Adam is the head coach of the United States women’s national water polo team, headed to play in their first match of the 2016 Olympics in Rio tomorrow morning.

Blake was best known for co-founding Sling Media with his brother Jason in 2004. The brothers were frustrated that they could not find a way to watch sports games when on the go, so they transitioned their passion for sports to create the home-video streaming service Slingbox which allows users to watch television over the Internet.

"I loved the Giants, and [my brother, Jason, and I] were working together, summer 2002, and we wanted to watch our team play and we were just frustrated there wasn’t any way to watch when we were on the road or sitting in the office. We went online and found some services that promised offers, but there were numerous blackouts….Why do we have to be sitting on our couch? Why can’t we be in the backyard on our laptop or watching on our cell phone? It shouldn’t matter. Everything is connected," Krikorian said in an interview with UCLA Magazine.

Soon enough, the entrepreneur sold his company for $380 million. Krikorian continued to pursue his passion for technology when he served on the board of Amazon and even headed Microsoft’s interactive entertainment business for a short period of time.

Krikorian’s premature death has left both the Bruin community and the leaders of the technological industry devastated.

"We are shocked and saddened by the tragic news of Blake's passing," Mark Vena, Sling Media's vice president of worldwide marketing, said in a statement. "He was a true visionary who forever changed the content landscape when he envisioned the evolution of TV Anywhere over a decade ago."

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of BruinsNation's (BN) editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of BN's editors.

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