On June 17, CoSIDA Hall of Famer and long-time West Coast sports information icon Sam Goldman died at the age of 87. His obituary information and tributes from San Francisco State and the West Coast Conference, along with a statement from CoSIDA President Eric McDowell, can be
found here.
Barry Zepel spent the first 17 years of his career as a sports information director at four schools in Southern California, which included an 11-year tenure as SID at Loyola Marymount between 1979 and 1990. He knew Goldman for 35 years. He has been a public affairs writer and media relations officer at California State University, East Bay, in Northern California, for the past 13 years.
Sam Goldman was the ultimate “people person.”
No matter whether you were a fellow sports information director, athlete, coach, student, veteran journalist, or simply someone needing
assistance, it was not difficult getting to know Sam Goldman. The odds are that Sam would find you first, introduce himself, and be ready to help you in multiple ways.
And no doubt Sam would also offer you a butterscotch or peppermint candy from his handy cigar box-like container. Even if he hadn’t yet learned your name, Sam would instantly make you feel right-at-home by calling you “Chief” or “Great Leader.”
Any writer or broadcaster who has ever worked in the press box of a Bay Area stadium or arena during the past 50 years has been familiar with Sam’s large dose of energy, friendliness, and helpfulness.
Samuel N. Goldman passed away at the age of 87 on June 17 at his family home in San Francisco. Three days later his family was joined by
hundreds of friends, colleagues in the media and in education, as well as the sports world who came to Eternal Home Cemetery in nearby Daly City to pay their respects and say farewell.
Sam, the spunky ambassador for everything San Francisco and Bay Area sports as a journalist, college and high school instructor, and sports public relations professional extraordinaire, was an institution in the region for more than five decades.
No wonder that he was elected a “Hall of Famer” by the College Sports Information Directors of America (1994) and by San Francisco State University’s Gridiron Club (1994) and Athletic Department (1993); he was named to Skyline College’s Hall of Fame in 1987.
The West Coast Conference established the “Sam Goldman Media Award” in 2000 to annually honor a journalist for contributions to the conference and college athletics. Sam also was honored in 1997 with the Scoop Hudgins Sports Information Directors Award by the All-American Football Foundation.
I will always be in awe of Sam for his constant energy and optimism seemingly at all hours of the day and night. He entered my life and career in September 1979, when I became sports information director at Loyola Marymount University, a member school of what was then called the West Coast Athletic Conference. At the time, Sam had just become the WCAC’s sports information director. He also was a professor of English and language arts – and faculty advisor for the student newspaper – at Skyline College, a 20-minute drive from his Sunset district home in San Francisco.
No matter that it was supposed to be a part-time gig; Sam was cranking out as many pages for his informative weekly news releases as any Division I league information office in the country. He also was available by telephone at any hour. As this was years before the Internet and email, Sam involved his wife of 63 years, Adele, and any of the four daughters available – Sandy, Ruth, Andrea and Julie – to help him edit what he had written, along with running off copies, and stuffing envelopes on Sunday night for Monday morning mailings. In addition, for the first two years that he had the job, Sam edited and coordinated game programs that were sold at all WCAC basketball games.
When the member schools of the league (now known as the West Coast Conference) voted to make their sports information director and commissioner full-time in 1984, Sam elected instead to continue teaching fulltime at Skyline College. He then began a second tenure as SID at San Francisco State, where he had previously served from ‘57 to ’73.
Most people had trouble keeping pace with the Sam Goldman energy. Though 27 years younger than Sam, this writer also had difficulty keeping up with his frenetic non-stop pace, whether it be at LMU basketball games he attended, or years later after my wife Janet and I relocated to the Bay Area. It was then that he arranged for me to join him as a volunteer for San Francisco Giants and Oakland Athletics post-season games the past decade. We were runners, charged with handing out statistics sheets, game notes and info updates to the media working in the main press box. We also had to constantly run upstairs to the auxiliary press tables on the top deck of the Oakland Coliseum or across AT&T Park to the bleachers behind left field where the media flow continued. He was always ready to make another trip up several long staircases or across the stadium without having to pause. Some of these Athletics and Giants home games took place on the same day, with one in the afternoon and the other at night.
Some years earlier I asked Sam to join me as moderator for the media interview sessions when I was venue press chief for the 1984 Summer Olympics Weightlifting competition in Los Angeles. Each of the workdays for a two-week period was long and taxing. When a session ended, I wanted to go to sleep for a week. But each night Sam was eager to visit the main press center housed at the Los Angeles Convention Center 15 miles away, coaxing me to drive him there. It provided him with yet another way to meet more people, pickup some additional souvenirs, and trade for more of his beloved Olympic pins. I know of no one with a bigger collection of Olympic and other sports pins than Sam.
With Adele always by his side, Sam helped so many college sports and journalism programs, and did the same for the Giants, Athletics, Raiders, and 49ers. After he supposedly retired as teacher in the early 1990s, the Goldmans remained involved. Along with continuing as Skyline’s sports information director until 1999, he and Adele drove about 80 miles roundtrip, sometimes several times a week, to help out at Stanford University football, basketball and baseball games; he also did the media relations for the annual East-West Shrine Game and volunteered each year at what was previously known as the Emerald Bowl football game that later became the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl.
Even after he left the profession, Sam continued to enjoy his involvement with CoSIDA, traveling with Adele to any city hosting the annual workshops of the organization. He served a term as a CoSIDA board member, and helped coordinate the cap and t-shirt exchange for many years.
The activity he enjoyed most was spending time with his bride, and the families of their four daughters, which included six grandchildren and one great grandson.
Since his passing, colleagues and friends have expressed their love and appreciation in the media and on social media for what Sam Goldman has meant to them; there are too many to fit into this article.
From Michelle Smith, ESPN: “To me, Sam Goldman will always be a wide smile, a tremendous help and the best Girl Scout cookie customer I know. His good nature has made press boxes all over the area better places to work. And then there’s the small matter that he knows his job so well and is very good at it. I am always thrilled to see him and Adele at games and now that I don’t see them as often, I miss them very much.”
From Bill Fusco, Athletic Director, Sonoma State University: “Many years ago when I was the sports information director at Saint Mary’s College and (later at) University of San Francisco, Sam Goldman was and still is a person that I respect and admire. He inspired many of us to approach the sports information business with confidence and determination. His positive outlook on everything was something that was very reinforcing in the way I handled my daily life.”
From Al Barba, Kennesaw State SID and formerly of USF, SF 49ers, Pepperdine and CCAA: “My first encounter with Sam came as a freshman journalism student while attending the annual Journalism Association of Community Colleges convention in Southern California in 1983… He left a lasting impression and I finally had the opportunity to get to know him while working as an intern at USF shortly after my graduation from Pepperdine… Like so many, Sam had an impact on me and he always took an interest in how I was doing, how my career was going, and even though he never met my parents, always asked me how they were doing. As my career progressed and I took other jobs, Sam always took time to drop me a note of congratulations.”
From Gary Migdol, public relations for Stanford Hospital and former Stanford SID: “There are very few people in my more than 20 years at Stanford who I would call a mentor, colleague and friend. Sam is at the top of my list.”
From Mike Zapolski, Athletic Director of Augustana College and former Pepperdine SID: “Sam and I first crossed paths in the fall of 1983 when I was first named the SID at Pepperdine. As always, Sam was gracious, bursting with energy, and always willing to offer a helping hand… Thankfully our paths continued to cross during my tenure at Pepperdine, the last time being during the 2001-02 basketball season when the
Waves won a tournament at Stanford’s Maples Pavilion. I enjoyed two Pepperdine victories plus plenty of butterscotch candy!”
From Steve Kroner, San Francisco Chronicle Sports Writer: “I met Sam when I was going to Capuchino High in the mid-1970s and he was working at Skyline College. I didn’t follow Sam to Skyline, but thankfully, I have had the honor of working with Sam in various roles over more than three decades. The adjectives to describe Sam – professional, enthusiastic, funny and caring – applied in the mid-70s just as they apply today. He is one of a kind, and a true role model for anyone in sports media.”
Sam Goldman provided friendship, warmth and good cheer to everyone he encountered over the years. Thousands have benefited while returning it in kind.
To read more about Sam Goldman from those whom he helped over the past decades, click on the following links to news accounts, sports columns, and other published accounts:
http://sfbay.ca/2014/06/20/sam-goldman-prince-of-the-bay-area-press-box/
http://www.mercurynews.com/peninsula-sports/ci_26005942/john-reid-column-goldman-impacted-sports-scene-positive
http://www.mercurynews.com/pacifica/ci_26026480/remembering-friend
http://campusinsiders.com/network/wcc/news/stat-crew-news-item-west-leaguenotes-1403117340000
http://www.sfstategators.com/news/2014/6/18/GEN_0618143601.aspx