Photo Provided | Taken by Cathy Reed Recreation of photo of Sam Simmermaker taken in the 1960’s where he tries out the 1920’s radio.
Columbus’ history is rich in lore and legend. That’s true in many fields, but in sports broadcasting, one name holds an undisputed place in the pantheon: Sam Simmermaker.
Simmermaker’s authoritative voice, command of scores and statistics, understanding of what makes players great, and, when called for, his emotionally heightened reaction to moments in sports destined for history, are unmistakeable. Because of that stature, one can be taken aback a bit at how unassuming the man is in person.
He has had a few other sport-writing gigs, but for the 64 years, four months and 24 days between January 1, 1960, and this spring, he has been consistently behind the microphone at the news-talk AM station WCSI. The accolades, both statewide and national, have been myriad over the decades. He’s in the Indiana Associated Press Broadcasters Association and the Indiana Basketball Halls of Fame.
His story began in Star City, a community in Pulaski County in northwest Indiana.
“It had its own high school when I was growing up, but that was later absorbed into the school in Winamac, the county seat,” he said.
He played varsity basketball and baseball, but his passion really lay in reporting what was going on on the court and the diamond. He cites a journalism class his senior year with tipping the scales.
“I devoured the South Bend Tribune, the Chicago Tribune and Sun-Times and the Logansport paper,” he recalled.
He went to the main IU campus in Bloomington and earned a degree in television and radio. Afterward, he volunteered for the Army Signal Corps, figuring “nobody would give you a job if you might get drafted.”
Once he’d completed his service, he auditioned at stations in Bloomington, Seymour, Columbus and Bedford.
In the late 1950s, Channel 4 on central Indiana television dials was WTTV, headquartered in Bloomington with studios in Indianapolis. It was an independent station at the time, owned by the Armenian inventor and entrepreneur Sarkes Tarzian.
WTTV offered Simmermaker a job writing commercial copy, which led to play-by-play work for the Indianapolis Indians’ baseball games.
During his tenure at WTTV, he developed a close friendship with Chuck Marlowe, who is also among the giants of Indiana sportscasting. This good turn of career fortune led to a similar turn in his personal life: meeting the woman he cites as the key to everything good about his life ever since: his wife, Fran.
“I was living in a Bloomington rooming house. One day, one of my roommates was getting slicked up to go out. I asked, ‘Where ya headed?’ He said he had a date with a Seymour High School home-economics teacher. I said that if there were any more such teachers to let me know. Sure enough, there was.”
He met Fran while she was taking tickets at Shields Gymnasium in Seymour, and two years later, they were married. Their union resulted with a daughter, Joan, who had a career teaching in the DeKalb school system, and a son, Jeff, who lives in Little Rock, Arkansas, and recently retired from a financial-advisor career.
“He beat me [to retirement] by three weeks,” said Simmermaker.
When he got to WCSI, both the studio and the transmitter were located west of town on Carr Hill Road. The White River Broadcasting Company, of which WCSI is a part, is now located at Washington Street and National Road. In the interim, the studio was situated on the second floor of the building on the northeast corner of Fifth and Washington streets, above the old Home Federal Savings and Loan.
Simmermaker is particularly fond of that location.
“It was in the heart of downtown,” he said. “City Hall, the Chamber of Commerce, the police station were all nearby. Good restaurants. I could sneak out between newscasts and get a haircut.”
He had the good fortune to be the voice of sports for Columbus’ only radio station during the 1960s – a time he calls the golden era of Columbus High School sports. Legendary coaches – Max Andress – football, Bill Stearman – basketball and Duane Barrows – swimming, took teams to state finals and shaped the directions of some amazing athletes. It was during that era that “Holy cow!” became his signature response to exceptionally executed plays.
Did he find these coaches accessible?
“With a capital A,” he replied.
His penchant for nicknames served him well during that decade.
“We had monikers for the players that you just couldn’t do today,” he said. “There were: The Monster, The Snake, The Spider, The Tiger and Mike Vincent was The Jolly Green Giant. I called Monte Jines, Pepper Pot, and he said he still answers to that.”
His flair with nicknames also had an influence at WCSI.
“We’ve had The General, The Admiral,” he said. John Foster, with whom he engaged in banter on Foster’s morning show for many years, was Buck.
“I came up with that because John’s from Ohio. Buckeye, you know. It never really caught on beyond the two of us, but when he leaves me phone messages, he says, ‘Hey, Sam, it’s Buck.’”
In the days before cell phones, he frequently tied up the family’s landline getting reports from sources, so his teenage daughter Joan had to go to Dietz’s Market at 23rd and Union to use the pay phone to talk to her friends.
One important aspect of Simmermaker’s story is his devotion to the St. Louis Cardinals. That started when he was a kid in Star City. All his friends rooted for either the Dodgers or the Yankees.
“I’m not a fan,” he stressed. “I’m an addict.”
He intends to make at least as many treks to St. Louis for games as he ever has now that he has newfound leisure time.
His modesty strikes a contrast with his stature.
“When I submitted my resignation to station manager Bob Morrison, I stipulated that I didn’t want any folderol,” he said.
Alas, some media attention, such as this article, has come along anyway. That’s going to happen when one is a towering giant.
While he’s made larger-than-life figures out of generations of athletes, he said that “I guess I’ve never taken myself seriously.”
