Sam Balter

{{short description|American basketball player and sportscaster}}

{{Infobox basketball biography

| name = Sam Balter

| image = SamBaltercirca1929.JPG

|caption = Playing for UCLA, around 20, circa 1929

| height_ft = 5

| height_in = 10

| weight_lb = 150

| birth_date = {{birth date|1909|10|15}}

| birth_place = Detroit, Michigan, U.S.

| death_date = {{death date and age|1998|8|8|1909|10|15}}

| death_place = Los Angeles, California, U.S.

| high_school =

Lincoln (Los Angeles, California)
Roosevelt (Los Angeles, California)

| college = UCLA (1926–1929)

| career_start =

| career_end =

| career_number =

| career_position = Forward

| years1 =

| team1 =

| coach_start =

| coach_end =

| cyears1 =

| cteam1 =

| medal_templates =

{{MedalCountry|the {{USA}}}}

}}

Samuel Balter Jr. (October 15, 1909 – August 8, 1998) was an American basketball player who won a gold medal at the 1936 Summer Olympics. He played college basketball for the UCLA Bruins. He was also a renowned sportscaster.{{Cite web|url=https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/ba/sam-balter-1.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200418002818/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/ba/sam-balter-1.html |archive-date=2020-04-18 |title=Sam Balter Bio, Stats, and Results | Olympics at Sports-Reference.com|date=April 18, 2020}}

Career

Balter was born in Detroit, Michigan. He attended Lincoln High School, and then Roosevelt High School, both in Los Angeles.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V79IDwAAQBAJ&dq=sam+balter+basketball+%22high+school%22&pg=PT81|title=Sam Balter: His Life and Times|first=Barbara Balter|last=Kahn|date=February 18, 2010|publisher=iUniverse|isbn=9781450204583 |via=Google Books}} In his college years, he attended the University of California, Los Angeles, where he played basketball for the Bruins, serving as captain in 1929. He also played for an amateur basketball team sponsored by Universal Pictures.{{Cite web|url=http://www.jewishsports.net/BioPages/SamBalter.htm|title=Sam Balter|website=www.jewishsports.net}}

He competed in the 1936 Summer Olympics. As a Jew, he had some hesitation about playing in the Olympics hosted by Hitler's Germany, but was persuaded when he was assured by Avery Brundage that there would be no Nazi propaganda at the games. The Nazi regime had passed the anti-Semitic Nuremberg laws the prior Fall which stripped German Jews of citizenship, opportunities to receive a public education, and access to many professions and public facilities. Jewish businesses had been boycotted, forcing many businesses to close, and Jews could not serve in the legal profession, the civil service, teach in secondary schools or universities or vote or hold public office.{{cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93400660|title=My Jewish Grandpa's Triumph At Hitler's Olympics|last=Kahn|first=Carrie|website=NPR|accessdate=August 3, 2009|date=August 8, 2008}}{{cite web|url=https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/anti-jewish-legislation-in-prewar-germany |title=Anti-Jewish Legislation in Pre-War Germany|publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |date= |accessdate=July 16, 2022}}

At the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Balter was part of the American basketball team which won the gold medal. He played in two matches, but not the final match in which the U.S. team won the gold medal. He was one of a number of Jewish athletes who won medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics during the Nazi regime.{{cite web|url=http://www.ushmm.org/exhibition/olympics/?content=jewish_athletes_medals&lang=en |title=The Nazi Olympics (Berlin 1936)—Jewish Athletes; Olympic Medalists |publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |date= |accessdate=July 16, 2015}} The Berlin Olympic final concluded the first official Olympic Basketball competition, with the United States defeating Canada, 19–8. At the games, the medals were awarded by James Naismith, the inventor of basketball. The game was low scoring, as it was played outdoors in a converted tennis stadium with clay courts that had become somewhat muddy after a heavy rain, making dribbling and ball handling difficult. Irving Maretsky, a member of the Canadian team they played in the final game, noted that the American's height advantage was a key component in their victory, as at the time the rules required each score to be followed by a jump at center court. The wet court also made rapid passing and dribbling difficult, making height more of a factor than speed or ball handling."Olympian to Receive Medal 60 Years Late", Evansville Courier, Evansville, Indiana, 27 October 1996

Balter later turned his celebrity into a career as a Los Angeles sportscaster, announcing at radio station KLAC from 1946 to 1962, and starting his TV career on a local station in 1950. He was known as the "voice of UCLA football and basketball" and also wrote sports columns for the Los Angeles Herald-Express.{{cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1998-aug-10-sp-11805-story.html|title=UCLA Hall of Famer Sam Balter Dead at 88|date=August 10, 1998|work=Los Angeles Times|access-date=October 14, 2010}}[http://www.laradio.com/whereb.htm Los Angeles Radio People, Where are They Now? – B]. Retrieved March 30, 2016.

Balter was the broadcast announcer for the Los Angeles Stars of the American Basketball Association before the ABA-NBA merger.{{Cite web|url=http://www.remembertheaba.com/FanMemories/LAStarsMemories.html|title=Remember the ABA: Los Angeles Stars (Page 1)|website=www.remembertheaba.com}} He also appeared in a number of movies and television shows, always portraying a radio announcer or sportscaster.

Balter is a member of the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) Hall of Fame, the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, the Southern California Broadcasters Hall of Fame, the Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, and the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame.{{Cite web|url=https://scjewishsportshof.com/balter.html|title = Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame Home}}

Personal life

Balter was married and had a daughter. He died as a result of complications from abdominal surgery on August 8, 1998, at the age of 88.

Filmography

Straightaway (1961–1962), two episodes

References

External links

[https://web.archive.org/web/20070929105003/http://www.databaseolympics.com/players/playerpage.htm?ilkid=BALTESAM01 Olympics Profile]
[http://www.jewishsports.net/BioPages/SamBalter.htm Sam Balter] at Jewish Sports Hall of Fame
{{IMDb name|0051199}}

Category:1909 births

Category:1998 deaths

Category:Amateur Athletic Union men's basketball players

Category:American Basketball Association announcers

Category:American men's basketball players

Category:Basketball players at the 1936 Summer Olympics

Category:Basketball players from Detroit

Category:Cincinnati Reds announcers

Category:College basketball announcers in the United States

Category:Forwards (basketball)

Category:Jewish American basketball players

Category:Los Angeles Stars