TicketsFeb. 6, 2009
By JON BRAUDE
Bearcat Sports Digest Editor
You didn’t have to be around Glenn Sample very long to realize what a special person he was. Luckily for me, I had the good fortune to know Glenn for the last 30 years and, believe me, he was very, very special.
Warm, friendly, outgoing, dedicated, talented, a devoted husband, father and grandfather — you get the picture.
Most people do well to have a few of those qualities. Glenn personified all of them … and more. And I think the attribute that best exemplified him was his never-ending positive attitude. The glass wasn’t half-full for Glenn Sample. It was 100 percent full. Make that overflowing. He never had a bad word to say about anyone (I can’t relate to that at all) and he always looked on the bright side of any situation.
I first got to know Glenn when he and Ron Roth (see page 11 of the Bearcat Sports Digest for a feature on Ron) became official scorers for Cincinnati Reds games in 1980. At the time, I was covering the Reds for WUBE Radio. I later went to work for the Reds (from 1984-94) and for nine of those seasons I was the team’s public address announcer — sharing a press box booth at Riverfront Stadium with Glenn and Ron. As P.A. announcer, I replaced a Cincinnati legend, Paul Sommerkamp. That challenging task was made much easier by the way Glenn and Ron welcomed me into the booth. We became close friends and, when you work 81 games each year together, that’s a huge plus.
Every now and then people would come into the P.A. booth and call us the “The Three Amigos” (that worked) or “The Three Stooges” (I think what they really meant was the one stooge — me — and his two buddies). That was okay. I just hope Glenn and Ron didn’t mind — too much — being grouped with me. Or, if they did, they never let on. There was that positive attitude showing through again.
Glenn’s many talents included performing magic tricks. He was a skilled magician. One time, he came over to my house to teach some magic to my son, Benjy, who was four or five years old at the time. I’m not sure, but I think those two rascals were trying to use their magical skills to make me disappear. I foiled them on that one!
Glenn was also a gifted motivational speaker, appearing before hundreds of schools, civic groups and other organizations. When Glenn spoke, people listened — and enjoyed the magic tricks he would incorporate into his talks. I attended maybe nine or ten of his speaking engagements and it was inspiring to see how he would capture his audience’s attention and deliver a positive message.
Several times, Glenn spoke at Weigel Elementary School, where my wife, Cyndi, teaches and Benjy attended. Before his first visit to Weigel, I asked Glenn to help me with some background information about him so I could write an introduction. I already knew about his great athletic career at Western Hills High School and then at UC, as well as his long and successful career as UC’s baseball coach. One thing I didn’t know until Glenn told me — and he was very proud of this: he never missed a single day of school. That covered kindergarten, grade school, high school and college. Yikes! Can you imagine that? He was never even late for school. And during his working career, he never took a sick day or missed work. That’s hard to comprehend … but that was Glenn.
It won’t be the same without seeing Glenn at Reds games or at UC events. He was a UC Hall of Famer in every sense of the term and very much beloved by the UC community and, really, people throughout the Cincinnati area.
Personally, I know I will miss Glenn very much. He was a wonderful person, a great worker, and most importantly to me — a true friend.
While we mourn the loss of this wonderful man and offer our heartfelt sympathies to his wife, Evelyn, and the rest of the Sample family, those of us who were lucky enough to know Glenn should just be grateful that we did cross paths with him. We’re much better off for having known him. Thanks, Glenn, for all you did for us.
(This story was previously printed in the Bearcat Sports Digest.)