In 1925, Sam was the captain of the very successful Emerson Junior High basketball team. The team went on to win the City Junior High Basketball Championship. His teammates were Bill Hosket, Max Padlow, Herb Brown, Larry McAfee and Bobby Colburn who all went on to Stivers. Sam went to Steele High School.
Sam transferred from Steele as a sophomore to play on the Stivers basketball team with his old teammates from Emerson. In 1928 & 1929he played as a regular and in both years they won the Class A State Championship. He was named to the All City 2nd team as a guard. Sam also played on the Stivers football and baseball teams.
Sam went to Otterbein College. He lettered in football, basketball and baseball. He was the captain of the basketball team. In 1933, Otterbein had the only undefeated college team in Ohio and won the Ohio Conference Crown. This record stood for 60 years.
Sam also had a successful coaching and teaching career that started in northern Ohio and then at Wilbur Wright H.S. where his 1943 football team became City Champions. In 1944 he went to Oakwood H.S. where he coached football, basketball, golf, girls’ tennis and was a teacher. He taught World History & biology and advised the American Field Service Club. Always ready with a compliment or a kind remark, Sam was ever-ready to buoy up the spirits of the faculty members and students alike.
In 1980, Sam Andrews’ Education Hall of Honor was established by the Oakwood Board of Education on behalf of countless persons in the community whose lives were influenced by the dedicated service of Sam Andrews from 1944 until he died of a heart attack in 1977.
Sam joins his brother, Dale, who was a 3 time All City athlete, and his former Stivers teammates as a Hall of Fame Member. He and his wife, Alma, had one daughter, Cynthia Jennings, two grandchildren and five great grandchildren.
