Great article about a Tech Legand

I have been fortunate to have been around Sam when I was playing. He is a great guy and a true Legand at Lousiana Tech.

Big-time collector
Tech assistant AD has his own museum

By Scott Beder
sbeder@thenewsstar.com




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Arely Castillo/The News-Star

Sam Wilkinson shows off some of the 300 autographed baseballs and numerous other sports memoriabilia that he has collected from college and professional athletes.





Age: 64


Hometown: Shreveport


Years at Tech: 29
Position: Assistant athletics director
Personal: Has three sons, Donnie, Roe and Trey; and a grandaughter, Molly.
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RUSTON — Sam Wilkinson acquired his first autograph when he was in the sixth grade.

As the captain of his youth baseball team, the young Wilkinson and other captains were given an autographed baseball from Dizzy Dean, the guest speaker at a banquet.

Wilkinson took the prized ball home and began playing catch in the front yard with his brother. When his father spotted the two with the ball, he told them to put the ball up because Dean was "famous."

Now 64, Wilkinson has more than a few "famous" signatures on baseballs. Wilkinson, an assistant athletics director at Louisiana Tech who has spent 29 years at the school, has amassed a collection of more than 300 signed baseballs and numerous other pieces of sports memorabilia.

The den in Wilkinson's home is a sports collector's dream, adorned with signed balls, bats, photographs and other pieces of sports history. Wilkinson's second job is that of curator of his own museum.

"It's not just who it is, it's the volume of it," said son, Roe Wilkinson. "He probably has 20 Hall of Famers. This is a big-time collection of baseball and sports paraphernalia."

Randomly pull any ball off the case on the wall and chances are it is a Hall of Famer or All-Star player — Ted Williams, Hank Aaron, Mickey Mantle, Ken Griffey Jr., Ernie Banks, Bobby Thompson, Rickey Henderson and Hank Bauer are just a few of the autographs Wilkinson has procured.

How rich and deep is Wilkinson's collection? Wilkinson, universally known as "Chief," pulled a box of balls out of his closet that look like batting practice fodder. A blind stab into the box of balls scored a Willie Stargell autograph. A second grab? Connie Ryan.

"They didn't make the travel squad," Roe Wilkinson quipped.

Wilkinson's most prized ball contains the signatures of Pete Rose, Joe Morgan and Johnny Bench he got during the Cincinnati Reds' "Big Red Machine" days. Another jewel is a photograph of Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle and Ted Williams, which has the autograph of each on the print.

"Invaluable," said long-time friend James McDaniel, who lives in Loganville, Ga. "That word is probably used a lot, but in this case it's real adequate. It's priceless to him and no amount of money could wrest that away from him."

Wilkinson's collection also includes many personal items — his Fair Park High School football jersey and cleats as well as many items from his years at Tech.

Anyone would covet such a collection; but what makes it even more special to Wilkinson is that he personally got each autograph.

"I handed a baseball to Ted Williams and he took it and said, 'Thank you,' " Wilkinson said. "People ask me, 'Chief, how did you get Mickey Mantle's autograph?' I said, 'I handed it to him.' "

Wilkinson's love for the sport of baseball began as a youngster in Shreveport. During the summers he served as a bat boy for the old Shreveport Sports of the Texas League and held that job all the way through high school, where he was a two-sport standout at Fair Park High School.

"Sam has got a heck of a background in pro baseball," said James Farrar, his former high school baseball coach and a current scout with the Houston Astros. "He knows a lot of baseball people. Every time I see Tal Smith (current president of the Astros) he asks how Sam's doing. He has a lot of connections with people in baseball."

When he wasn't playing baseball, serving as a bat boy or listening to games on the radio as a boy, Wilkinson would hop on a train to see games.

"My dad worked for the railroad and I would ride by myself on a passenger train from Shreveport to Kansas City to see an afternoon game," said Wilkinson, who sleeps with a baseball bat in his room. "After the game I would get back on the train and get home at 1 or 2 the next afternoon."

Wilkinson's association with the Shreveport Sports led to work in the Houston Astros organization, where he spent 10 years working in various capacities, including stints as general manager of the Single-A affiliate in Cocoa Beach, Fla., and the winter league team in the Dominican Republic.

"(Baseball) is his first love," McDaniel said. "Just listening to him you can really pick up on the history of baseball from his period of time."

Wilkinson got into the Astros organization with the help of Farrar.

"Sam was working nights at a glass factory in Shreveport and the manager of the Amarillo team called and needed a trainer," Farrar said. "Sam helped me a couple of years and had a knack for that. Sam just jumped at the chance and did a great job."

During his time in pro baseball, Wilkinson became especially close with the umpires, who became some of his best friends.

Wilkinson was particularly close to Durwood Merrill, an American League umpire for 23 years who passed away in 2003.

Another of his most cherished possessions is a copy of Merrill's book "You're out — and you're ugly, too!"

"Sam is known all across the country, especially in American League umpire dressing rooms,'' said Tech athletics director Jim Oakes, who worked as a student manager at Tech for Wilkinson in 1977. "(Baseball) is just his passion. He loves the game. He grew up in it and worked in the Astros organization. He gets it honest."

Wilkinson still maintains close ties to baseball. One of his best friends is Gary Hughes, vice president of the Chicago Cubs. Every spring he spends a week in Arizona at the Cubs spring training complex.

Wilkinson came to Tech in '77 and has been a fixture in the athletic department ever since.

Wilkinson served as the head athletic trainer for 24 seasons before becoming assistant athletics director. His many duties now include running the equipment room.

"Sam has been a mainstay in the Tech athletic program for many, many years,'' Oakes said. "He knows where the bodies are buried, as they might say. He's one of the most popular people associated with the athletic program."

Wilkinson has worked on the sidelines for 319 consecutive football games and all three of his sons — Donnie, Roe and Trey — served as managers under him.

They also grew up in Major League dugouts, hanging out with the games stars.

"Growing up we didn't know it wasn't that way for everybody," Roe Wilkinson said. "When we would go to Major League events or the All-Star game, we would be in the dugout. That was our life. We didn't know any different. To this day I can't sit in the stands.''

When Wilkinson isn't working in the Tech athletic department — which isn't often — he can normally be found in his "office."

The office is the covered back porch outfitted with every kind of device to grill, a stocked mini-fridge and a sign on the back door that reads "No cleats beyond this point" with the numbers 5, 86, 18 and 7.

Five was Joe DiMaggio's number and 86 and 18 were his high school football and baseball numbers. Seven was Mickey Mantle's.

On the wall is a banner from the baseball Hall of Fame, signed by all three of his sons. On the deck is a baseball base, which he uses to show visitors how to take a proper lead.

This past spring a few members of the Choudrant baseball team visited Wilkinson in the office, where they received words of advice and encouragement.

Choudrant won the Class B state title and afterwards, outfielder T.J. Brister brought him a signed baseball.

It now sits prominently on a table at the office. "I made the last out in the semifinals and kept the ball,'' Brister said. "I wanted to thank him so I put a little message on it and gave it to him. It was a special moment."