Barbara Balter Kahn

Sam Balter: His Life and Times Barbara Balter Kahn

Sam Balter was a pioneer in the field of sports broadcasting. He had the first coast-to-coast radio sportscast and televised the first football game in the Southern California area, as well as baseball and basketball games. He was a newscaster during WWII and was the independent radio pool correspondent for the "birth" of the United Nations in San Francisco in 1945. Along with a nightly sports program, a daily sports newspaper column, he was cast in frequent movies in like roles. But, all these activities took a back seat to his most treasured sobriquet: "Olympian." He was a gold medal winner in basketball in the 1936 "Hitler" Olympics. And, he was a Jew.