Bruce Brown  BBrown@smgpo.gannett.com Sept.21, 2010

This story is a copyrighted enterprise by Bruce Brown.

Dr. Sam Foreman is known as a fiery competitor on the golf course. You get that kind of reputation with 12 career holes-in-one, multiple club championships and the ability to shoot under your age at both age 74 and 76 (69 both times) from the championship tees.

But when over 100 friends recently threw him a surprise 90th birthday party at Oakbourne Country Club, Foreman admitted being moved. "I had tears in my eyes," he said.

It’s been a long journey for Foreman, who lettered in both baseball and basketball at UL (then SLI) in 1940, ’41 and ’42. He then played basketball at Loyola of New Orleans while attending dental school, helping that school to the small college national championship in 1945.

"I signed a baseball scholarship in 1939," Foreman recalled. "But at the time, you also had to play another sport. I selected basketball, because Ihad two years’ experience.

"(Basketball) coach Dutch Reinhardt was very conservative. I remember going up against guys on the team from Pine Prairie who had won the state title, and I was relatively short at 6-1.

The war had torn everything apart. We played intrasquad games to keep our scholarships. We would play every day."

Foreman elected physical education as a major, but found it more daunting than expected with subjects like physiology, kinesiology and anatomy. Still, that laid the groundwork for his later career in dentistry.

Like most in his generation, he had to fulfill a military obligation. "When you turned 21, you had to announce what branch of the service you wanted," he said. "Most of the guys in the dorm chose the Air Corps, and a lot of them got killed. Jack Voitier was killed in the Pacific. I chose the
Navy."

"At the time I graduated from college, you went to Chicago and in 90 days you’d get an ensign’s commission. Officers were eligible to go to medical school, and Loyola needed an experienced point guard for its basketball team. They had a young, freshman team, and I became the captain."

Foreman’s father, Wilson Foreman, played baseball in the Texas League, and was better suited for that than working the family farm.

"He was a laid back guy, not ambitious," Foreman said. The family faced grinding poverty during the Depression, as much of America did. Thousands of acres of family land had dwindled through well-intentioned mishaps, and Foreman and his kin lived in quarters formerly assigned to tenant homes.

"It sure made me tough," Foreman said. "We lived on a dirt road. When it was dry, my mother had to take the wash back in off the line because the dust made it dirty again. When it was wet, you didn’t want to wear the one pair of shoes you owned because of the mud."

Walking miles to school was common, but that task and farm life made for strong legs. "I found out I was an athlete in junior high," Foreman said. "I wanted to copy Alvin Dark, but he started out as a kid.

I got started late. My first year, I was a cheerleader, then they asked me to come out for basketball.
"If you went to practice, you missed your ride, so I walked or hitchhiked 8 miles out of town."

Foreman excelled in both baseball and basketball at Scott High School, and that paved the way for a college education that made him a rare educated person in his family.

Later, when he was "paying back Uncle Sam" for his dental school education by being stationed in Tokyo, Foreman started and coached a basketball team on base.

Then, at age 28 in 1948, he channeled his competitive fire into golf, which became a lifelong passion.
"Did I surprise myself? Sure," he said. "I think my experience as an athlete helped me win tournaments. I definitely had a lot of confidence."

"I believe I’m still alive today because I’m active, I have the right attitude and I exercise."
 
This story is a copyrighted enterprise by Bruce Brown.