Sam Simmermaker calls his final game with John Foster, obscured to his right, May 28, 2024, at the Columbus East vs. Shelbyville sectional baseball semifinal in Shelbyville.
Sam Simmermaker, who graced the airwaves in Columbus for more than six decades, has been honored with the Ron Lemasters Lifetime Achievement Award by the Indiana Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association.
The Star City native graduated from Indiana University in 1954 and served in the US Army Signal Corps before landing a job at WKAM Radio in Goshen. He then worked as a commercial copywriter for WTTV-TV in Indianapolis and broadcast Indianapolis Indians games for five seasons.
Simmermaker came to Columbus and started working at WCSI-AM on New Year’s Day 1960. He worked there the next 64-plus years before retiring in May 2024.
Sam Simmermaker
The ISSA inducted Simmermaker into its Hall of Fame in 1998. Simmermaker also was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006, was honored with a Sagamore of the Wabash Award in 2015 and won a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Sports Media Association in 2024.
Simmermaker and other award winners and Hall of Fame selections will be honored at the ISSA’s annual banquet at 2 p.m. April 12 at Valle Vista Country Club in Greenwood. Tickets are available with a meal included for $50. To order tickets, send a check for $50 to Fred Inniger, ISSA Treasurer, 3011 Noble Hawk Drive, Kendallville, IN 46755.
Rob Blackman of the Purdue Sports Network is this year’s Marv Bates Sportscaster of the Year. Josh Cook of the (Jeffersonville) News and Tribune is the Corky Lamm Sportswriter of the Year. Matt Conti, vice president of communications for the Indianapolis Colts, is the Bob Williams Helping Hand Award winner.
This year’s Hall of Fame Class includes Elkhart Truth sports writer Anthony Anderson, WRSW (Warsaw) sportscaster Roger Grossman, the late Indianapolis Star sports writer Terry Hutchens, former Johnson County Daily Journal sports editor Rick Morwick, former Indianapolis News sports writer and IHSAA sports information director Jim Russell and ABC/Fox Sports/WIBC sportscaster Vince Welch.
