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SoCalHoops Recruiting News

Sam Balter, Bruin Hall Of Famer
& Former Olympian Dead--(Aug. 10, 1998)

Sam Balter, who was a member of the first Olympic gold medal basketball team, and who followed up with a great career in sports broadcasting, died Saturday after a long illness. He was 88.

Balter played for the United States in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. A 5'-10" guard, Balter averaged 8.5 points in the U.S. team's four games, the fourth-highest average on the team. Balter's Olympic Gold Medal team was the first in a long string of Gold Medals for the U.S. in Olympic competition which lasted until 1972 when the U.S. for the first time failed to win a gold.

Balter eventually became the the sports director of KLAC radio here in SoCal during the 1940s, 1950s and early 1960s and was a television play-by-play announcer for the baseball Hollywood Stars and Los Angeles Angels of the old Pacific Coast League.

A graduate of UCLA, Balter was a charter member of the Southern California Sports Broadcasters Association, and was elected to the SCSBA Hall of Fame. He is survived by his wife, Mildred; a daughter, Barbara Kahn; and three granddaughters. Funeral services will be private.