Via Robert D. Fierro
You should understand that since I was able to learn about professional football as a kid in the 1950s, I’m probably the only person in New York City who hates the Soccer Giants and loves Baltimore Colts. Don’t ask why, it just happened (and continues to this day – go Jets!). So you wouldn’t be surprised to learn that through some intrigue by a friend’s police father I beat up in the stands at Yankee Stadium with dozens of other teenagers in December 1958. for what turned out to be “The Greatest Football Game Ever Played,” identified by a blue ribbon panel in 2019.
That I was probably the only person in the stadium standing and cheering and shouting as Colts full-back Alan Ameche edged past Giants defenders to score the winning goal, in retrospect, that was a mistake. big, because I was immediately thrown in a cardboard box by my friends.
So imagine years later, when, as president-elect of the New York Purebred Breeders Association, I was attending a state banquet for the presidents of the program when the dining room door opened. and walked into one of those Giants roadsiders, tall, well-fitted, and absolutely enchanting man named Sam Huff.
I was at my side with incoherent thoughts running through my head and not even getting a chance to breathe after he was introduced to me and a few other presidents. He must have noticed my jawline and for some reason I mumbled, “I was at the Giants-Colts when Alan Ameche scored the winning goal, and I was 13 and I was a Colts fan and I went crazy after he scored my friends beat me. “
Sam looked me in the eye while everyone around us took a deep breath and smiled and said, “Do you want that to happen again?”
That was the Sam Huff I knew – a sweet, determined, purposeful man who, with his partner Carol Holden, brought quality, dignity, and excitement to the state’s livestock and racing industries. West Virginia his beloved hometown. The three of us got to know each other quickly, and they actually invited me a few times as a guest on their radio show – once on a cell phone while I was cruising through the hills of his state on the way home. from New York. discount in Kentucky.
Even though he suffered from dementia almost a decade ago, he still shows up at sales and when he doesn’t, I miss a man who has become a star in two sports. great sport – as well as a friend.
My condolences to Carol, his family, and West Virginia – to paraphrase John Denver, the country roads in his state brought him home.
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