Adolph Walter Samborski (February 10, 1904 – December 8, 1977) was an American coach and administrator who served as athletic director and head baseball coach at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

Athletic career

Samborski attended Harvard after graduating from Westfield High School. He was captain of the freshman basketball team and the starting catcher on the freshman baseball team. He became a starting guard on the varsity basketball team his sophomore season and became the team captain as a junior. He was the backup varsity catcher his sophomore before taking over the starting job his junior year. He was also a fullback on the 1923 Harvard Crimson football team.

Coaching

Samborski graduated from

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate education, undergraduate college of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Part of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Scienc ...

in 1925 and remained with the

Crimson Crimson is a rich, deep red color, inclining to purple. It originally meant the color of the kermes dye produced from a scale insect, '' Kermes vermilio'', but the name is now sometimes also used as a generic term for slightly bluish-red col ...

as freshman basketball coach while he earned master's degrees in education and European history. He also coached the Crimson's junior varsity baseball team and was the varsity baseball coach in 1947 and 1948. He gave up coaching in 1948 to focus on his job as director of intramural sports.

Administration

In 1927 Samborski presented Harvard with a plan for organized intramural sports. The plan was approved and he was named director of intramural sports. In 1961, Samborski became Harvard's assistant athletic director. In 1963 he was promoted to associate athletic director and took over as acting athletic director when

Thomas Bolles Thomas D. Bolles (September 25, 1902 – December 17, 1978) was an American coach and administrator for Harvard University. He served as the coach of the Harvard Crimson varsity crew from 1936 to 1951 and was the school's athletic director from 1 ...

retired on August 31, 1963. On March 10, 1964, he was given the job permanently. He retired in August 1970. From 1971 to 1975 he was the commissioner of the

Yankee Conference The Yankee Conference was a collegiate sports conference in the eastern United States. From 1947 to 1976, it sponsored competition in many sports, but was a football-only league from mid-1976 until its dissolution in 1996. It is essentially the a ...

. He died on December 8, 1977, in

York, Maine York is a town in York County, Maine, United States, near the southern tip of the state. The population in the 2020 United States census, 2020 census was 13,723. Situated beside the Atlantic Ocean on the Gulf of Maine, York is a well-known summe ...

after a long illness.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Samborski, Adolph 1904 births 1977 deaths American football fullbacks Baseball catchers Guards (basketball) Harvard Crimson athletic directors Harvard Crimson baseball coaches Harvard Crimson baseball players Harvard Crimson football players Harvard Crimson men's basketball coaches Harvard Crimson men's basketball players Yankee Conference commissioners People from Westfield, Massachusetts People from York, Maine Players of American football from Hampden County, Massachusetts Baseball coaches from Massachusetts Baseball players from Hampden County, Massachusetts Basketball coaches from Massachusetts Basketball players from Massachusetts 20th-century American sportsmen