Howard Burton "Chip" Silverman,

Ph.D A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...

, M.P.H., M.S., C.A.S., was the author of five books, coached the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges and ...

's only

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

college

lacrosse Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensi ...

team and was the former head of the

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; ...

Drug Abuse Administration.

Background

Silverman was born on June 3, 1942, in

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

, United States, the son of a grocer and a homemaker, and grew up on Queensberry Avenue in the city's Pimlico neighborhood. Silverman's exploits growing up in

Forest Park A forest park is a park whose main theme is its forest of trees. Forest parks are found both in the mountains and in the urban environment. Examples Chile * Forest Park, Santiago China * Gongqing Forest Park, Shanghai * Mufushan National Fo ...

during the 1950s and 1960s were later immortalized in the 1982 film ''

Diner A diner is a small, inexpensive restaurant found across the United States, as well as in Canada and parts of Western Europe. Diners offer a wide range of foods, mostly American cuisine, a casual atmosphere, and, characteristically, a co ...

'', which was directed by

Barry Levinson Barry Lee Levinson (born April 6, 1942) is an American filmmaker, comedian and actor. Levinson's best-known works are mid-budget comedy drama and drama films such as '' Diner'' (1982); '' The Natural'' (1984); '' Good Morning, Vietnam'' (1987) ...

. He attended the Forest Park High School where, among other things, he played

. In one of his books he describes himself as "a very uncoachable, selfish and lazy player." He and Levinson graduated in 1960, they would remain lifelong friends and collaborate on several other projects. Silverman attended the

University of Maryland, College Park The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of ...

and earned a bachelor's degree in history from the

University of Baltimore The University of Baltimore (UBalt, UB) is a public university in Baltimore, Maryland. It is part of the University System of Maryland. UBalt's schools and colleges provide education in business, law, public affairs, and the applied arts and sc ...

in 1966. In 1975 he was awarded an M.S.from

Morgan State University Morgan State University (Morgan State or MSU) is a public historically black research university in Baltimore, Maryland. It is the largest of Maryland's historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). In 1867, the university, then known ...

and later, earned another master's degree in public health from the

Johns Hopkins School of Public Health The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health is the public health graduate school of Johns Hopkins University, a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. As the second independent, degree-granting institution for research in ep ...

and a doctorate in health care management from Century University in

Albuquerque Albuquerque ( ; ), ; kee, Arawageeki; tow, Vakêêke; zun, Alo:ke:k'ya; apj, Gołgéeki'yé. abbreviated ABQ, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico. Its nicknames, The Duke City and Burque, both reference its founding i ...

, N.M.

Career

Silverman was an assistant dean and acting dean at

during the 1970s and during his time at Morgan Silverman realized that many of the city's black high school lacrosse players had matriculated to Morgan but could not play lacrosse because Morgan had no team. In 1970 he founded and coached a lacrosse club at Morgan and in 1972 it was invited to join the United States Small College Lacrosse League. Silverman gradually augmented the team with black players from other hotbeds of lacrosse like Long Island,

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

and upstate

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

and his teams regularly beat the likes of Notre Dame. In 1975, he led the Morgan Bears lacrosse team to a stunning victory over top-ranked Washington and Lee. His fifth book, ''Ten Bears'', co-written with Dr. Miles Harrison, a Baltimore surgeon, is about that team and was recently optioned to

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A movie based on the book is currently in production. In 1991, Silverman was inducted into the Morgan State University Hall of Fame.
Silverman was also a Special Advisor to Maryland Governor

William Donald Schaefer William Donald Schaefer (November 2, 1921 – April 18, 2011) was an American politician who served in public office for 50 years at both the state and local level in Maryland. As a Democrat, he was the 45th mayor of Baltimore from December ...

for Substance Abuse Policy and the Director of the Drug and Alcohol Administration; he worked for the state for 26 years. Silverman was also a part-time journalist, having written for the ''

Baltimore News-American The ''Baltimore News-American'' was a broadsheet newspaper published in downtown Baltimore, Maryland until May 27, 1986. It had a continuous lineage (in various forms) of more than 200 years. For much of the mid-20th century, it had the larges ...

'', and produced and hosted segments of the ''Evening/PM Magazine'' television program on Baltimore's

WJZ-TV WJZ-TV (channel 13) is a television station in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, airing programming from the CBS network. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division, and maintains studios and offices on Tele ...

.
On March 6, 2008, Silverman died of melanoma in Baltimore.

Other books

In addition to ''Ten Bears'', Silverman wrote or co-authored ''The Block'', ''The Last Bookmaker'' with Bob Litwin, ''Aloha Magnum'' with Larry Manetti and ''Diner Guys''.

Filmography

Silverman appeared in the American films ''

'' and ''

Tin Men ''Tin Men'' is a 1987 American comedy film written and directed by Barry Levinson, produced by Mark Johnson, and starring Richard Dreyfuss, Danny DeVito, and Barbara Hershey. It is the second of Levinson's tetralogy "Baltimore Films", set in h ...

'', as well as two episodes of the American television series ''Homicide: Life on the Street''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Silverman, Chip American lacrosse players College men's lacrosse coaches in the United States Baltimore Bees men's lacrosse coaches 1942 births Lacrosse players from Baltimore Johns Hopkins University alumni University of Maryland, College Park alumni University of Baltimore alumni Jewish American writers Writers from Baltimore Morgan State University alumni 2008 deaths 20th-century American Jews 21st-century American Jews