Pillar of Achievement - 2003

In 1966, Sam Schulman and Eugene Klein purchased the San Diego Chargers American Football League (AFL) franchise and the NBA's Seattle SuperSonics, the first professional sports franchise in Seattle.

The sports partnership developed after Schulman became an officer and director of the National General Corporation when his Mission Pak Company was purchased by NGC, of which Klein was president. Among National General's prominent holdings were publishers Doubleday and Bantam Books and the theater chain presently known as Mann Theaters.

In the early 1970's, after the AFL-NFL merger, the Klein-Schulman sports empire parted ways, with Sam taking sole control of the Supersonics and Klein the Chargers. Sam Schulman's Sonics won the franchise's first and (still) only NBA championship in 1979. Sam sold the Sonics in 1983. Until 1995, when a stroke forced his retirement, he was involved in the motion picture industry.

Sam Schulman was an NYU undergraduate, receiving his MBA from Harvard in 1932. Entrepreneurial from the get-go, he purchased an interest in the George McKibben book bindery and purchased the mechanical equipment that allowed the company to grow into a publishing powerhouse. He sold McKibben in 1960, and the Schulman Family left New York for Beverly Hills, CA.

Sam has been a trustee of Brandeis University since 1959. He has long been a supporter of his wife's strong affiliation with Hadassah.