Respected sports journalist, broadcaster, marketing and public relations executive Samuel Algernon Wilkinson, who rose to become a household name in a six-decade career spanning the growth of sport in pre- and post-independent Barbados, has died aged 82.
Wilkinson, the founding sports editor of the Nation newspaper in 1973 and presenter of morning sports commentaries over three radio networks, died early Tuesday at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital after a brief illness. He was the last survivor of a triumvirate of renowned, versatile print and broadcast sports journalists that included Don Norville and Tony Cozier from the 1960s.
Leading a stream of tributes throughout the day, Prime Minister Mia Mottley described Wilkinson as a true Barbadian sporting icon known to countless Barbadians as ‘Sporting Sam’.
“While Sam, the consummate sports journalist, had been out of the limelight for some time as a result of retirement, for many of us, his voice was one that will never be forgotten. When 7Up Sam did his morning radio sports reports, he commanded as much attention as any breaking news broadcast. He stood apart when it came to sports reporting,” she said.
“There is no doubt in my mind,” Mottley added, “that many of today’s young sports journalists owe him much, even if they have never heard his commentary or rubbed shoulders with him on the sidelines as he did his reporting. I can say that because I know that as the first sports editor of the then-fledgling Nation Newspaper, he set a bold new standard for sports reporting for a population that was only just coming into its own as an independent nation.”
Mottley contended that Wilkinson did for sports and sporting enthusiasts what contemporaries like the late Harold Hoyte and Ridley Greene, along with Al Gilkes, did for news journalism.
“And as we prepare for the finals of the ICC T20 World Cup competition at Kensington Oval on Saturday, it is fitting we recognise that when it came to commentary and informed opinion of local, regional or international cricket, Sam Wilkinson stood tall among a very select group of respected Caribbean voices. Sam’s life as a sports journalist is in many ways as seminal as the event that will take place at The Oval this weekend.”
In a career dating back to 1962, Wilkinson proved to be equally adept before the microphone delivering his daily Sam on Sports unscripted commentaries on current events and people in sports, facing the camera during his Cover Point television discussion programme, or tapping out print reports on cricket, football, boxing or basketball report for the newspaper.
Gilkes, whose relationship with Wilkinson dates back to their teen days, described Wilkinson as one of the creative thinkers in planning the establishment of the Nation in 1973. Their friendship continued even after he left the newspaper in 1989, he said.
As Director of Sports at CBC, Wilkinson began his broadcasting career in 1981.
“Sam Wilkinson was renowned for his unique voice,” said current sports and news director Mark Seale. “He also had a very special reporting style in the field of sports.”
Wilkinson also briefly served as the Barbados Olympic Association’s public relations officer.
Veteran Nation sports reporter Mike King who was also close to the late journalist and broadcaster remembered him as a stalwart and pillar in the media.
“Sam was one of the stalwarts in journalism that guided me,” he told Barbados TODAY. “He was a well-rounded journalist, but Sam’s speciality was cricket and table tennis.”
Wilkinson leaves to mourn his wife of 54 years, Judy, and their two children, Samantha and Barry, a broadcaster and entrepreneur who created the Line and Length sports broadcasting and barbering enterprise.
(EJ)
