JCC Names Two Local Sports Greats
as Award Recipients

The JCC is pleased to announce that Irv Barkan will receive the 2010 Charles Solomon Award, and Sanford "Sandy" Solomon will be inducted into the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame during the annual JCC Sports Spectacular awards celebration on Monday, Aug. 23, at 7 p.m., at the JCC.

Irv Barkan

For more than 30 years at the JCC, beginning in the late 1950s, Barkan coached Little League baseball, Pony League, and AK League teams, as well as playing AK softball. In addition, he served as the JCC's Baseball Committee Chair and the Phys Ed Committee Chair. He also served as a JCC Board of Trustees member and JCC Vice President.

"We came to Columbus in 1957 with our three sons - Steven, Neal, and William - whom we wanted to play team sports and get to know the younger fellows in the Jewish community," said Barkan. "The JCC was the natural choice."

Barkan said in those days, the JCC was a very different place. "Back then, there were only five fulltime employees at the JCC, the rest were volunteers," he said. "I had played baseball in high school, and some in college at Harvard, so I volunteered to coach the baseball teams at the JCC."

In addition to playing sports at the JCC, Barkan said his sons also attended its summer camps. "Even my grandchildren went to camp here at the JCC," he said.

Barkan said one of his most vivid memories of the JCC was during an AK softball league game. "I used to smoke cigars - always puffing away. In fact, my friends used to call me 'Smokey.' Until one day, when I was playing first base, and a player on the opposing team plowed into me. He knocked my feet out from under me and my cigar and ashes went up in the air," he said with a laugh. "My wife, Ruth, was in the stands and commented to her friends, 'He's just quit playing softball'." What he quit, not long after, was smoking cigars.

In 2000, he founded the JCC's annual William A. Barkan Memorial Basketball Shootout, and in 2007 opened the William A. Barkan Sports Court at the JCC, both named in memory of his son, "Billy" Barkan.

Barkan has served on the board of directors for Temple Israel, the Columbus Jewish Federation, and Wexner Heritage House, as well as serving as president for Heritage House and the Wexner Heritage Tower. He is a lifetime director and past chair of the Wexner Heritage Village Board of Directors. An active member of the Jewish War Veterans for the past 50 years, he has served on the veterans' Greenlawn Flag Committee and as chair of the Temple Cemetery Committee.

Barkan received a bachelor's degree in 1944 from Harvard College, and his juris doctorate degree in 1957 from the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law at Cleveland State University. He was admitted to the Ohio Bar in 1957, the same year he co-founded Barkan & Barkan as a firm specializing in workers compensation, and in 1963 was admitted to the Bars of the U.S. District, Appeals and Supreme courts. Barkan continues to be active in the daily management of Barkan & Barkan LPA, which he operates with his son, Neal.

Barkan is a member of the Columbus, Ohio State, and American Bar associations, as well as the American Association for Justice, Ohio Academy of Trial Lawyers, and the American Judicature Society. He is a fellow at the Columbus Bar Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the Columbus legal community.

Barkan and his wife, Ruth, will be celebrating their 66th wedding anniversary this coming November.

Sanford "Sandy" Solomon

An "athlete for all seasons" for the Bexley Lions in the early 1950s, Sanford "Sandy" Solomon played on the high school varsity football, basketball, and track teams. During the fall, he played left end for the football team, and in 1951, was a member of the All-Central Buckeye Conference Football team.

In the winter, he was a forward on the Lion's basketball team, and in 1952, was a member of the First Team Dispatch All-Central Buckeye Squad, the All-Central Buckeye Conference Champions, and the State Journal All-Central Buckeye Honor Squad. In the springtime, he ran on the 440-yard, half-mile and mile relay teams for the Lions.

In the summer of 1953 while attending college, Solomon worked as a lifeguard and Little League umpire for the JCC, and the following year was appointed as the part-time Athletic Assistant. He also played in the Central Ohio AAU Tournaments with his Adult Basketball team, and played and pitched in the Sunday Morning League.

But probably what Solomon is best known for around the JCC is his 48 years of participation in the center's adult basketball leagues, holding the old gym record for 32 points a game.

"When I was 70, I was still playing basketball at the JCC and averaging 14 points a game," he said with a chuckle. "I thought that was pretty good!"

Solomon said he grew up at the JCC. "It was the place to be when I was younger," he said. After graduating from Bexley High School, Solomon went on to receive a degree in education from The Ohio State University. He also served in the U.S. Army for two years, and played on the base's "1957 Winning Basketball Team."

After the Army, Solomon came back to Columbus, and in 1958 was appointed the Physical Education Assistant at the JCC, instructing many youth programs and running the young adult leagues.

Perhaps one of the best things the JCC brought him was the opportunity to meet his wife, Nanette. "We met when she also worked at the center, and now we've been married 51 years," he said with a smile. The couple have four children - Julie, Stacey, Scott and Cindy - and nine grandchildren. In 1965, he started Oxford Realty, a company now operated by his son, Scott.

Solomon said his fondest memory of the JCC is playing on a team in the basketball league with his son. "We brought up the children at the JCC, and Scott still plays in basketball leagues there," he said.

Solomon joins previous inductees into the JCC's Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, including: World Tennis champion, Thelma "Tybie" Thall Sommer; Columbus Dispatch sports writer, Lou Berliner; World Table Tennis champ, Lea Thall Neuberger; Cincinnati Reds player, Joe Bonowitz; professional basketball player, Morris "Mendy" Snyder; OSU football player, Leo Yassenoff; New York Giant, Moses Solomon (aka the "Rabbi of Swat"); New York Giant and Boston Braves player, Al Kauffman; Buffalo Bisons player, Frank Glassman; boxer Lou Bloom; Senior Olympic boxer, Zalman Rosenfeld; NCAA fencing champ, Dr. Ivan Gilbert; baseball player and author, Ronald Golden; New York Yankee, Ricky Clowson; National Tennis champ, Neal Newman; boxer, Ben Cowall; Big 10 fencing champ and medalist, Michael Broidy; OSU baseball record-holder, Tim Kauffman; principal partner/owner of the San Francisco Giants, Allan Byer, and former professional tennis player, David Kass.

Keynote speaker for the awards celebration on Aug. 23 will be Gene Smith, Athletic Director for The Ohio State University, who recently was named the 2010 Sports Business Journal Athletic Director of the Year. Smith, who has been athletic director at OSU for the past six years, is the eighth person to hold the athletics director position there and the first African-American to do so. He previously served as director of athletics at Arizona State, Iowa State, and Eastern Michigan Universities. At Ohio State, the 54-year old Smith oversees one of the nation's largest and most successful college athletic programs. The Buckeyes have 36 fully-funded varsity sports and more than 1,000 student-athletes.

In accordance with its traditional two-day, split format, this year's Sports Spectacular, chaired by David Goldstein and Scott Weisman, also will feature a golf outing at the Pinnacle Golf Club in Grove City on Tuesday, Aug. 24.

Proceeds from Sports Spectacular directly benefit the JCC's youth and adult sports programs, senior activities and children and youth camp. For more information on sponsorship, or to register for the event, contact JCC Special Events Coordinator Sheila Cline at (614) 559-6225 or scline@columbusjcc.org.