The Cal 100: No. 61 -- Sam Chapman

Chapman was a star on the last Cal team to win a Rose Bowl, and he was a standout major-league baseball player

We count down the top 100 individuals associated with Cal athletics, based on their impact in sports or in the world at large – a wide-open category. See if you agree.

No. 61: Sam Chapman

Cal Sports Connection: Chapman was an All-American in both football and baseball at Cal in the late 1930s.

Claim to Fame: He was a first-team All-American in football in 1937, a season in which Cal went undefeated, won the Rose Bowl and won a national championship. Chapman played 11 seasons of major-League baseball and was an all-star in 1946.

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Would Sam Chapman be in the Baseball Hall of Fame today had it not been for World War II? That question lingers, although his resume was impressive enough without it.

Chapman was a four-sport star at Tamalpais High School and chose Cal for college at the suggestion of his high school football coach, Roy “Wrong Way” Riegels, who ranks No. 67 on our Cal 100 list.

It is not an accident that Chapman and Vic Bottari are listed together – No. 61 and No. 62 – on our list, because they were the backfield stars of the 1937 Golden Bears football squad, known as the “Thunder Team,” that went 10-0-1, won the 1938 Rose Bowl and was named the national champion by the Williams System, Dunkel System, and Helms Athletic Foundation, three of the many bodies that named a national champion at the time.

Chapman was a consensus first-team All-American that season at the fullback position and finished ninth in the Heisman Trophy voting.

Chapman was drafted in the third round (24th overall) by Washington in the 1938 NFL draft, which was actually held in December 1937, before the Golden Bears’ January 1, 13-0 Rose Bowl win over Alabama, which is still Cal’s most recent victory in the Rose Bowl.

Here is a video of highlights of the 1938 Rose Bowl, with a Chapman interception, a Chapman pass reception and a Chapman run among the handful of plays in the video:

However, Chapman chose to play baseball professionally. He hit .436 as a Cal sophomore in 1936, and three teams offered Chapman a major-league baseball contract and bonus in  1938 when he was a senior. The New York Yankees and Cincinnati Reds each offered a $9,000 bonus, and the Philadelphia A’s offered $6,000. All three offered the minimum $2,500 salary for the season.

On the advice of Ty Cobb, Chapman chose the lower bonus offered by the Athletics, because they were managed by Connie Mack. Chapman made his major-league debut on May 16, 1938, just s few days after graduating from Cal.

He was an infielder throughout his Cal career, but was immediately put in the outfield by Mack. Chapman improved through his first three major-league seasons, and had a breakout year in 1941, when he hit .322 with 25 homers and 106 RBIs. He finished seventh in the American League in batting average and sixth in both home runs and RBIs, helping him place 12th in the MVP voting in a season in which Joe DiMaggio had a 56-game hitting streak and Ted Williams batted .408.

---A 1941 Play Ball Baseball #44 Sam Chapman PSA Mint 9 trading card issued by Gum, Inc., is valued at $850..---

Chapman was 25 years old in 1941, so he was just reaching his peak years. But World War II took him out of baseball for all of the next three seasons and nearly all of a fourth. Right after the 1941 season, Chapman joined the Navy and served as a pilot and flight instructor during the war.

He returned to the Athletics at the tail end of the 1945 season, playing just nine games, and he played a full season in 1946 at the age of 30. Chapman earned his first and only all-star berth that season, when he finished with 20 home runs.

Chapman’s best season after the war was 1949 when, at the age of 33, he hit 24 home runs with 108 RBIs, finishing third in the American League in both categories, while continuing to be an excellent center fielder.

Chapman liked the Philadelphia fans, noting they cheered when you did well and booed when you didn't.  Some things don't change.

After he retired from baseball, Chapman became an inspector for the Bay Area Air Pollution Control District. He was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1984 and was named to the Philadelphia Baseball Wall of Fame in 1999.

He died at the age of 90 in 2006.

The Cal 100: No. 62 -- Vic Bottari

Cover photo of Sam Chapman courtesy of Cal Athletics