City Council Proclaims Day Honoring Pitt Legend Sam Clancy
PITTSBURGH -- Former Pitt Panthers forward Sam Clancy held court outside the Pittsburgh City Council chambers on a sunny Wednesday morning. He shook hands, hugged family, greeted friends, danced with coworkers and took questions from a small group of assembled media ahead of receiving a distinction that Clancy later said he would "cherish for the rest of my life."
This week, the Pittsburgh City Council voted to name Saturday, June 24th "Sam Clancy Day" in honor of one of the greatest Pitt basketball players ever. A ceremony at the corner of Roberts Street and Bedford Avenue in the Hill District, where the city will raise a street sign in his honor, will mark the occasion.
"This is great," Andre Hillyard, a Hill District native who grew up watching Clancy dominate the hardwood and gridiron during his high school, said. "He deserves this."
Hillyard, along with his childhood friend, Mark Kerr, and a group of volunteers from "Uptown 2.0" - an informal group of tight-knit former Hill District residents and athletes - helped spearhead the drive to formalize Clancy's place in city and neighborhood history.
In an effort to keep the bonds in their community strong, these men are using what brought them together as kids - sports - to help the area's youth connect with the history of where they live. With this initiative, Clancy, Hillyard and Kerr are trying to address a blind spot.
“Our young people don’t know their history and who came before them," Clancy said. "Our young athletes don’t know their history. They only know what they see on TV. So this is the reason why they brought this to the city council and to the mayor.”
The ceremony itself was small and brief. The matter was brought before the council, who immediately and unanimously voted to approve the initiative. The intimate occasion shared with family, friends and coworkers meant the world to Clancy.
"I will cherish this for the rest of my life," Clancy said. "There is no greater honor than for the corner you grew up on to be named after you."
His athletics bonafides are as solid as it gets. As he came of age in the Hill District, in the shadow of the university he'd one day star for, Clancy was a two-sport star as a basketball forward and football offensive tackle at Fifth Avenue High School before its closure. He led the basketball team to a state championship in 1976 before transferring to Brashear High School and becoming a member of its first graduating class in 1977.
At Pitt, he averaged 14.4 points and 11.6 rebounds per game, earned three All-Eastern 8 selections, played in the 1981 NCAA Tournament and plastered his name all over the program record books. He is one of 11 Panthers to record 20 points and 20 rebounds in a game, one of 13 to go for 30 points and 10 rebounds and is still the only player in program history to have scored 1,000 points and grabbed 1,000 rebounds.
For as spectacular as he was in basketball, Clancy never stuck as a professional. The Phoenix Suns drafted him in 1981 but after one season in the Continental Basketball League, the Seattle Seahawks took a chance on a lineman with only a decorated high school career and one spring's worth of college football practices on his resume.
Clancy went on to be an impact defensive lineman for the Cleveland Browns and Indianapolis Colts, aiding those teams in pursuit of four playoff berths, three AFC Central Division titles and two AFC Championship Game appearances. If not for John Elway and the Denver Broncos, he might have a Super Bowl ring.
After spending his immediate post-playing days as a coach, Clancy returned to Pitt in 2005 and completed his degree in social sciences before serving as a strength and conditioning coach and moving to an administrative role within the athletic department.
He spends his days at the Petersen Events Center, checking in on Pitt practices, attending every game and connecting with the players on each team to pass through the building.
Clancy also does some recruiting of his own as he keeps in touch with kids from his neighborhood and around Pittsburgh. He wants to send as many local kids as he can to Pitt because his lived experience is proof that there is value in staying close to home.
“Any kid from Pittsburgh, I tell them ‘You will benefit from staying home more.’ Because first, it’s about the people," Clancy said. "The community also is what helped raise me. I stayed for the people of the Hill District, North Side, Homewood - everyone I got a chance to meet on my journey from high school to college.”
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