NINA•MCLEMORE

Oaks Country Club for the Spring
Formal, where pledges were initiated
and pinned couples were serenaded.
The brothers wore suits and ties, which
were a far cry from the attire worn at
21st-birthday get-togethers at Dom
Polski's Hall in Hamtramck. When you
came of age, your brothers would take
you there for your first legal drink.
Although the words "Jewish" and
"jocks" were not routinely found in the
same sentence, things were different
during the 1956-57 school year. Sigma
Alpha Mu topped 16 other fraternities
to capture the Inter-Fraternity All-
Sports Championship. Three members
were on the varsity football team, and
one made the bowling team.
When the university's 17-1 varsity
basketball team was invited to play in
the NCAA tournament in Fort Wayne,
Ind., Sammys helped fill a bus to cheer
the Wayne Tartars on to a win over
DePaul. For the next round in Iowa
City, four misguided members started
driving to watch their team play the
University of Kentucky, and only a vio-
lent snowstorm stopped them.

Where Are They Now?
Some Sammys avoid the snow alto-
gether and have permanently moved
to both southern Florida coasts. They
come back to Michigan for special
occasions, both happy ones and those
to say goodbye forever to family and
friends who have passed away.
Most who still live in Michigan find
their way to delicatessens and Greek
restaurants in their "483" ZIP Code
suburbs, safe from what they believe to
be the unknown that lurks in Detroit.
Other Sammys live in Georgia,
Virginia, Arizona, California and
Thailand. Al Stillman, who owned
Alvin's Deli on Cass, spends six months
a year in his California home and six
months in his home in the south of
France.
Wherever they live, they now seem
to utter the mantra, "I'm 80?" or "I'm
going to be 80!" followed by either a
question mark or an exclamation point.
It's a good feeling to do so because of
the 68 Sammys listed on their August
1956 roster, 25 have passed away.
Harvey Price lived in San Francisco
with his fraternity brother Arnie
Garber in 1961. Harvey served in the
Peace Corps in Thailand and has had a
successful law practice there since the

mid-1960s.
Paul Schlachman Drew died a few
years ago and was a noted Top 40 radio
pioneer.
Mervin Goldsmith, who was a
Shakespearean actor as a Wayne
Sammy, has been seen in movies, plays
and as a judge on Law and Order.
Wolf Shanbrom, a college professor,
was the chapter's philosopher.
Many around Jewish Detroit have
had family photographs taken on spe-
cial occasions by the late, golf-playing
Sammy, Howard Sidney Holzman, bet-
ter known as Buzzy.
Bernie Portnoy, Irving Tukel and oth-
ers also became successful lawyers or
doctors, dentists, teachers and profes-
sors, got involved in real estate sales or
started their own businesses.
Donald Borsand opened First
Optometry Eye Care Centers in 1983
and partnered with Henry Ford Health
System in 1993.
Eugene Applebaum founded Arbor
Drugs in 1974, and it was bought out
by CVS in 1998.
In the Amherst, Mass., Yiddish Book
Center, you will find the Applebaum-
Driker Theater, donated by Applebaum
and Eugene Driker. The only names on
the theater are those of the parents of
both Eugenes. Driker is now serving as
chairman of the center's board, and he
also served on Wayne State University's
Board of Governors from 2002 to 2014.
Stuart Opotowsky was a vice-
president of Loews Corporation when
he lived in New York. Opotowsky and
Bruce Rosen were born on the same
day and were Big Brothers respectively
to two other Sammys, Irving Tukel and
me, born on the same day, same year
and in the same hospital. They still
celebrate birthdays together, even when
they are more than 2,500 miles apart.
Perhaps the words of the Sammy
song, "Fast and Firm:' best exemplify
the fact that the brothers of 1956 still
stay connected.
"Fast and firm is our union, strong
the ties that bind. Held by links of
friendship forever, now and for all time.
Ever lasting, ever faithful, ever staunch
and true. Stands the brotherhood we
formed, in Sigma Alpha Mu:'

❑

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