Jamie Samuelsen was born in 1972. His grandfather, Rube Samuelsen, died in 1973.
Their paths in life crossed only briefly, and for a period Jamie could not possibly remember.
Yet, Jamie was proud of Rube, a renown sports columnist for the Pasadena Star News, whose work also appeared in publications such as the Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, Sports Illustrated and The Sporting News.
Rube was especially known for his coverage of the Rose Bowl, writing a book about the annual New Year’s Day event in 1951. His column “Rube Barbs” was an institution on the West Coast for decades. He is a member of the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame and served as president of the Football Writer’s Association of America.
Jamie and I discussed his grandfather a lot, especially when I first met him in the press box at Tiger Stadium.
Since Jamie's death, I can’t help but think about those conversations about Rube.
What did Rube, looking down from above, think observing Jamie’s life?
Certainly, he was brimming with pride about Jamie, the person. Jamie was an exceptional father, husband and friend. He was kind and decent in every way.
Certainly, he admired Jamie, the professional. Jamie was smart and capable of so many things much easier than grinding through the media circus for 25 years. Yet, he thrived because of grit, perseverance and intelligence.
Sports media was in Jamie’s DNA and so was toughness, traits he inherited from Rube.
The last 19 months of Jamie’s life, as he fought with such dignity against colon cancer, you could not tell by his on-air presence what he was enduring.
Just like you would never know from Rube’s columns that he was blind.
We can only imagine the conversation between Jamie and Rube in heaven.
A best guess is it started with Rube saying:
“Jamie, I am so proud of you…”
And Jamie replying:
“I can’t even begin to tell you how much that means to me…”