Lamm celebration included laughs, tears
David Lamm was a bulldog. He backed down from no one, including the famously prickly Bob Knight and Jacksonville Jaguars coaches Tom Coughlin and Jack Del Rio.
David Lamm loved his craft. He mentored young journalists on the print and broadcast side by the dozens on the First Coast and Orlando Sentinel columnist Mike Bianchi said the highest praise any of them could get was to hear Lamm tell them, “Uncle Dave has taught you well.”
David Lamm “had a heart as big as his body,” according to his son Alex Lamm. Without fanfare, Lamm’s family would adopt a less fortunate family in Jacksonville during the holidays and make sure they had gifts and turkey dinners. Lamm also coached Little League at the Justina Athletic Association.
Then in 2002 he launched “Santa Lamm,” which has provided a Christmas for thousands of children between the ages of 3-13.
Lamm’s life was celebrated with tales tall and short, sprinkled heavily with laughter and tears on Saturday at Jacksonville University’s Historic Swisher Gym as the former Times-Union sports editor and columnist and pioneering talk-radio and TV host was remembered in front of more than 150 people, 28 days after he passed away at the age of 78.
Lamm urged young journalists to take a stance
“He was a one-of-a-kind personality,” said former Jacksonville Suns owner Pedro Bragan, one of the series of speakers who eulogized the son of a North Carolina mailman who left an indelible mark on all forms of sports media on the First Coast. “We may never again see the likes of him.”
Bianchi said he was motivated to be a sportswriter when he attended the University of Florida and would gather all statewide newspapers to read their coverage.
In Lamm, Bianchi said he found the mixture of knowledge, humor, irreverence, honesty and fearlessness to take a stance that were his hallmarks when he wrote for the Times-Union from 19771984.
“I wanted to be like David Lamm,” said Bianchi, who held Lamm’s job for five years in Jacksonville before moving to Orlando in 2000. “He told me you have to take a stance. You can’t be in the middle of the road. All that’s in the middle of the road are dead skunks.”
Lamm called ‘the O.G.’ of sports talk radio
After a series of TV and radio gigs from 1984-1999, Lamm was part of the first all-sports format at Clear Channel’s WFXJ from 1999-2009, then at 1010-XL.
Jack O’Brien, who oversaw Lamm at Clear Channel and 1010, amended the running joke that radio announcers “have a face for radio.”
“David had a body for radio,” O’Brien said. “But it was fascinating to watch him [do a show]. He’d walk in five minutes before the show, with only the newspaper under his arm. There was no internet when we first started but he had everything up here [tapping his head] and he’d go for two hours straight without a break, without looking at notes or anything. I never saw anyone better to this day.”
Joe Cowart, who had a radio show with Lamm on WFXJ before both landed at 1010-XL, called Lamm the “O.G. [Original Gangster]” of Jacksonville sports talk radio, building on what Jay Solomon had built and combining with Frank Frangie and Cowart to show an all-sports format would work.
“He proved to people that this was a format people would get up turn on and keep it going throughout the day,” Cowart said.
Lamm enjoyed golf, time with friends
Lamm enjoyed golf, the dog track, Miller Lite and holding court with friends, if possible, on the same day.
Don Mathis said he and Lamm once joked that they would take turns faking their death and stand in the back of the room to see who showed up for a memorial.
“I’m not sure I’d get a crowd like this,” he said.
Mathis said Lamm told him once that he was best friend, “because we didn’t talk about sports. We talked about everything else.”
Mathis said every day with Lamm, on the golf course or in Hidden Hills’ Troon Room, where the men’s grill was located, was a hoot.
“Golfing with David was the most fun I ever had in my life,” he said.
The day Lamm backed down Bob Knight
Barry Milligan, who worked with Lamm on local cable TV shows in the late 1980s, including the first statewide TV sports magazine show, remembered
Lamm scheduling an interview with Knight, the former Indiana coach, who had come to Jacksonville to do a clinic at Wolfson High School.
When Lamm and Milligan (who was the videographer) approached Knight as scheduled, they were ignored. Lamm gave Knight 20 minutes and then told Milligan to follow him and start recording.
When Lamm pointed out to Knight they had made an appointment, he was treated to an expletive-filled tirade ending with “You media people think you run the world.”
When Knight finished, Lamm said, “Thanks. We’ve got everything we need.”
Realizing Milligan had filmed the entire incident, Knight apologized.
“Then he sat down and did an absolutely wonderful interview,” Milligan said.
Coaches sought Lamm’s guidance
Lamm was a media personality of such influence that former University of Florida coach Charley Pell met Lamm at the old Thunderbird Hotel in 1980 to ask how he could jump-start a Jacksonville Gator Club – which soon became the largest UF booster club.
On the day that Pell’s successor, Galen Hall, was fired in 1989, he allowed one member of the media into his house to talk about what happened and his future.
It was David Lamm.
Lamm and Milligan logged so many events, miles and venues that Lamm’s wife “Boo” (they were married for 58 years) complained that Lamm wasn’t giving Milligan much of a life.
“You’re ruining this young man,” Milligan said Boo Lamm told her husband. “He’s such a nice young man and you’re going to ruin him.”
Cowart said during SEC Media Days, former Gator coach Steve Spurrier would walk past a dozen stations on radio row and single out Lamm to come on the show. Former FSU coach Bobby Bowden never missed a chance to do a show with Lamm.
And Lamm became such a rock star with fans that Cowart remembers walking through the tailgating areas at Doak Campbell Stadium and fans pulling Lamm into their parties for shows of Crown Royal.
“They would beg Dave to take a show of Crown,” Cowart said. “That’s how big he was. And it’s thanks to guys like [Lamm] that got on the radio and proved it would work and the format just took off in his first six months.”
Lamm, a lamppost and New York City
Lamm’s son Alex and his sister Peggy Griffin of Rocky Mount, N.C., spoke for the family.
“He always said he was very lucky he was able to earn a living doing something he loved,” his sister said.
Alex Lamm, in a tearful, heartfelt tribute to his father, told of days playing Little League for his Dad and then getting embarrassed in high school when his father would come up to him after games and plant a big kiss on his cheek.
The two went on countless trips to Gainesville, Tallahassee, Atlanta, Birmingham and Charlotte chasing football games, golf tournaments and NASCAR races.
They also went to St. Andrews, Scotland for a British Open and to New York for the annual NASCAR banquet.
“I have enough memories to last forever,” he said.
Alex Lamm also told the story of his father’s only hole-in-one, at the fifth hole at Hidden Hills. Lamm had mixed feelings because it was a 155-yard shot and by that time he was using an 11wood from that distance.
“He wasn’t sure he wanted people to know he had to hit an 11-wood,” he said.
Alex Lamm left the audience with a final story that was pure Uncle Dave. While the two were walking the streets of Manhattan on a fine winter night, Alex Lamm saw his father begin swinging himself around a lamppost and singing, “New York, New York.”
“He always made me proud to be his son,” Lamm said.
In addition to his wife, his sister and son Alex, Lamm is survived by a son Tom, five grandchildren and a brother, Roger. The family has asked that donations be made in lieu of flowers to santalamm.org.