Sam Goodwin, all-time SC State great and longtime Columbia pastor, has died
Columbia native Sam Goodwin, an accomplished athlete, coach and pastor, died Wednesday at the age of 76.
“His reach has extended to many people across this world, and I know that you both mourn and celebrate him with me and my entire family,” Goodwin’s daughter, Valerie, said Wednesday on her Facebook page.
Goodwin was an influential person in Columbia and featured in The State’s “Those Who Inspire” series in 2013. He was inducted in the S.C. State Hall of Fame in 1998 and named one of the Orangeburg university’s top 100 football players of all-time in 2007.
Goodwin, who was nicknamed “Herc,” died at Baptist Hospital “following an extended illness,” according to an announcement from S.C. State.
Goodwin was inducted into the Richland One Hall of Fame in 2014 and South Carolina Athletic Hall of Fame in 2018.
He was a football and basketball standout at Booker T. Washington High School in Columbia before going on to S.C. State. He played both sports for the Bulldogs and was a three-time all-conference selection in football at S.C. State.
After college, Goodwin got started into coaching and took over at his alma mater Booker T. Washington in 1968. In his first season he led Booker T. Washington to the black schools’ state championship. (Schools in South Carolina were not widely desegregated until the early 1970s.)
“Eau Claire was undefeated in the white schools, and (coach) Jimmy Satterfield and I wanted to play, but the superintendents said there was a danger of violence,” Goodwin recalled in 2013.
Goodwin then went to S.C. State and coached under Willie Jeffries from 1973-79. When Jeffries took the job at Wichita State, Goodwin followed and coached four seasons.
“One of the most beloved coaches in Bulldog history, Goodwin is known for the phrase, ‘Don’t cheat your body,’ when putting S.C. State football players through rigorous strength and conditioning exercises,” according to Wednesday’s announcement from the school.
Goodwin was an assistant at South Carolina from 1982-84 before devoting his life to ministry. He and his wife, Fannie, founded Steadfast Ministries in 1983. The church was started in his home and expanded before finally finding a permanent facility on Fairfield Drive in 1987.
Goodwin was diagnosed with myeloma bone cancer in 2008. He is survived by his wife. They were married for 56 years and had five children.
Because of the coronavirus pandemic, Valerie Goodwin said the family won’t accept visitors at home and the funeral will be for immediate family only. A celebration of life is planned for a later date, possibly in September and close to Goodwin’s birthday.
This story was originally published April 1, 2020 at 6:21 PM.
