For 50 years, no one has had as unique a perspective of the Gardiner football team than Sam Shaw.

Whether it’d be as a junior high football coach, a booster, or the voice of Hoch Field, Shaw is entrenched in the program.

But at 76, Shaw, the public address announcer at Hoch Field, is ready to pass the microphone on to the next generation.

Unless the Tigers (3-3) host a Class B North playoff game, Friday’s game against Cony (3-3) — the 146th in the rivalry — could be Shaw’s last in the booth.

“I’m not going to say I’m completely done announcing, but that’s the plan right now,” Shaw said.

A 1966 Gardiner Area High School graduate, Shaw is an alum of the football program. He began coaching the junior high program in the early 1970s around the time that a young coach named John Wolfgram had taken over the high school program after coaching in Madison from 1971-74. For the next 11 years, Wolfgram would oversee a dominant run in Gardiner, which went  85-27-1 with three Class B state championships (1979, 1981 and 1985).

“He was the best coach to ever come through Gardiner, and I really enjoyed working with him,” Shaw said. “He was probably the most hands-on coach I ever saw. He had (teams) pumped all the time. And he was very focused, and he expected the same (from his players). They would do anything for him.”

Shaw lists Gardiner’s first Class B title of the Wolfgram era, a 14-6 victory over Winslow in 1979, as his favorite moment.

“I was very close to the juniors and seniors (of that team),” Shaw said. “It was so great. You always tell kids, ‘You work hard, good things will happen.’ It did. It really did.”

Shaw had a front row seat to all of it, and he would continue to coach at the junior high level into the early 2000s. Shortly into Shaw’s tenure as a junior high coach, former Gardiner Athletic Director Peter Storey asked Shaw if he could be the new public address announcer for football games.

“Pete Storey, who was athletic director at the time, asked me if I had ever announced, and I said, ‘Yeah,'” Shaw said. “It was nothing like I do today. Mostly, it was ‘The ball is on the 25-yard line, Gardiner has (the ball).’ That was it. Now, we go into introducing players (before the game). I really enjoy it. But there comes a time (to step away).

“I played the game, I know the game, but the game has passed me by now,” Shaw continued. “The way I taught (football, as a coach) isn’t taught anymore. The blocking schemes are totally different now. (Linemen) don’t use their shoulders anymore, they use their hands. They run spread offenses now. I always ran the (Wing-T). It’s very complicated now, if you ask me.”

Shaw said he even sees a difference in the Cony-Gardiner rivalry.

“As years went on, they started to have (area) football clinics, and (the players) got to know each other,” Shaw said. “They’re all friends now. (Years ago), I sat in classroom at midnight with one of the teachers, watching the (football) field, because we knew Cony was going to come down and paint the building, because (Gardiner) had gone up there and done that. You didn’t wear a Gardiner jacket to Augusta, and you didn’t wear a Cony jacket to Gardiner.”

Shaw provides a unique, almost conversational style with his announcing at Hoch Field. It’s not unusual to hear him cover a variety of subjects over the speaker during a game, not just the action on the gridiron.

“I talk funny,” Shaw laughed. “I’m a Mainer. Even when I was in the service, I said, ‘a guardhouse (pronouncing it gahd-house),’ and my first lieutenant was like, ‘What the hell did he say? Where are you from?’ I do have a way of talking, I guess.”

“When he started, it wasn’t a lot of information (to say),” said Sam Shaw Jr., Sam’s son, who has helped him in the booth for the past 10 years. “He just kept adding on more and more (as the years went on). First, it was the ball carrier and who made the tackle. He just kept adding more to the broadcast, and I think that’s what made it interesting to people, I hope, anyway. You have that almost play-by-play, you can just sit back and enjoy the game. You’ve got Dad telling you all the situations, what’s going on. He ad-libbed his cadence. Dad loves to talk, and he enjoyed that.”

Sam Shaw Jr., left, uses binoculars as he watches a play and relays the player’s numbers to his father, public announcer Sam Shaw during an Oct. 4 game at Hoch Field at Gardiner. The elder Shaw has been volunteering with Gardiner football teams for 50 years. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

The elder Shaw has also become popular over the years for his signature line, a play made by the “Tiger Cat Pack,” nearly any time a group of Gardiner defenders make a tackle. The line is a nod to the Wolfgram years at Gardiner.

“There isn’t anything in Gardiner Tiger football in the last 50 years that doesn’t have a tie to John Wolfgram,” said Rob Munzing, broadcaster and owner of Munzing Media, which streams games around central Maine, including Gardiner. “John named our defense the Cat Pack back in the 1970s. We used to have t-shirts made, and that was one of the sayings, like ‘Cat Pack,’ or ‘Cat Pack Pride.’ That’s where that came from.”

Munzing, who served as an assistant under Wolfgram before taking over as head coach of the Tigers from 1986-2000, led the team to three Eastern Class A championships. He also appreciated how Shaw called games.

“He’s the top-notch, loyal backer of Gardiner Tiger football, since I came to town back in 1975 with Coach Wolfgram,” Munzing said. “He’s done anything that he can do to benefit kids, that’s Sam’s legacy. He’s coached, he’s served as schoolboard chairman. There wasn’t a sport he didn’t coach. He was just so instrumental to all of us here in town, not just football-wise, but as a community person.”

Pat Munzing, Rob’s son, has had the experience of hearing Shaw as both a player and as a coach. Pat took over the Gardiner program in 2019.

“He’s just one of those keystones of the Gardiner football program, spanning for decades,” Munzing said. “I grew up just down the street, and I’ve listened to him my entire life. Being able to play on Hoch Field, calling my name, and now he’s introducing (the current) players and me as a coach. It’s just great. He comes down, chats, knows all the kids because he coached them in youth (football). It’s a special kind of thing to have an iconic person who is so devoted (to the community). He’s one of those really strong members of our Tiger Town community.

“You listen to his voice, and it’s like home. This place is a second home; I’ve spent more time here than anywhere else growing up. I’d come down and set up the field, hear Sam’s voice over the intercom. Hearing that voice is just so comforting. You go to other places, it’s just not the same.”

Nate Sergent is Gardiner’s only Fitzpatrick Trophy winner, accounting for 1,538 all-purpose yards during the 1997 season. Shaw coached Sergent during his junior high years.

“He’s got a distinct voice,” Sergent said. “You could hear it out in the parking lot and always tell who (was announcing). You go to other team’s fields; you don’t really hear the PA announcer. When you hear him, you could hear him on the field. He had a very distinct call… (As a coach), he was firm but fair. He held you to a higher standard. You were there to practice and to get better.”

About 10 years ago, Shaw began having problems seeing where the ball was spotted on the field. Enter Sam Shaw, Jr., who has since joined his father in the press box, telling him where the ball is on the field.

“I love my son,” Shaw said. “I sometimes have pronunciation problems. And he’ll (tell me) the name 47 times… He’s great. He sends me a program of the opposing team, and Sammy takes it and (blows up the font so Sam Sr. can read it).”

Sam Shaw Jr., left, and his father Sam Shaw get dinner at the All Sports Boosters Snack Shack prior to an Oct. 4 game in Gardiner. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

“He likes to have fun, I’m sure he’s told you, but I take it a little more serious,” laughed Sam Jr. “I do get ugly with him sometimes (during a game). He’ll ad-lib a little more than he should, or he’ll apologize for a mispronunciation, and I’ll tell him, ‘You don’t have to apologize.'”

The duo has a routine before every game about 5:45 p.m.: The Shaws grab a hot dog at the concession stand.

“Spending those few hours together on a Friday night (is great), we can hang out,” Sam Jr. said. “We go to the sports booster (snack shack) and he buys me a hot dog and a soda. We get to do dinner together, watch it together, watch the game… It was very cool, getting a chance to do that.”

“He’s a little too serious for me sometimes, but that’s just him,” Sam Sr. laughed about Sam Jr.

Shaw decided this year was the right time to get out of the broadcast booth, mostly to spend time with his family. His wife of 55 years, Linda, also a Gardiner alum, is in cancer remission. The pair have a chance to spend time with their children, Sam Jr., as well as their daughter, Hilary, who lives in Maryland. The couple has four grandchildren.

“We plan on doing some trips,” said Shaw, who recently enjoyed a family cruise to Alaska. “I’ve been so busy, for 50 years, between being chairman of the school board, community service and football… Without (my family’s) support, I could have never done it.”

While Sam Shaw Sr. may not be in the press box every Friday night moving forward, he won’t be far from his beloved Tigers.

“I’m not going to say never again (with announcing), but that’s what I’m saying right now,” Shaw said.

“I’m very proud of him and all that’s he done,” said Sam Jr. “He goes to all the basketball games. He’s one of the biggest sports boosters going. I think he just loves the coaching aspect of it, being around the kids and supporting the kids. He goes to the softball games, the field hockey games, the hockey games. He loves being part of the Gardiner sports culture. Everywhere you go, everyone knows Dad. Doesn’t matter if it’s Gardiner or not, they know he’s from Gardiner.”