The Story of Dr. Sammy Lee
"A Life Well Lived"
The Movie
Born in Fresno, California in 1920 to Korean immigrant parents, Soonkee and Eunkee Rhee, Sammy Lee dreamed of being an Olympic Champion. He also dreamed of becoming a medical doctor. Incredibly, Sammy made both of these dreams come true by his 28th birthday - and then he did much more. How Sammy accomplished so much is the subject of a new documentary film entitled “The Story of Dr. Sammy Lee - A Life Well Lived.”
The story of this remarkable American is as inspirational today as it was when it first began just over a century ago. Around the world thousands of lives have been enriched by Sammy’s influence. The Dr. Sammy Lee Story seeks to perpetuate the good doctor’s legacy.
Sammy’s story definitely deserves to be told; his story will be especially relevant to those who thirst for a positive role model - a heroic figure who is able to coach and to heal others, someone who has lived and therefore can teach the process of turning your dreams into goals and then your goals into reality.
To share Sammy's Legacy, we are envisioning a first class, Ken Burns style documentary hosted by a fellow Sullivan Award honoree and multi-gold medal winning Olympian, John Naber. Over thirty Olympians, world record holders, and national champions have agreed to share the wit and wisdom of Sammy Lee as they experienced it. As John Naber famously said, “Sammy used his credentials of success to help others reach their goals.” - Bill Brown, Executive Producer and Director, Buddness Productions Inc. - info@thesammyleestory.com
To learn more about Sammy – continue scrolling ↓ down.
Let's Learn About Sammy
Born in 1920 in Fresno, California and raised in Highland Park, Sammy's story epitomized the California Asian-American segregation experience.
Sammy first learned to dive at Pasadena’s Brookside Park pool, which until 1948, only allowed people of color to use the facilities on Wednesday, the day before it was drained and refilled. His primary practice facility was waterless — a board installed over a sand pit he dug in his coach’s backyard.
At 12, he was introduced to the Olympic Games while riding to the L.A. vegetable market in his father’s Model T truck. The Los Angeles streets were decked out for the upcoming 1932 competition and a parade was underway. When his father explained that the Games crowned “the greatest athletes in the world,” Sammy vowed to become an Olympic champion.
In high school Sammy faced resistant school officials when he put his name on the ballot for school president. “This school has never had a non-white student body president,” Lee’s vice principal informed him. “You might as well get your name off the list.” Lee didn’t and emerged victorious, telling the bewildered vice-principal,
“My fellow classmates do not look at me as Korean. They look at me as a fellow American.”
His father, a Korean immigrant, encouraged Sammy to not retreat from his nation nor his ethnicity.
"Son, you were born a free American,” the elder Lee told his son. “You can do anything you want because you're free, but if you are not proud of the color of your skin and the shape of your eyes, you'll never be accepted."
The inescapable racism “inspired me to perform,” Sammy once said. “I was angered, but I was going to prove that in America, I could do anything.”
Sammy overcame discrimination to become the Los Angeles city diving champion in 1939, and later winning three national collegiate diving championships while attending Occidental College. In 1948 Sammy became the first Asian American to win an Olympic medal. He was also the first diver to win back-to-back gold medals in two different Olympics — in London in 1948 and Helsinki in 1952.
At the Helsinki Games in 1952, the 5' 1" Sammy won his second gold medal in platform diving on his 32nd birthday. The next year, he received the Sullivan Award, which is given to the nation’s most outstanding amateur athlete. Then, at the behest of President Dwight Eisenhower, Sammy and Jessie Owens co-founded the President’s Council on Physical Fitness, a role which he held under five presidents.
And then, guess what the Brookside Plunge, that childhood pool that barred him from entry except on "International Day" did? They changed their policy after he won the gold medal. Sammy's positive actions were beginning to make a difference in America.
Academic success soon followed. Sammy graduated from Occidental College and then earned his medical degree from USC in three years. Decades later he was presented the USC Medical School Distinguished Alumnus Award by distinguished ear surgeon, Dr. John W. House.
From 1946 to 1955, Sammy served in the military, including a tour of duty in the Korean War. As an army major and medical officer, he was stationed just outside of Seoul. During these years and for decades afterwards, he acted as an "Ambassador" spreading the message of American democracy throughout Asia for the State Department. However, Asian-Americans still could not purchase a home in the suburbs of California, an issue that Lee would soon encounter himself.
While he was serving in Korea, Sammy was summoned to treat the first President of South Korea, Syngman Rhee for painful and persistent ear problem. Later, President Rhee asked Sammy to represent Korea in the Olympics, Sammy responded,
“I was born an American. I think like an American. Only my face is Korean.”
In 1955, as he ended eight years of military service, all of his achievements did not spare him from racial discrimination when he tried to buy a home in Garden Grove, a booming postwar community in Orange County. Sammy also wanted to open an ear, nose and throat medical practice in the community; however, the housing discrimination issue created a national news story.
At that time, Garden Grove real estate agents refused to sell Sammy a home and openly confessed that to do so would cost them their livelihoods.
Ironically, when he was turned away by local realtors, Sammy was at the White House dining with President Eisenhower. When word got out that he had been a victim of housing discrimination, the news media picked up the story, and it became a national scandal. Protests, apologies and offers of assistance ensued. Sammy's stature as a civil rights icon continued to grow as fair housing ordinances began to be enacted nationwide.
During this time, Sammy visited 23 countries as an official goodwill ambassador of America, extolling the virtues of democracy and capitalism to the world. In 1957 Sammy was honored by the L.A. County Salesman's Association as their "Salesman of the Year" for his work in "selling America to the world". Sammy was proud to share his motto, taught to him by his father,
“I can because I’m an AmerICAN!"
When the Lees purchased their home in Garden Grove, the county threw them a welcome party when they moved in. Neighbors came and politicians gave speeches.
“My belief in the American people is substantiated,” Sammy said.
Eventually, they bought a house with a pool where he coached his students. As a diving coach, Sammy was known as a great and highly effective teacher.
Sammy coached the 1960 U.S. Olympic diving team and the 1964 Japanese and Korean Olympic teams. As a coach, he paid it forward. He never asked anyone for payment, he told The LA Times in 1966, because his coaches had never charged him.
He coached Bob Webster, the second U.S. diver to win two back-to-back Olympic gold medals in the platform, and four-time American gold medalist Greg Louganis, who lived with Sammy's family before winning a silver medal in the platform at the 1976 Olympics when he was only 16.
As a doctor, Sammy practiced in Santa Ana into his early 70s, when he retired to golf, swim and play tennis — often all on the same day.
The 2012 London Olympics marked the 64th anniversary of Sammy's gold and bronze medal wins at the 1948 Olympics in London. He and Roz attended the London Olympic games as guests of U.S. Diving and other friends and corporate sponsors.
Sammy turned 96 on August 1, 2016. Sadly, he passed away on December 2, 2016. Surviving are his wife, Roz, two children, Pamela and Sammy II, and three grandchildren. We remember and honor Dr. Sammy Lee -- for his life as a family man, a patriot, a physician, a coach and an Olympic champion!
Honors and Recognitions
In 1957, Sammy was named Salesman of the Year by the Los Angeles Sales Executive Club for his "outstanding contribution in the selling people of the world the basic principles, ideals and true significance of the American way of life."
Sammy Lee Square in Los Angeles' Koreatown section was named in his honor in 2010 on his 90th birthday.
Also named in his honor are the diving tower at the Olympic pool at USC, the diving area at Occidental College, and the football stadium at Franklin High School, his alma mater.
In 2013, the Los Angeles Unified School District named one of its elementary schools the Dr. Sammy Lee Medical and Health Sciences Magnet School.
The Sammy Lee Award is given to the outstanding amateur diver each year.
He also founded the Sammy Lee Swimming and Diving School in Anaheim where numerous national and world class swimmers trained. Seven Sammy Lee swimmers won a total of nine Olympic medals, six of them gold.
Sammy has a star on the walkway in front of Disneyland.
And finally, the trophy given annually to the world’s best diver is called, ….”The Dr. Sammy Lee Award.”
