Somehow amid their devastation, family and friends of Sam Landsberger laid the esteemed sports journalist to rest on Monday in a beautiful and moving funeral at Temple Beth Israel Synagogue. Hundreds of mourners filled the venue for the 35-year-old, who died last Tuesday after being hit by a truck in Richmond while on the phone to his mother Annie . Sam Landsberger’s mother Annie and father Jake paid a wonderful tribute to their son.
Credit: Justin McManus “I delivered Sam, I nurtured Sam, and I’m so grateful that I was with Sam right to the end when he passed away ...
so we are together forever,” she said. There were his colleagues from the Herald Sun , as well as sports journalists from all outlets and generations to honour his life and hear his father Dr Jake Landsberger tell those present how their son “lit up our entire lives”. “Approximately 22 years ago, our families stood in this same spot, in this great big hall, celebrating Sam’s bar mitzvah,” he said.
“Now we find ourselves in this same room in utter and complete devastation.” That devastation over what was aptly described as “an unfathomable loss” hung over the room, but lifted temporarily as those nearest to Landsberger brought pathos and humour to reflect on the man known as kind and cheeky in equal doses. Sam Landsberger died last week at the age of 35.
There was the nickname “Cheezels”, bestowed on him by Western Bulldogs champion Scott West when Sam was 10 after his father – then the Bulldogs’ long-serving club doctor – had to take him to the rooms to clean up the mess he had made on his jumper when he ate too many Cheezels too quickly at a Footscray match. The stories of his kindness towards friends struck the hardest as they described the ways he not only used networks to bring joy to their lives but deployed a big smile and the love of a good time to pack too many stories to tell in his too short life. His sister Sarah remembered his obsession with the Rocky Horror Picture Show and how his mum, whom he made sure was called “Annie” despite her feeble protestations that she was “Anne and his mum”, was asked whether it was appropriate to keep renting such a video out for her son.
The mourners laughed amid the tears as his sister recalled drawings by his nieces and nephews that sat proudly on his fridge, and the time he spent with the youngsters, who adored their uncle. There might have been jokes about his lack of sporting prowess being matched by the love of the games he was able to cover so well. Testament to the regard he was held was the presence of cricketers Aaron Finch and Glenn Maxwell, as well as Bulldog icons Doug Hawkins and Marcus Bontempelli and chief football writers past and present from both major Victorian newspapers.
AFL CEO Andrew Dillon, AFLPA CEO Paul Marsh, Collingwood president Jeff Browne and peers and mates in the journalism world were also in attendance. But his profession was not dwelled upon, as the picture of the man behind the byline was painted by those who knew him best – of a humble man, in the prime of his life, loving those in his orbit and making their lives richer for it. “The outpouring has been remarkable,” said Cantor Michel Lalaoum, who conducted the service.
Annie Landsberger, in her grief, found the courage to convey her love for Sam, combining a wicked sense of humour with the connection only a mum could have with her son, the gifted storyteller who has been the subject of so many stories over the week that has passed since his shock death. “Always and forever, whenever we signed off, it was ‘Hooray’. You always said ‘Hooray’, so ‘Hooray Sam’.
.. I simply treasured you and I know you treasured me,” she said.
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