SPORTS

BY VINCE FRATIANI

Cleveland State University lost a great friend and a well-loved member of the CSU community when Merle Levin passed away on June 10 at the age of 80.

Levin, a longtime resident of Gates Mills, was the sports information director at Cleveland State for 38 years. He started in 1955, when CSU was still Fenn College.

The Glenville graduate was one of the founders of the Sports Media Association of Cleveland and Ohio (SMACO).
Before arriving at Cleveland State, Levin worked as a reporter for the Chagrin Valley Herald and did public relations work for the historic WHK-AM radio station in Cleveland and KYW-TV 3, better known today as WKYC Channel 3.

Levin retired from CSU in 1992 and was inducted into the university’s Athletic Hall of Fame the following year. He was later inducted into the Greater Cleveland Sports Hall of Fame in 2007.

A memorial was held in the Wolstein Center’s Gerald Gordon Pavilion on June 16 to honor Levin’s accomplishments and celebrate his life. He may best be remembered for the many close relationships he held throughout the Cleveland sports scene, especially at Cleveland State.

“Merle put in the long hours,” said Jim Rodriguez, a longtime friend and colleague. “He would listen to everybody’s problems. A lot of athletes have a lot of problems and Merle was the sounding board.”

“Merle was the best of us,” said Kevin Mackey, former CSU basketball coach. “To me, Merle was Cleveland State… He loved all of us. We were all better for knowing him.”

A memorial gift of $25,000 was recently donated by former Levin intern and CSU graduate David Zavagno. The generous donation will designate an unnamed room to serve as a media center in honor of Levin.