Sheldon Kaufman Papers

Sheldon Kaufman was born to Martin and Mary (Morris) Kaufman September 12, 1950 in Houston. He grew up in the Westbury area, attending Adath Emeth primary school and graduated from Westbury High School in 1968. Sheldon began playing baseball at a young age with one of his local Little League teams where he excelled at both fielding and hitting. He played football, basketball, and baseball for Westbury High School, sitting out part of the baseball season his senior year with a broken jaw after being hit by a pitch. Sheldon was offered, and accepted, a scholarship to play baseball for Rice University from 1968 to 1972. He played shortstop for the Owls for four seasons and was named All SWC shortstop his senior year. Sheldon was the only Jewish player on the baseball team at the time. He never felt any animosity from other team members because of religious differences. One of his favorite stories concerns his teammate and roommate who had never met anyone Jewish before. When Sheldon lit Chanukah candles, his roommate was shocked to learn Sheldon was Jewish, and from then on Sheldon explained every holiday to him. The two still remain friends. Sheldon graduated from Rice in 1972 with a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Commerce. He married Phyllis Belasco – a transplant form Pennsylvania and 1970 graduate of Bellaire High School -- March 17, 1974. Sheldon was inducted into the Ronnie Arrow Houston Jewish Sports Hall of Fame June 13, 2004, in recognition of achievements in baseball.