How Jim Nantz Brought Kellen and Kelvin Sampson To The Masters For a Magical Father-Son Moment That Helped Houston Heal

OKLAHOMA CITY — Kelvin Sampson stands at center court, watching his University of Houston team go through high-energy shooting drills on another NCAA Tournament eve. Houston is right back where it always is these days in March under Sampson — preparing for another Big Dance as one of the top seeds in the land (No. 2 in the South this time). But Sampson’s program getting back here after suffering that crushing loss to Florida in the national championship game took scrapping themselves off the mat, putting their ripped out hearts back in their chests. It turns out a fathers-sons trip to The Masters helped move the healing along.

Jim Nantz, the voice of CBS Sports and a beyond proud, devoted Coog, sensed that Kelvin Sampson and his son/lead assistant Kellen Sampson needed a break from their misery. So Nantz kept pushing the idea of the Sampsons joining him at The Masters.

“How ridiculously gracious was Coach Nantz to think of us in what was obviously an unbelievably busy week for him with the obligations and things that are pulling at Jim Nantz during Masters week,” Kellen Sampson tells PaperCity, using the most honorary title he knows for the broadcaster. “For him to think of us. . . And he actually tried on a few different days throughout the week to get us there.”

The Sampsons did not know if they were up to going. The national championship loss remained an open wound. But Nantz would not give up.

“He was relentless about providing this opportunity for us,” Kellen Sampson says. “For him to think of us when obviously we’re hurting, we’re wounded. To offer a once-in-a-lifetime experience, it meant the world.”

So the Sampson found themselves at Augusta National on Masters Sunday, getting a rare inside look at Butler Cabin. watching Rory McIlroy’s long-awaited storybook playoff win. Having some smiles again less than a week removed from a true dream season’s gut-wrenching ending. Scottie Scheffler, the No. 1 ranked golfer in the world who grew up in Texas, had a moment with Kelvin Sampson too.

“On Sunday of the Masters, me and Kellen jumped on a plane and flew to Augusta,” Kelvin Sampson tells PaperCity. “We got to see everything and went to Butler Cabin. Jim and (his son) Jamo, me and Kellen, got to take pictures together. I was standing as far as me to you when Scheffler gave the green jacket to McIlroy. Scheffler walks by and says, “Coach, I had you in the bracket.’

“I said, ‘So did I.” Sampson chuckles. “Jim’s special, man,” he says.

In many ways, this Masters Sunday trip turned into a fathers-sons sports moment with Kelvin and Kellen Sampson and Jim and then 9-year-old Jameson Nantz spending time together. That part of it — the father-son connections he’s long treasured — meant everything to Nantz.

“I miss that part of my life — being on the son side of that,” Nantz tells PaperCity. “I just love watching the two of them in tandem. I used to at the Final Four give a set of tickets away every year after I lost my dad to a father and son. I wanted them to live that experience that I got to all through my youth. I wanted to be able to kind of experience it vicariously through them. It gave me a lot of joy.

“So Kelvin and Kellen were at the Masters. We got to take some pictures together and got to go down to Amen Corner after I finished the broadcast and we got to take a picture out on the course. It meant a lot to me because it meant a lot to Kelvin and Kellen. And my son was there. Now I’m on the other side of it.”

“I was standing as far as me to you when (Scottie) Scheffler gave the green jacket to (Rory) McIlroy. Scheffler walks by and says, “Coach, I had you in the bracket.’ I said, ‘So did I.” — Houston coach Kelvin Sampson

One Special Masters Sunday

To Nantz, it’s not about him. But on one of his biggest, most demanding and most stressful weeks of the year — Masters week, which may only be second to a Super Bowl week in terms of pressure and juggling — he reached out to the hurting Sampsons and gave them a day to remember. Together. As father and son.

You never know what will start to snap you out of a funk and help restoke the fire.

“There’s no greater theater in sports than The Masters,” Kellen Sampson says. “Because there’s no cellphones. You are one thousand percent totally allowed to be in the moment of the magic. And the energy and the crowd movement and the cheers. And the reactions. You have no idea because you’re literally waiting on scoreboards — old school scoreboards — to flip.

“So you’re just allowed to one hundred percent be in the moment of that event.”

For the first time in forever, Kelvin and Kellen Sampson got to enjoy a sporting event without worrying about how their team’s going to come together or what a recruit is thinking. To Kellen Sampson, Jim Nantz give his dad and him the rarest of gifts.

“We’re never allowed to tailgate,” Kellen Sampson says. “We’re never allowed to enjoy a sporting event,. We’re always the men in the arena. To be allowed to be outside of the ropes and for one day to just be an awesome fan. That was a cool, cool thing.

“You know, April 7th wasn’t so fun. But that Masters Sunday was a cool day.”

The Sampsons are back in the arena this March, their latest top seed journey set to start with a 9:10 pm Thursday night tip (truTV) vs. 15th seed Idaho in a state that means so much to them. Jim Nantz plans to attend the second weekend games at the Toyota Center if this 28-6 Houston team advances. He pledged $1 million of his own money to the new Nantz Leadership Society at UH in August as PaperCity first reported. Nantz thought of his parents Jim Nantz Jr., a former college football player, and Doris Nantz while doing that, felt their presence. He thought of the Sampsons after that heartbreaking loss. But he’ll tell you that Kelvin Sampson has done much more for him than he could ever do for Sampson by reviving this UH basketball program and turning it into one of the true powers in the sport.

Nantz watches every UH basketball game no where he is, no matter what he’s broadcasting.

That magical Masters Sunday experience did not guarantee another elite season. That’s all about the relentless work that’s defined Sampson’s Houston program. But it helped lift some of dark gloom left by what happened last April 7th, that Monday night. Let in some light. Maybe got the push to get to anoter Monday night, this one April 6, rolling.

Fathers and sons in sports. Jim Nantz will tell you that combination’s practically undefeated.