Steve Goldman (B.S., ’66) coached football for 30 years with 10 different teams across the United States and Canada. As he likes to say, despite all those moves, his wife Donna is still with him after 52 years.
He grew up in Rockaway Beach, located in Queens, New York, where he played high school football and baseball. He came to the attention of Mike Lude, who coached in Delaware. When Lude was hired as head coach at CSU, he recruited several players from the northeast, including Goldman. In the early 1960s, “recruited” meant you received a letter indicating that, if you made the team, you would get a scholarship but not a full ride.
Goldman and his teammate and life-long friend applied to CSU and were accepted. Goldman planned to be a dentist but, “a couple chemistry courses refocused my goal to coaching.” His experience at CSU was “fantastic”; he claims prior to coming to Fort Collins, he “had never seen an animal other than those in the Bronx Zoo.”
His first two years, football players played “both ways,” offense and defense. His last two years, the NCAA went to unlimited substitution and allowed players to specialize. He was more suited for offense, at split end, and got more playing time. As school expenses were not fully covered by his scholarship, he also worked as a dorm counselor for three years, which was “a great experience.”
After graduation, Coach Lude helped him get an assistantship at Florida State, where he earned an M.S. in education while serving as football assistant. He also worked with a group of coaches who were influential in his coaching career.
His first position was at Clearwater High School in Florida; his team had a 29-3 record over three years. During that period, he met and married Donna; they had two sons when they moved to Houston, where he was head freshman coach at Rice University, where their daughter was born. The following two years he was offensive backfield coach, then offensive coordinator in 1974. Next stop was five years as offensive backfield and receiver coach at the University of Louisville.
In 1980, he moved to the Canadian Football League. He was offensive backfield coach for the Toronto Argonauts from 1980-81, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats from 1982-83, and the Edmonton Eskimos from 1984-87. Edmonton won the Grey Cup Championship in 1987. In 1988, he was offensive coordinator for the Saskatchewan Roughriders then head coach and director of football operations for the Ottawa Rough Riders from 1989-91, taking that team to the playoffs his second year.
During his time in Canada, he coached many successful quarterbacks, a number of whom are in the CFL Hall of Fame. He was hired to coach the Nevada Aces of the Professional Spring Football League in 1992, but the league folded prior to play.
When Goldman moved the family back to Clearwater, he was introduced to the financial world and sat for the exam to be a financial adviser. However, before he could begin this new career, he was offered a position as assistant head coach/quarterback coach for Temple University. He accepted, putting his new career on hold.
He retired from coaching in 1997 and became a financial advisor at Morgan Stanley legacy Smith Barney. In August 2016, he became a senior vice president at UBS Financial Services. He works remotely from his home office in Boynton Beach, Florida; his team, The Atlantic Legacy Group, is in Mount Laurel, New Jersey.
Since leaving coaching, Goldman has returned to CSU each year for Homecoming or Legends Weekend. He has six grandchildren, and he brings one with him on each trip to Fort Collins. His connection to CSU football has spanned its playing fields. He played at Colorado Field, located between College Avenue and the railroad tracks. Hughes Stadium opened in 1968, two years after he graduated. He now attends games at Canvas Stadium.
This stalwart Ram shows his pride in many ways, including displaying a photo of Canvas Stadium in his office and endowing a scholarship in Athletics. CSU is more than just a stop on Goldman’s amazing journey.
