Individual | Inducted 2025 | Posthumous Induction
Sam Hamilton was instrumental in the growth of women’s sports within the Chicago Metropolitan Sports Association (CMSA), the largest not-for-profit LGBTQ+ sports organization in the Midwest.
Hamilton, who passed away in 2025, started playing sports in 2002, managing flag football and softball teams; at one time she was the manager for three flag football teams in the fall and three softball teams in the summer. During the Chicago Gay Games 2006 she was a volunteer photographer for the event and compiled several albums of the shots she had taken.
When CMSA sent the first two women’s flag football teams to the Gay Super Bowl in Denver in 2012, she helped with fundraising for both teams even though she was not the team manager or a player. Within CMSA, she founded the first annual CMSA women’s social held at Joe’s Bar on Weed Street. She was awarded the Angie Oldham Memorial Award in 2009 for her volunteer work with CMSA’s Women’s Flag League, was named CMSA female athlete of the year in 2010, and was inducted into the CMSA Hall of Fame in 2012.