As the lead maintenance mechanic for the Juneau School District, 57-year-old Steve Brandner encountered schoolchildren quite often.
“They’ll stop me and say, ‘Hey, I know you,’” Brandner said. “You’re that Gold Medal Guy.”
The Gold Medal Guy won’t be seen in Juneau schools much anymore though. Brandner retired from a 30-year career in the school district last month.
He’ll likely cease being called the nickname altogether, as Brandner will take a less active role putting on the Juneau Lions Club Gold Medal Basketball Tournament in the spring.
For decades, Brandner soaked up Gold Medal. Up until his 2012 induction into the tournament’s hall of fame, he played in 23 tournaments, winning championships three times in the Master’s bracket, once in the C Bracket and once in the now-defunct AA-Bracket.
In turn, the Lions Club soaked up the time and talents of Brandner, one of the most trusted volunteers in town.
“He’s going to be totally missed by the school district and the maintenance staff and everything he did — not just for basketball — but in the entire district as well,” former Juneau-Douglas High School boys basketball coach George Houston said.
Brandner moved to Juneau in 1974 and graduated from JDHS in 1979.
Upon wrapping up a three-year basketball career at the Oregon Institute of Technology, Brandner returned to Juneau and the Gold Medal tournament. Still in college-playing shape, Brandner was on the all-tournament team for four consecutive years in the late 1980s.
He continued to play in the tournament in the 1990s and 2000s and made plenty of tournament acquaintances over the years, including Dr. Walter Soboleff and other Lions Club members. His basketball knowledge and access to JDHS as a district employee allowed the tournament to run smoothly. And after helping the service organization run the tournament in an unofficial capacity for many years, Brandner became a Lion himself.
He began to see what the tournament was all about. Much more than just a place to harness one’s competitive spirit, the tournament raised key funds for students and organizations all across Southeast Alaska.
“You see the focus: the tournament is a great cultural, social gathering for playing basketball,” Brandner said. “But the goal is to earn some money to give back to the community in scholarships and grants.”
Brandner was regularly moved by the spirit of the teams that played in the tournament. In 2005, he presented the family of the late Kake tribal leader Sam Jackson — who played in his last tournament in 2004 — a custom-made memento.
“He was pretty sick,” Brandner said of Jackson, who was undergoing chemotherapy for throat cancer in 2004. “But he got out onto the floor and he played and he made a 3-point shot. I remembered the location of where he shot it and I cut that section of floor out and had it framed.”
The JDHS gym floor was being replaced that year with a new one. The next year, Brandner custom-made over 100 special awards out of the same scrap hardwood.
“I became a member because as I got to dealing with the Lions Club who put on the tournament that has given so many people so much enjoyment for so long, including me, I go, ‘Yeah I can dedicate some time to this, I can find some time,’” he said.
Toward the end of the 71st annual Gold Medal tournament last year, the Lions Club awarded Brandner with the Walter Soboleff Award, the highest honor handed out by the tournament. The award is given to a player in the tournament “who best personifies sportsmanship, leadership, spirit, motivation and pride in their team, village and community.”
“This looks out at the candidate’s other aspects: What are you doing in your community?” he said.
Along with a metal plaque, Lions Club officials presented Brandner with a life-size gold basketball fixed to a black marble stand.
The Gold Medal tournament wasn’t the only way in which Brandner was an ambassador for Juneau basketball — he was a major player with the JDHS boys basketball team.
Brandner played on the second junior varsity team Houston ever coached. A quarter-century later, Brandner became an assistant coach during the last seven years of Houston’s tenure. In between, they battled against each other in the Parks and Recreation basketball league.
Houston knew Brandner could work on a more individual basis with some of his bigger players, even providing an extra body when working on a drill.
Brandner remembers when one of his players, Junior Cumlat, couldn’t believe how old he was while doing a rebounding drill.
“I was on my knees just breathing hard and Junior Cumlat looks at me and he goes, ‘Coach, what’s wrong? What’s up? Come on!’ and I go, ‘Junior, I’m 42 years old and I can’t keep up with you guys anymore.’” Brandner said. “And he goes, ‘You’re what? 42?’ And I go, ‘What did you think I was? 22?’ And it totally blew him away to have someone of my age out there still trying to — not really compete — but just make it difficult for them.”
Brandner and his wife, Monica, are now retired in Spokane. Brandner will be in Juneau during the summers still. He and another district employee, JDHS faculty member Andy Bullick, run a roofing company.
• Contact sports reporter Nolin Ainsworth at 523-2272 or nolin.ainsworth@juneauempire.com.
