Biography

Samuel Lloyd Spence (March 29, 1927 – February 6, 2016) was an American soundtrack composer best known for his work with NFL Films. His music has also been in the EA Sports Madden NFL football video games and many football-related commercials. His music has gained more widespread notoriety for its frequent use in the soundtracks of other films and television series. Spence was born in San Francisco and attended the University of Southern California. In 1966, while working as a music instructor in Munich, he was hired to score the mini-documentaries that conveyed National Football League highlights and personalities to fans in the network-television era. His music cues, combined with the voices of announcers Pat Summerall, Tom Brookshier, Charlie Jones, John Facenda and Harry Kalas, created the trademark style of the NFL's sports highlights films.

Initially, Mahlon Merrick was asked to provide scores for NFL Films. Merrick asked his friend, Spence, to help in the recording sessions. Spence said: "Mahlon had written marches. Toward the end of that recording session, I stuck in a couple of different pieces — my own orchestral compositions with strings and woodwinds, more like a Hollywood film score. It turned out they were Ed Sabol's favorites and he offered me a three-year contract to write, conduct, and produce NFL Films' music."

In Germany, Spence wrote several TV soundtracks with Hani Chamseddine, e.g., for the Francis Durbridge thriller Wie ein Blitz. After his retirement in 1990, he returned to Munich. He achieved unexpected fame in 1998 with the success of a CD compilation entitled The Power and the Glory: The Original Music & Voices Of NFL Films. Spence died at a Lewisville, Texas nursing center on February 6, 2016, at the age of 88.