A man of many roles, he played a starring one for the Lobos

He was mailman Cliff Clavin’s enormous (and scary) friend Lewis on two episodes of  “Cheers.”

He was a referee in “The Karate Kid.”

He was a patient in “ER” in two episodes, first Mr. Parnell, then Willy Archibald,  14 years apart.

He was an elderly man spending quality time with his adult son in a McDonald’s commercial.

Years earlier, Sam Scarber played a starring role as a pile-driving fullback in the most prolific running game the University of New Mexico has ever seen.

More than that, say those who knew him, he was a friend who always could be counted on.

“He was one of the best guys I’ve ever been around,”  former Lobos quarterback and former head coach Rocky Long said in a phone interview. “And he was one of the best football players I’ve ever been around.”

Scarber, who played for the Lobos from 1968-70, died in California on March 9. He was 76.

Preston Dennard, an all-time great UNM wide receiver (1974-77) who went on to play eight years in the NFL, never had a chance to share the field or the locker room with Scarber. But the two became close friends when, year after year, Scarber would return to Albuquerque to play in Dennard’s charity golf tournament.

“I used to bring in all the Lobos I possibly could, from all sports and so on,” Dennard said. “… I knew Sam had an acting background, and he helped me bring in some actors as well over the years.

“That’s where we really grew our relationship. … I ended up being his little brother. (It was always) ‘Hey, little brother, how you doing?’”

Long, who shared UNM’s backfield with Scarber in 1969-70, said big Sam as a 235-pound fullback was the linchpin in the 1970 UNM team’s ground attack that led NCAA’s Division 1-A with an average of 350 yards per game.

Long’s job as quarterback in coach Rudy Feldman’s wishbone (triple-option) attack was to read the defense and make the right decision — the give, the keep or the pitch.

Handing off to Scarber, Long said in a phone interview, was rarely the wrong decision.

No matter the decision he made, Long said “(defenses) had to keep one or two guys in there to tackle the dive back every single time we ran the triple option. … if they tried to tackle him with one guy, he usually ran over him and made another 20 yards before they pulled him down.”

Born in St. Louis, Scarber was a first-team all-city selection as a senior running back for O’Fallon Tech high school. He played one season at Northeastern Junior College in Sterling, Colorado before Feldman, having succeeded Bill Weeks as UNM head coach, brought him to Albuquerque in 1968.

“We’re not a good football team,” Feldman said of his ‘68 squad before the season started, and he was prophetic. As the Lobos limped to an 0-10 record. Scarber was utilized — perhaps underutilized — as a wingback and even as linebacker as injuries mounted. He finished the season with just 36 yards net rushing on only 28 carries.

The following spring, Feldman installed the wishbone formation that coach Darrell Royal had employed with great success at the University of Texas. He wisely switched Long from defensive back to quarterback — “Thank goodness,” Long said— and realize he had an ideal wishbone fullback in Scarber.

Success was not immediate. The 1969 Lobos lost five of their first six games before rallying to finish 4-6. The highlight, other than UNM’s first victory over New Mexico State since 1964, was a 16-7 upset of a Kansas team that had humiliated the Lobos 68-7 in ‘68.

Scarber was the backbone of that victory over Kansas, rushing for 130 yards on 38 carries. The UNM football record book does not have a listing for most carries by an individual in a single game; that still might be it.

In 1970, with the addition at halfback of former Alamogordo High School star Fred Henry and junior college transfer Nate McCall, the UNM ground game bordered on the unstoppable. Scarber led the way with 961 yards and a 5.2 average per carry, earning first-team all-Western Athletic Conference honors, as the Lobos went 7-3 and finished second in the WAC behind Arizona State.

“He’s the finest fullback I’ve ever seen,” UNM center Tod Klein told the Albuquerque Tribune, comparing Scarber favorably to Kansas’ John Riggins.

Scarber, however, never approached the kind of success Riggins enjoyed in the NFL.

Selected by Dallas in the third round of the 1971 NFL Draft, Scarber was waived that summer by the Cowboys and then days later by the Los Angeles Rams. He played one season with the Canadian Football League’s Edmonton Eskimos and one season in 1974 with the Detroit Wheels of the World Football League, where Long, once again a defensive back, was a teammate.

The Wheels folded after the ‘74 season, and Scarber caught on with the NFL’s  San Diego Chargers. In 1975-76, he had 76 carries for 304 yards with two touchdowns.

Something else, though, happened during those two years with the Chargers.

On Oct. 18, 1976, Scarber rushed for 76 yards on 17 carries in a 30-27 victory over the Houston Oilers and was interviewed for television after the game.

His charm and camera-friendly appearance caught the eye of a Hollywood agent.

“They told me, ‘Sam, if you cut your beard off, you could do OK,’”  Scarber told the Albuquerque Tribune in 1983.

Initially reluctant to lose the beard, he eventually complied. After enrolling in acting classes, he found steady work in films an TV in a career that spanned some three decades.

Scarber’s listing on the entertainment website imdb.com shows 101 film and television appearances. It likely is not complete.

Long, who played for the CFL’s BC Lions in 1986-87, said he’d heard at the time that Scarber had become an actor. It nevertheless came as a shock when he and his wife, Debbie, went to a movie and he first saw his friend and teammate up on the silver screen.

The two had stayed in touch over the years, talking occasionally on the phone.

“He was a guy that made friends really easily,” Long said. “… He was one of those guys that would gather the group together and say, ‘Let’s do this.’ He was big enough and strong enough and friendly enough that everybody said ‘Yeah, that’s a good Idea.’”

In the Lobo football alumni community, Dennard said, Scarber became the proverbial straw that stirred the drink.

“I would hear from other guys (who’d say), ‘Did you hear from Sam? He just called me.’” Dennard said. “ … He was a blessing on the other end of the line.

“That’s what I’ll truly remember about Sam.”