The son of an immigrant German brewer who settled in Buffalo, Gerhard (Sam) Simon was a member of Georgetown's inaugural basketball team in 1907 while attending law school. Simon played on the baseball and football teams as well. Simon was named after Gerhard Lang, the prominent Buffalo brewer where his father worked at the time of his birth in 1884.

Following Georgetown, Simon returned to Buffalo, where he was a manager at the William Simon Brewery, which closed three years after his death in 1970.