The Clarion Ledger - Jackson, Miss.
By: Rick Cleveland
July 17, 2010
This was November of 1976. Southern Miss had lost nine straight football games and was about to play then-Memphis State, which, with a victory, would clinch a berth in the Tangerine Bowl.
Desperate for a spark, second-year USM coach Bobby Collins switched quarterbacks, starting untested sophomore Jeff Hammond for the first time. Hammond's previous niche had been on special teams, specifically kickoff coverage. Stocky and muscular for a quarterback, Hammond was the wedge-buster, the guy who essentially charged down the field, kamikaze-style, and hurled himself into opposing blockers. He relished the role.
Collins and his staff were going over last-minute plans in the locker room. They came to kickoff coverage, and Hammond saw on the blackboard that he wasn't a part of it.
"Coach, what about me?" Hammond said. "Did I lose my job?"
Collins told his offensive coordinator Whitey Jordan to go and talk to Hammond.
"Son," Jordan told him. "You're our starting quarterback. You need to change the way you're thinking."
USM won the game 14-12. To this day, Collins will tell you it was the best victory of his coaching career.
"I don't know how else to put this," Collins said. "Jeff Hammond willed us to victory; he wouldn't let us lose. He didn't have a lot of ability but he was a natural born leader and one tough son of a gun."
A year later, Hammond would quarterback the Golden Eagles to victories over Auburn, Ole Miss and Mississippi State.
And now, nearly 34 years later, Hammond, 54, and a national hero, returns to USM to serve his alma mater as senior associate director of athletics, with his primary duties having to do with fund-raising.
Hammond will retire in September as a Major General (two-star) in the U.S. Army. Most recently, Hammond commanded 28,000 soldiers in Iraq. Among other honors, Hammond has won the Distinguished Service Medal twice, The Bronze Star three times, the Defense Superior Service Medal, the legion of Merit and the Combat Action Badge.
Whitey Jordan, that USM offensive coordinator, has proved a prophet. Hammond was big in ROTC at USM and Collins remembers Jordan's prediction: "One day there's going to be another war, and when it happens, every soldier around is going to want to be in Hammond's foxhole."
"You know what, Whitey was right," Collins said.
Home at last
Hammond's hiring was announced at a news conference Friday in the M-Club Room overlooking the playing field at Roberts Stadium. Hammond talked about "the fire in his belly" to return and work for his alma mater. "Our beloved alma mater," he said looking over to his wife Diane, a Hattiesburg native, whom he met at USM.
Still, I had to wonder how a guy who has served 32 years in the military, commanding thousands of troops in three different combat tours, was going to adapt to a task that at least starts, essentially, as a fund-raising job. Isn't this, he was asked, going to be quite the adjustment?
Hammond smiled and nodded his head before answering.
"You know, I haven't been home a lot," he began. "I wanted to be a soldier and I've been one for 32 years and I have commanded at every level in Germany, in Bosnia, in Iraq. But I haven't been home a lot.
"It has been very rewarding, but I lost 94 soldiers in my 15 months in Baghdad. Not a day goes by that they don't haunt me. Diane was at home, and she was dealing with those soldiers' families. When I came home, we talked about what we wanted to do with the second half of our lives. I wanted to spend more time with my family (the Hammonds have a son and a daughter). This opportunity came along. We prayed about, talked about, prayed about it and talked about it some more and this is what we decided to do. It's a passion and a love we have for this university and all it has meant to us. This university has been the best thing that ever happened to us."
'It's about people'
Hammond essentially replaces Scott Carr, who left USM for a similar job at Auburn last July. The job has been held open for a year, due in large part to the financial crunch that has impacted USM athletics (and many other universities) in this economy. That's what makes his new job so important.
It's a totally different challenge from what he has faced before, which is not to say it is more difficult.
"It's working with people," Hammond said. "I think one of my strengths is communication and motivation. It's about people. I can't wait."
Reach Rick Cleveland at rcleveland@clarionledger.com
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