Making the Call
Sportscaster Tom Hammond's commitment to live in Kentucky has been elemental to his success

Editor’s Note: Lest readers think I’m unbiased, they should take note that I am Tom Hammond’s half-brother. Be that as it may, I think that this article offers a unique perspective on Tom’s career and personal commitments that will interest our readers.

On a late winter’s morning, NBC sports broadcaster Tom Hammond greets a visiting journalist at his suburban Lexington home. He is world-renowned for both the quality and the broad scope of his work. Annually hosting the Breeders’ Cup, he also calls Olympic track and field events, the World Ice Skating Championships, NBA and WNBA basketball, college football and Southeastern Conference basketball, among other projects. This year, he will reach a professional milestone, hosting each of racing’s Triple Crown events on NBC and, in effect, becoming the voice of American Thoroughbred racing.

Today, he’s dressed in sweats and Nikes for a pickup game of basketball with some friends later on. The atmosphere is relaxed and Hammond starts the interview with comments about a subject close to his heart: Kentucky. Most of his peers are based on the east coast, usually within commuting distance of NBC’s Manhattan headquarters. Yet Hammond continues to live in the town where he was born. When his coworkers leave to cover a sporting event, they fly from LaGuardia. Hammond leaves from Lexington’s Blue Grass Airport.

“My colleagues always ask me, ‘Why do you do that?’” he said. “I tell them it’s a small price to pay to live in Lexington.

“Really, I don’t see any reason to leave. I like everything about Kentucky. I made the decision professionally some time ago when I was working for WLEX (Lexington’s NBC affiliate). I had some national aspirations. But in the television business that means you hopscotch from one market to a bigger market until you get a chance at the networks.

“Somewhere in the process, I decided that while I was trying to do this, I would remain in Lexington. One of the concrete reasons for this was that I was tied to the Thoroughbred industry. Besides my television work, I was announcing the auctions at Keeneland – that was a real practical reason for staying. But the real reason was that this is my home and I love it. That was back in the ’70s.”

That decision sets Hammond apart from all the nomads that populate the broadcasting industry. To pursue a broadcasting career in the national media while choosing to be based out of a small-to-medium sized media market would be professional suicide for the vast majority of people attempting it. Yet he has been successful and his ties to the Thoroughbred industry were what made the difference.

As a student at the University of Kentucky’s College of Agriculture (he graduated in 1967), Hammond prepared for what he expected to be a career in the Thoroughbred industry. He holds a bachelor’s degree in animal science. The subject of his graduate studies centered around the major Thoroughbred bloodlines in the U.S.

“At one point I thought that Thoroughbred racing and breeding was going to be my life’s work,” he said. “My goal was to have my own farm or to at least be farm manager of a Thoroughbred operation of some kind. I prepared myself for that, working at breeding farms and racetracks in the summer. But while I was in graduate school, I got the chance to work on the radio. It was an odd set of circumstances. My friend Tom Gentry had a party of some kind and he had a friend named Dave Hooper who worked for The Daily Racing Form and was being transferred to Florida. Dave did a horse racing results program every night on WVLK radio and he couldn’t find anyone to take his place when he was transferred. So, I volunteered and he told me to come around to the station the next day. So I started at WVLK doing horse racing results six nights a week at $35 a week.

“As things progressed, they needed someone to do a nightly sports show, so I volunteered for that, too. Then WVLK needed someone to do play-by-play for high school football and basketball games and I volunteered for that. I started doing news as well and became news director, then program director there. Then a TV job at WLEX came up and I was lucky enough to get that. So the whole media thing happened by accident because I was going into Thoroughbred racing.”

In 1984, Hammond’s expertise and ongoing interest in the Thoroughbred racing industry led to a one-time only agreement with NBC to cover the Breeders’ Cup.

“That combination of knowledge – Thoroughbred racing and broadcasting – put me in something of a unique position. There aren’t too many people around the country that have knowledge in those two areas. Most TV guys are kind of scared of racing because it has a lot of specialized knowledge.”

In Hammond’s coverage of the 1984 Breeders’ Cup, his journalistic skills came into play following a bumping incident on the backstretch during one of the races. After the incident, he was quick to contact the jockeys and trainers involved and asked all the right questions. Network executives were impressed. So Hammond has covered the Breeders’ Cup and an ever-broadening scope of sporting events for NBC ever since. The network seems determined to keep him busy.

“During a six-week period of time this past fall, I did a WNBA championship game, the Notre Dame–Texas A&M football game, gymnastics, Olympic track and field and the Breeders’ Cup. So, I’ve got 4.1 million frequent flyer miles with Delta and assorted hundred thousands on several other airlines.”
On the first Saturday of May, Hammond will call the first Kentucky Derby of his career for NBC. For one so well-versed in Thoroughbred racing, he looks forward to the challenge. “I’m feeling some of the pressure about it, too, because I’m from Kentucky,” he said. “I know what the Derby means to people in this state and I know what the expectations are of those people.”

Hammond’s professional philosophy is similar to his commitment to live in Kentucky; it flies in the face of conventional wisdom, yet it is based on traditional values.

“I don’t think I’m the story,” he said. “If I’m able to help someone enjoy the telecast and viewers don’t remember who the announcer was, then that’s okay with me. I see my job as enhancing the enjoyment of the telecast without being the central figure. That’s sort of an old-fashioned notion and it’s probably not the way to fame and fortune these days. If you don’t think so, watch Dick Vitale on ESPN or just about any other sporting personality. I learned the broadcasting business by listening to Claude Sullivan and Cawood Ledford. It just fits my personality to not be too wild or to call attention to myself. Apparently, that’s not the wave of the future.

“Generation X and most of the college students of today seem to have an attention span that’s not too long. When they watch sports, they are looking for the quick joke and for entertainment. They’re not looking for anything too meaningful. How else can you explain the success of Sports Center, for example, which is a comedy show? I don’t think that sports broadcasting should be super-serious, either. It’s sports. It should be fun. It’s not the most serious thing that we deal with in our lives. But there are serious journalistic aspects to it, too. To me, it seems that the most important thing in sports broadcasts now are the personalities and their patented sayings and jokes. Luckily, the networks haven’t succumbed to that yet, but it’s on its way.”

Television broadcasting has also experienced numerous changes since Hammond came on the network scene about 17 years ago.

“Since I first jointed NBC in 1984, we’ve seen Fox become a major player in television sports. They weren’t even on the map then,” Hammond said. “We’ve also seen ESPN grow from a small cable network without a lot of clout or nationwide coverage to major player status. Perhaps ESPN is not yet on a level with the major networks, but they certainly have a lot of brand loyalty. When viewers think of sports, they certainly think of ESPN.

“We’ve also seen the growth of cable television and now with the Internet, the networks’ influence has been diffused and diluted. There are also new networks, like Warner, and continued growth with cable and satellite television. Fortunately, I’ve been able to hold on through all this and worked my way up through the ranks.”

Of all of the events he has covered, Hammond most enjoys calling track and field events at the Olympic games. “I would put the four Olympics I’ve covered as being the highlights of my career so far,” he said. “Probably the single most memorable moment of my broadcast career occurred during the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 when Michael Johnson was trying to complete a double that no one else had ever been able to complete, which was winning the 400 meters and then following it up by winning the 200 meters.

“The emotional atmosphere in the stadium was the most exciting and tense I can ever remember. He got into the blocks and just came blazing out of there – I was so excited to give the call on the race that I realized afterwards that I had risen to my feet as he rounded the turn and won the race. The crowd was cheering and flash bulbs were flashing. It was an electric moment. In fact, Bob Costas was on “The Today Show” about a month ago and replayed that race, saying it was one of the most memorable he had ever seen as well.

“When I talk about the most memorable event I have broadcast, I would also have to mention the 1995 Orange Bowl, which I called with Cris Collingsworth. That was the game when Nebraska beat Miami 24-17, coming from behind in the fourth quarter to do so. Nebraska’s Coach Tom Osborne had had several tries at winning the national championship before that, but had always failed. Chris and I agreed that it was a moment we would remember our entire lives.

“From the most recent Olympics, in Sydney, I think that the outstanding moment of the games was when Cathy Freeman, an aboriginal Australian, won the women’s 400 meters. She had been expected to win the event since Sydney had been selected for the site of the Olympic games three years prior to that. On top of those kinds of expectations, she was elected to light the Olympic flame at the opening ceremonies. When she entered the stadium for the race, you could feel the pressure of the entire country coming down on her. It seemed like all 110,000 people in the stadium were focused on her – you can see in the replay that, by the faces of the fans, they were emotionally caught up in the event.

“When she came up to the top of the home straightaway, she was in third or fourth place and it didn’t look like she was going to make it. But somehow she found a surge of energy to go forward and win the race. You could see the weight of an entire continent lift off of her as she crossed the finish line and fell to her knees in the emotion and relief of the moment. An Australian had won the first women’s 400 meters in the 1960s, and I remember as she got on the blocks that I said, ‘Cathy Freeman has waited four years for this moment; Australia has waited 40 years and her aboriginal people have waited forever.’ She had become a symbol for the aboriginal people and their struggle to gain acceptance and parity in Australia. So, when she won, she fulfilled all the expectations and emotions for her to win. So that event ranks right up there, too.”

Hammond noted with some satisfaction that he won’t be broadcasting any of the much-advertised XFL football games. The XFL was created by a partnership between NBC and professional wrestling magnate Vince McMahon Jr. and premiered earlier this month.

“NBC owns 50 percent of the XFL and they are providing some people – an executive producer and producer of the number one game, as well as a director. All of the other announcers are going to be non-NBC personnel. About a year ago, someone asked Dick Ebersol, the chairman of NBC Sports, if I was going to be doing any XFL games and he said, ‘Anyone that needs credibility will not be doing XFL.’

“I think the XFL will likely be a football version of professional wrestling,” Hammond said, laughing. “It will probably be successful, but I would just as soon have it successful without me. McMahon knows how to promote and make things like this work. On Saturday nights they have nothing to lose, anyway. That time slot has been a sports wasteland, so the bar’s not set too high.”

According to Hammond, a successful broadcast team is one whose members cooperate and are comfortable with one another both on and off the camera. Some of the broadcast partners he’s had over the years include a spectrum of sports personalities ranging from Bill Walton to O.J. Simpson.

“Personal rapport makes a good broadcast team,” Hammond said. “You develop a personal rapport and hope that it comes through on the air. I’m doing NBA games now with Steve Jones and Bill Walton. Walton’s one of the most bizarre characters you’ve ever met, but he’s a laugh a minute. After our broadcasts we get comments like, ‘You guys laugh all the time.’ But it’s like that off the air, too – from our meeting before the game to the time when we leave for our flights that night. It’s just a carrying on, on the air, of what’s been going on all along.

“Larry Conley and I have done Southeastern Conference basketball games for a number of years for Jefferson Pilot Sports. He and I have known each other since junior high school and played basketball against one another. We’re the best of friends and I hope that comes through on the air.

“It’s those kind of things that make for a good sports broadcast. If you’re a broadcaster, how can you expect viewers to enjoy themselves if you’re not?

“Joe Namath was one of the kindest people I’ve ever worked with. O.J. Simpson, whatever problems happened to him after our professional working together, could not have been a better partner or a nicer guy. He and I called the track and field events at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992. He did a great job and was very knowledgeable, having run track at Southern Cal.”

As a lifelong resident of Lexington, Hammond views the way the city has developed with some nostalgia.

“I can remember – and this pretty much dates me – the way Lexington was prior to New Circle Road and the Interstate highways. It was a whole different world then. It would have been tough to imagine the growth and changes and how downtown has become an afterthought when in those days it was the center of everything.

“Lexington has grown from being a sort of sleepy, provincial college town of 50,000 or so to a fairly modern medium-sized city with all its attendant problems. I sometimes worry that we haven’t managed growth quite as well and that the influx of newcomers perhaps don’t appreciate the heritage of our state and this region as much as I do. Lexington’s become more diverse and that’s good. It still retains some small town aspects, which I like – but it’s pretty much a thriving metropolis now.”

Hammond and his wife Sheilagh have three grown children; David, Christopher and Ashley. Of the three, there is the possibility that David will follow his father’s professional example.

“David now broadcasts Syracuse basketball and football on their radio network. He’s their color commentator,” he said. “Along with that, he’s also the managing editor of the Great Lakes Consortium, which does environmental programming for more than 100 public radio stations in the Great Lakes region of the U.S. and Canada. David had never given any indication that he was interested in going into sports broadcasting whatsoever, but he suddenly got into it and found that he liked it. I’ve listened to him on the Internet and he does a great job.”

Reflecting on his home state and his success in blooming where he’s been planted, Hammond remembered a quote from a former Kentucky governor.

“Happy Chandler used to say that for Kentuckians, when they’re not here, they’re always thinking of a way to get back. It’s not a perfect place; we have our problems here. But for all its faults, it’s a wonderful place that’s deep inside me.”

Claude Hammond is editorial director of The Lane Report.
claudehammond@lanereport.com


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