SA football mourns the death of Hall of Famer Bob Hammond after a battle with Parkinson’s disease
Football icon Bob Hammond is being remembered as a great South Australian after passing away on Saturday. The family of the inaugural Crows chairman say they are comforted by an outpouring of support from the community.
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One of the most decorated and respected men in South Australian football, Bob Hammond, has died at the age of 78.
Hammond passed away on Saturday after a battle with Parkinson’s disease and will be remembered for his complete contribution to football as a player, coach and administrator.
He rightly takes his place in the Australian Football, SA Football and Adelaide Football Club Halls of Fame and is a life member at North Adelaide and Norwood after he emerged as a teenage defender from a working class family in Kilburn to become a giant of the game.
Hammond’s son, Craig, thanked the community for its support as the family came to terms with his passing.
“Dad lived a full and busy life and we have a lifetime of memories from the guidance and support he provided to everyone in our family,” Craig said.
Craig said the family – which includes Hammond’s wife Jill, Craig’s sister Jo and Hammond’s stepchildren – is currently working through details for a service to honour his life in line with COVID-19 restrictions and will make those public when they are finalised.
Craig said they had been touched by the support from the football world in the past 24 hours.
“(We’re) very proud of him and proud of some of the comments that have come through,” he said.
“One of the great things he’s always spoken about is respect and there’s a huge outpouring at the moment for him.
“We’ve had a terrific rally (of support) from all aspects, Rob Chapman from the Adelaide Footy Club and the AFL, and we’ll work through and announce that (funeral service arrangements) in the coming days.”
Journey into football
Hammond was born in Perth in 1942 where his father was a fitter-and-turner in the air force before the family returned to Adelaide at the end of the war.
He left school early and worked two jobs to support himself and his family including selling the Football Budget on weekends.
He played his under age football with Kilburn before making his league debut with North Adelaide in 1960 when he went on to play in its premiership that year at just 18-years-old.
The strong defender would play 234 games for the Roosters from 1960 to 1973 – broken up by a two-year stint in Port Pirie from 1966 where he worked for Dunlop Tyres and won two premierships as a player/coach – before returning to North Adelaide for two more flags in 1971 and 1972.
His last game for North Adelaide was the 1973 grand final when they lost to Glenelg by seven points.
Hammond was planning to work as an export manager for a furniture company before Norwood asked him to coach.
He joined the Redlegs in 1974 as a player/coach and played 14 games before coaching them to a premiership in 1975 – which ended a 25-year drought – and again in 1978, which helped resurrect the club.
He also represented SA seven times as a player including in the infamous win over Victoria at the MCG in 1963 when he stood Doug Wade at just 21.
“I was fortunate enough to crack it at the right time for a game to join that band of central-minded people who wanted to beat Victoria and on the MCG, there were 10,000 people at the airport to greet the side home because the feat was recognised in South Australia and some said it was bigger than the Beatles,” Hammond said in 2015.
Hammond’s coaching career also included an interim stint with Sydney for eight games in 1984.
When his playing and coaching days were finished, Hammond became one of the game’s most respected administrators, serving on Norwood’s board from 1981 to 1990, and then being named Adelaide Football Club’s inaugural chairman in 1991.
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He held the role at the Crows until 2000 and was at the helm as they won back to back AFL premierships in 1997 and 1998.
He was the inaugural inductee into Adelaide’s Hall of Fame in 2015 and the club has named its players’ race at Adelaide Oval in his honour.
Hammond was also an AFL Commissioner from 2001 to 2011 and inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 2015.
“I think (as a player) is where you have the most enjoyment and the most camaraderie, coaching is next and administration is next,” he said at the time.
“When you are involved at club level, you live the game, if you’re beaten on the Saturday you don’t sleep on the Saturday night.
“The sense of belonging is very strong, the sense of making new friends is all part of being in a club situation, and that applied to the commission as well because it was those on the commission I will remain friends (with) for life.”
A footy tragic to the end
Even as he battled illness for the last seven years, Hammond rarely missed a home game.
Sitting in front of the Magarey Room at Adelaide Oval, he would watch with the same calmness with which he played in the 1960s and ‘70s, and offer subtle comments on the team and the game.
With him in the box would be Jill, Craig, long-time business partner Glen McMahon and his wife Barb and their families.
Hammond played against McMahon at Norwood in the ‘60s and it was McMahon who would later appoint him coach of the Redlegs in 1974.
“He was a keen follower of footy, right to the end,” Craig told The Advertiser.
“We were lucky enough to go to the footy every week and he loved it, and the club was terrific the last few years in involving him.
“We were fortunate enough to have a box right in front of the Magarey Room so we had pride of place (to watch the games).
“He was a measured man in that respect (spectating) and he was acutely aware of the game. “He would offer insightful comments about guys, he wouldn’t coach but he was aware.
“He made astute comments without being critical and he followed fondly North Adelaide and Norwood ... Each of them formed significant parts of his life.”
Hammond’s passing on Saturday, after a battle with Parkinson’s and prostate cancer, has led to an outpouring of tributes and memories from the football community.
“He would often rise to the occasion, even towards the last six months which have been tough,” Craig said.
“He had Parkinson’s disease for seven or eight years and it just gradually deteriorated over time.
“But he worked through that early days and was stoic, never compromised, never bemoaned his lot because he also had prostate cancer as well and that was significant.”
AFL chairman Richard Goyder praised Hammond’s contribution to the game at all levels.
“Across more than 160 years of the history of Australian football, just 16 administrators have been honoured as a member of the Hall of Fame for their contribution in building our game from its humble beginnings,” Mr Goyder said.
“Bob served Australian football as an esteemed coach and club administrator, before taking on the task of building the overall strength of our sport as a commissioner, working for a decade to build our game in every part of our cities, communities and country regions.
“He had the ability to look at what was good for the whole of the game, and to drive towards those outcomes, coming from a background of success at every club he had been a part of through his lifetime.
“Above all, he will be remembered as a wonderful strong and hard defender for his beloved North Adelaide, a member of their Team of the Century, and in that rare club of Roosters who was a part of three separate premiership teams, yet equally beloved at Norwood for delivering the club out of the wilderness.
“On behalf of the AFL Commission, our clubs, the SANFL and its clubs and the wider game, our thoughts are with his family and close friends and we are grateful for what Bob has given us across his lifetime in football,” he said.
Originally published as SA football mourns the death of Hall of Famer Bob Hammond after a battle with Parkinson’s disease
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