In a 1936 Sou’Wester article on senior players, the reporter notes: “One automatically associates Henry Hammond with football. It would be hard to find a more colorful or spectacular player anywhere.”
Of Hammond’s nickname “Ug,” the writer goes on to say, “…that’s what he’s called in spite of the fact that he thinks he’s pretty.” Perhaps more to his liking were two other aliases, the “Memphis Blond Blizzard” and “Southern Gentleman.”
A native Memphian, Hammond was a football standout at Central High School where he also excelled in wrestling. He entered Southwestern in the fall of 1932 and was soon to make his mark both on and off the gridiron. As one fellow student put it, “Henry is really one of the toughest football men we know. His best love-after football-is a good fight.”
“Ug” Hammond was a member of the legendary 1936 Lynx football squad that lives in our history as the twelve “iron men.” In this one season he scored against Union University, twice against Millsaps, once against “Birmingham-Southern and Loyola University. But it was the game against Vanderbilt that climaxed his college career. Hammond caught the pass for the final touchdown, carrying Southwestern to 12 – 0 over highly touted Vandy. And newspapers throughout the South reported it as, “no miracle, but a well-deserved triumph.”
On campus, he was a member of the “S” Club and Alpha Tau Omega fraternity and, legend has it, was quite the campus Romeo. He left Southwestern having been named to Little All-American and with a letter in track as well as football. From there, he played one season with the Chicago Bears, becoming the college’s first athlete to play pro football.
In recognition of his distinguished football career, his “iron man” performance, and his winning spirit on and off the field, I am honored to induct HENRY THOMAS HAMMOND into the Rhodes Athletic Hall of Fame, inaugurated this 25th day of October, 1996.Â
