Latest news with #BobHammel
Washington Post
4 days ago
- Sport
- Washington Post
Bob Hammel, legendary Indiana sports writer and friend of Bob Knight, dies at 88
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Bob Hammel, who covered 23 NCAA Final Fours and 29 Indiana high school basketball tournament championships during a 52-year sports writing career that included a close friendship with late Hall of Fame coach Bob Knight, has died. He was 88. Hammel died Sunday at Bell Trace, a senior living community in Bloomington, according to an obituary in The Herald-Times, his longtime employer. No cause of death was given. The lifelong Indiana resident spent 40 years with the Bloomington Herald-Telephone and later Herald-Times, including 30 as sports editor. Hammel was a member of several halls of fame, including the U.S. Basketball Writers Association, Football Writers Association of America, Indiana Journalism and Indiana University Athletics. He served terms as president of the Basketball and Football Writers associations. He received the Curt Gowdy Media Award from the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and the Bert McGrane Award from the Football Writers Association. Hammel won the Indiana Sportswriter of the Year award 21 times. He authored or co-authored 14 books, including the 2002 autobiography of Knight, the fiery IU basketball coach who died in 2023. They also teamed in 2012 for a book titled 'The Power of Negative Thinking.' Upon retiring as Big Ten Conference commissioner in 2020, Jim Delany said, 'Bob Hammel is simply the most important Big Ten writer in the last 50 years.' Hammel, a native of Huntington, Indiana, attended Indiana University for a year. He took a summer job as sports editor of his hometown paper and instead of returning to school that fall, he stayed on at the paper for eight years. He worked at papers in Peru, Fort Wayne, Kokomo and Indianapolis before being hired as sports editor of the Herald-Telephone in 1966. His career included covering five Olympics before he retired from sports writing in 1996. He is survived by Julie, his wife of 67 years, son Richard Hammel and daughter Jane Priest. ___ AP college basketball: and
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Bob Hammel, legendary Indiana sports writer and friend of Bob Knight, dies at 88
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) — Bob Hammel, who covered 23 NCAA Final Fours and 29 Indiana high school basketball tournament championships during a 52-year sports writing career that included a close friendship with late Hall of Fame coach Bob Knight, has died. He was 88. Hammel died Sunday at Bell Trace, a senior living community in Bloomington, according to an obituary in The Herald-Times, his longtime employer. No cause of death was given. The lifelong Indiana resident spent 40 years with the Bloomington Herald-Telephone and later Herald-Times, including 30 as sports editor. Hammel was a member of several halls of fame, including the U.S. Basketball Writers Association, Football Writers Association of America, Indiana Journalism and Indiana University Athletics. He served terms as president of the Basketball and Football Writers associations. He received the Curt Gowdy Media Award from the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and the Bert McGrane Award from the Football Writers Association. Hammel won the Indiana Sportswriter of the Year award 21 times. He authored or co-authored 14 books, including the 2002 autobiography of Knight, the fiery IU basketball coach who died in 2023. They also teamed in 2012 for a book titled 'The Power of Negative Thinking.' Upon retiring as Big Ten Conference commissioner in 2020, Jim Delany said, "Bob Hammel is simply the most important Big Ten writer in the last 50 years.' Hammel, a native of Huntington, Indiana, attended Indiana University for a year. He took a summer job as sports editor of his hometown paper and instead of returning to school that fall, he stayed on at the paper for eight years. He worked at papers in Peru, Fort Wayne, Kokomo and Indianapolis before being hired as sports editor of the Herald-Telephone in 1966. His career included covering five Olympics before he retired from sports writing in 1996. He is survived by Julie, his wife of 67 years, son Richard Hammel and daughter Jane Priest. ___ AP college basketball: and
Fox Sports
4 days ago
- Sport
- Fox Sports
Bob Hammel, legendary Indiana sports writer and friend of Bob Knight, dies at 88
Associated Press BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) — Bob Hammel, who covered 23 NCAA Final Fours and 29 Indiana high school basketball tournament championships during a 52-year sports writing career that included a close friendship with late Hall of Fame coach Bob Knight, has died. He was 88. Hammel died Sunday at Bell Trace, a senior living community in Bloomington, according to an obituary in The Herald-Times, his longtime employer. No cause of death was given. The lifelong Indiana resident spent 40 years with the Bloomington Herald-Telephone and later Herald-Times, including 30 as sports editor. Hammel was a member of several halls of fame, including the U.S. Basketball Writers Association, Football Writers Association of America, Indiana Journalism and Indiana University Athletics. He served terms as president of the Basketball and Football Writers associations. He received the Curt Gowdy Media Award from the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and the Bert McGrane Award from the Football Writers Association. Hammel won the Indiana Sportswriter of the Year award 21 times. He authored or co-authored 14 books, including the 2002 autobiography of Knight, the fiery IU basketball coach who died in 2023. They also teamed in 2012 for a book titled 'The Power of Negative Thinking.' Upon retiring as Big Ten Conference commissioner in 2020, Jim Delany said, "Bob Hammel is simply the most important Big Ten writer in the last 50 years.' Hammel, a native of Huntington, Indiana, attended Indiana University for a year. He took a summer job as sports editor of his hometown paper and instead of returning to school that fall, he stayed on at the paper for eight years. He worked at papers in Peru, Fort Wayne, Kokomo and Indianapolis before being hired as sports editor of the Herald-Telephone in 1966. His career included covering five Olympics before he retired from sports writing in 1996. He is survived by Julie, his wife of 67 years, son Richard Hammel and daughter Jane Priest. ___ AP college basketball: and recommended Item 1 of 1 in this topic
Associated Press
4 days ago
- Sport
- Associated Press
Bob Hammel, legendary Indiana sports writer and friend of Bob Knight, dies at 88
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) — Bob Hammel, who covered 23 NCAA Final Fours and 29 Indiana high school basketball tournament championships during a 52-year sports writing career that included a close friendship with late Hall of Fame coach Bob Knight, has died. He was 88. Hammel died Sunday at Bell Trace, a senior living community in Bloomington, according to an obituary in The Herald-Times, his longtime employer. No cause of death was given. The lifelong Indiana resident spent 40 years with the Bloomington Herald-Telephone and later Herald-Times, including 30 as sports editor. Hammel was a member of several halls of fame, including the U.S. Basketball Writers Association, Football Writers Association of America, Indiana Journalism and Indiana University Athletics. He served terms as president of the Basketball and Football Writers associations. He received the Curt Gowdy Media Award from the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and the Bert McGrane Award from the Football Writers Association. Hammel won the Indiana Sportswriter of the Year award 21 times. He authored or co-authored 14 books, including the 2002 autobiography of Knight, the fiery IU basketball coach who died in 2023. They also teamed in 2012 for a book titled 'The Power of Negative Thinking.' Upon retiring as Big Ten Conference commissioner in 2020, Jim Delany said, 'Bob Hammel is simply the most important Big Ten writer in the last 50 years.' Hammel, a native of Huntington, Indiana, attended Indiana University for a year. He took a summer job as sports editor of his hometown paper and instead of returning to school that fall, he stayed on at the paper for eight years. He worked at papers in Peru, Fort Wayne, Kokomo and Indianapolis before being hired as sports editor of the Herald-Telephone in 1966. His career included covering five Olympics before he retired from sports writing in 1996. He is survived by Julie, his wife of 67 years, son Richard Hammel and daughter Jane Priest. ___ AP college basketball: and
Indianapolis Star
5 days ago
- General
- Indianapolis Star
Osterman: Longtime sportswriter Bob Hammel was a bridge for all of us, covering IU and beyond
BLOOMINGTON — My first occasion at meeting Bob Hammel came in his office at the Cook Medical complex on the far west side of town. Working on a project for Mike Conway's history of journalism class, I reached out to Hammel — this would be the last time he would allow me to call him anything other than 'Bob' — hoping for 20 minutes of his time. We sat for two hours. To know Bob Hammel was to have a friend and confidant in all weathers and on all subjects. For someone in this job, he was something even greater. Bob was a bridge for all of us, connecting more people, more moments, more places in time, than anyone else I've ever met. He was the keeper of the history of this place, and a willing, eager one. He leaves behind him an unfillable void matched in its size only by the remarkable legacy it reflects. Hammel died Saturday night at 88, his family told the Herald-Times. Anyone who knew Bob had at their fingertips the answer to seemingly anything. He was among the smartest, most learned people you could hope to meet. To the place he called home for nearly 60 years, he provided connective tissue binding generations of Indiana University, IU Athletics and Bloomington itself together. An IU student at 16, Bob eventually returned to Bloomington for good in 1966. Herman B Wells was still chancellor then. Seventh Street ran all the way through campus. Indiana had not been to the Rose Bowl yet. Bob Knight's hiring was five years out. For decades, Bob Hammel bore witness to the way this place, its people and its culture evolved. He chronicled it dutifully. His output was legendary — sometimes thousands of words per day, for a paper that through much of his tenure there still published in the afternoons. On the average football game week, for example, Bob would produce reams of copy on every inch of Indiana's forthcoming game. He would also often take time to write with care about newsworthy members of the opponent's roster. His reasoning was delightfully simple: Those players deserved recognition too. For IU fans across decades, he became a central figure in the story of their alma mater. He was an ever-present figure at Memorial Stadium and Assembly Hall, and across the Big Ten, in addition to consistent coverage of national events like Final Fours and Olympic Games. His career is perhaps most synonymous with the talented, tempestuous Knight, whose tenure all but mirrored Hammel's: The former served as IU men's basketball coach from 1971 to 2000, the latter Herald-Times sports editor from 1966 to 1996, when he retired. Doyel: Bob Knight didn't like many sportswriters. But he trusted Bob Hammel. Why? Spend time with him. I did The confidence they shared became an inexorable part of the story of Bob Knight's Indiana tenure. But it also conveyed upon Bob Hammel an importance to college basketball as a sport. At a time before social media could bridge the thousands of miles separating parts of the country that cared deeply for the sport — New York, New England, the mid-Atlantic, Tobacco Road, the Midwest, the West Coast — men like Bob bound the game together. Alongside other legendary sportswriters like Dave Kindred, Dick Weiss, Jim O'Connell and John Feinstein (to name just a fraction of a long, long list), Bob was a keeper of the game that meant and still means so much to the school he covered, the city he served and the corner of the world in which he lived. It was for good reason he was a charter inductee into the U.S. Basketball Writers Association Hall of Fame. That did not stop with retirement. He remained more than happy to pass on his knowledge and memories from a lifetime spent gathering both, accommodating students and sportswriters alike. He served the Monroe County Sports Hall of Fame, and for as long as he could, he remained a fixture at IU basketball games. 'One of the kindest and funniest': Bob Knight chronicler Bob Hammel dies at age 88 When word got around Bob had entered hospice care this spring, a procession of friends and former colleagues made their way to Bloomington to pay respects. It was impossible to venerate the man too much, even if he might have disagreed with that sentiment. The ripples Bob leaves behind flow across so many of us today, and will continue to indefinitely. But none of us can replace his impact fully. He was, as the many tributes flowing forth Sunday attested, one of a kind. And we will all miss him dearly.
