If you didn't have the pleasure of ever meeting Herb Hammond, let Mike Gilligan tell you all you need to know about the man.
"I've never met anyone in the hockey business who didn't like Herb or had a bad word to say about him," said Gilligan, the highly successful Salem State and University of Vermont head coach who, like Hammond grew up playing hockey on Kelleher's Pond in Beverly. "And to know that he was from the same hometown as me made me feel like I knew him that much better."
One of the all-time legendary figures in Beverly hockey circles, Hammond died at his home in Fort Gratiot, Mich. yesterday at the age of 69 after a lengthy battle with cancer.
A Beverly High School Athletic Hall of Famer who was a goaltender on the ice as well as a fine pitcher and first baseman on the diamond, Hammond made hockey his life's work. He won 284 games as a head coach in college with three different schools and later scouted in the NHL for 17 seasons, most notably with the New York Rangers.
Hammond's name is inscribed on the Stanley Cup as a scout for the 1994 Rangers' team that won the team its first Cup in 54 years.
"He was a very special person," said his brother, Fred Hammond, a BHS Hall of Famer himself as a renowned track and field coach for the Panthers. "Herb had a nice way with people, and because of that he had a lot of lifelong friends."
"He was just a genuinely nice guy," said Bill Whalen, a lifelong friend of Hammond's who played hockey and baseball with him and graduated from the same class (1958) at Beverly High. "He was an easy, easy guy to get along with. He loved everyone."
A North Shore League all-star on the ice, Hammond was a three-year starter in goal for Beverly High and captained the 1957-58 squad.
"He kept us in a lot of games," remembered Whalen, who first met Hammond in the ninth grade at Memorial Junior High in 1954 and used to double date with him. "We didn't win a lot, but he was outstanding.
I was one of Herbie's defensemen; half the goals he allowed were probably my fault," Whalen joked.
Athletics weren't the only thing Hammond excelled at, either. "It's going to sound funny in the sports pages," said his brother, "but he excelled in music as well as sports in high school; he played the trombone. People have forgotten that."
Hammond matriculated to Springfield College (graduating in 1962), but the school didn't have a hockey team. Instead, he stayed with the sport by serving as the practice goalie for the American Hockey League's Springfield Barons.
His coaching career began in 1963 at North Yarmouth Academy in Maine, where Hammond not only taught history and physical education but he also coached hockey, soccer and baseball as well as serving as the school's athletic director. From there he went to Albany Academy For Boys in New York in 1966, teaching and coaching hockey, track and soccer before moving into the college coaching realm.
"For a while, I was playing baseball in the minors (in the early-to-mid 1960s), then came home and went to college, and Herbie really got into coaching. But we always managed to stay in touch," recalled Whalen.
Hired at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Oswego in 1968, Hammond served as the head hockey coach there for a dozen seasons. His final Lakers' squad, in 1979-80, went 27-8-0 and captured the ECAC West championship. He also taught phys. ed. and coached soccer and baseball in his time at the school, and was later inducted into the SUNY-Oswego Hall of Fame in 2006.
Two years of outstanding success at SUNY-Plattsburgh followed. With former Montreal Canadiens star (and future Stanley Cup winning coach) Jacques Lemaire as his assistant, Hammond's hockey teams went a combined 52-17-4, taking the Cardinals to a pair of Division 2 national final appearances. His time there culminated in Hammond receiving the Ed Jeremiah Small College Coach of the Year Award in 1982.
Now an assistant coach for the UVM women's team, Gilligan first formally met Hammond when the former was coaching at Salem State and Hammond was at Plattsburgh — then again when they were ECAC rivals with Gilligan at UVM and Hammond at Brown.
"We'd always give each other a wink and look out for each other, two Beverly guys," said Gilligan with a chuckle.
Hammond became the head coach at Division 1 Brown University in Providence for six seasons starting in 1983, becoming the first coach to take a US college hockey team to China in December 1984.
For the 1988-89 season, he became a National Hockey League scout with the Minnesota North Stars. The following year, Hammond was hired as the US amateur scout by the Rangers, a job he held for a dozen years.
When the Rangers would hold training camp up in Burlington, Vt., Gilligan would reconnect with Hammond. "We'd watch camp and he'd point out who he'd have a good feel for, a prospect he pushed for," said Gilligan. "Then he'd go down to the original Ben & Jerry's. That was his favorite stop."
Gilligan, who is currently fighting his own battle with throat cancer ("I'm feeling much better," he said), recalled how extremely touched he was by Hammond staying in touch with him this past winter to see how he was doing.
"It meant the world to me," he said.
Whalen summed up Hammond's generosity in a simple gesture.
"I'm a huge Notre Dame fan, and Herbie was very friendly with their (former) coach, Dave Poulin," said Whalen. "He knew I always wanted to go to one of their games, so sure enough he called up Poulin, and Poulin gave him his personal game tickets for my wife (Roberta) and I for a game against Boston College. That's the kind of guy Herbie was.
"We had our 50th high school reunion last August, and Herbie came. He looked so good and we had such a wonderful time together. That's how I'm going to remember him."
Hammond coached the Cardinals for two seasons from 1981-82, compiling a 52-17-4 record for a .740 winning percentage. He piloted the program to a pair of NCAA Division II championship game appearances and the 1982 State University of New York Athletic Conference co-title. He was named the 1981 Division III Coach of the Year by the American Hockey Coaches Association after the Cardinals went 27-4-2.
Before arriving in Plattsburgh, Hammond led Oswego to a 176-122-5 mark from 1969 to 1980.
Hammond also served as the head coach at Division I Brown from 1983 to 1988. His 20-year NCAA coaching record is 264-253-12.
