Seminole Scrapbook: QB Kim Hammond’s legacy secure at FSU
The new generation of Florida State football fans may not recognize his name:
Kim Hammond.
He’s worth a Google, believe me.
Hammond has been described as a student, a football player, a gentleman, a Christian, a lawyer, a judge, a father, a grandfather, and an institution.
The Seminole quarterback will forever be remembered in FSU lore for his heroics in 1967, when he led FSU to its first-ever win over Florida in Gainesville, 21-16.
Hammond returned in the fourth quarter after he was knocked loopy in the first half, marching the Seminoles 92 yards in three plays and throwing a 38-yard touchdown pass to Ron Sellers to secure the historic victory.
Hammond died Sunday morning in Daytona Beach after battling illness for many years. He was 72.
“Kim was one of the finest gentleman I have ever been associated with in my life,” Sellers said Monday afternoon, taking a moment to collect his thoughts.
“I am really saddened by this loss because he was such a great person and a great friend. I can’t think of anyone who, once they met Kim, didn’t come away a better person.”
Hammond, a native of Melbourne, was the first FSU player to receive Heisman Trophy votes when he finished fifth in the balloting as a senior in 1967 after he completed 140 of 241 passes for 1,991 yards and 15 touchdowns.
At the time, the totals for completions, yardage and touchdowns were Seminole records.
In the 1967 Gator Bowl against Penn State, Hammond rewrote the record book with 37 completions for 362 yards in the 17-17 tie.
And, with FSU-Alabama fever taking hold in anticipation of what’s being billed as the biggest opening game in college football history Sept. 2, Hammond threw for 280 yards and three touchdowns in the infamous 37-37 tie between the teams in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1967.
Numbers only tell a fraction of Hammond’s wonderful life story.
“This is a big loss for a lot of people,” former FSU President and Seminole football player T.K. Wetherell said Monday afternoon.
“As great as a football player he was, he was a greater person.”
Hammond graduated from FSU’s Law School following a short professional football career and eventually became a judge in Flagler County.
The Kim C. Hammond Justice Center in Bunnell, located in central Flagler County, is named in his honor.
Hammond was also the first president of the "National Seminole Club" when the Seminole Boosters merged with the Alumni organization in 1972 and also was inducted in the FSU Athletics Hall of Fame. He often returned to Tallahassee for alumni events, playing golf with Sellers, John Crowe and others.
It’s a small world, too.
Hammond and teammate Wetherell drove home to Florida’s East Coast many times during their collegiate days, and years later Hammond’s daughter dated Wetherell’s son when the siblings were in law school.
“Words don’t express how good of a person Kim Hammond was,” Wetherell said.
Stan Wilcox, Vice President and Director of Athletics at FSU, said Hammond’s impact was significant.
“Kim was a star quarterback for us, of course, but he was an even bigger success as a student at FSU and over his accomplished legal career,” Wilcox said.
"He remained a strong supporter of Seminole Athletics and the University throughout his life."
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Let’s talk football.
Specifically FSU-UF football, which connects Seminole fans from all generations.
It was Nov. 25, 1967. FSU nursed a 14-9 lead and was backed up at its own 8-yard line when Hammond returned to the game at Florida Field.
Sellers, considered one of the all-time great receivers in FSU and college football history, says the Gators “never thought he’d be throwing the football” in reference to his dinged quarterback.
Hammond – and coach Bill Peterson – had other ideas.
Hammond connected with a 51-yard completion to Sellers on the first play. After a 3-yard run, Hammond tossed a touchdown strike to Sellers that had to sound like a judge’s gavel on a stunning judgment against UF to the hometown fans of 62,944.
“Kim threw a great pass, he hit me in stride, both times,” said Sellers, who roomed with Hammond as the pair worked out five days a week in preparation for the ’67 season.
The Gators pulled within 25-16 with 6:29 remaining. They drove to the FSU 26 in the closing minutes, but Wetherell knocked away a fourth-down pass attempt to secure the win.
Hammond and the Seminoles made history 50 years ago, but Hammond’s inspiring legacy was so much more over the last five decades.
“He was a great quarterback, a great person,” Sellers said.
“I am really saddened. The garnet and gold family lost a great athlete who always demonstrated tremendous courage on and off the field and was a great ambassador for Florida State.”
FSU millennials, please Google Kim Hammond.
He’s well worth it.