Title: Sports Columnist
Location: Bloomington, Indiana, United States
Robert (Bob) Hammel, Sports Columnist, has been recognized by Marquis Who’s Who Top Executives for dedication, achievements, and leadership in sports journalism.
Mr. Hammel has flourished in a more than 50-year career covering Indiana sports. After coursework at Indiana University, he decided to become a sports reporter, filing his first column for the Huntington Herald-Press in 1954, with the subject the up-and-coming sportscaster Chris Schenkel, a fellow Hoosier who would also enjoy a multi-decade career in sports. He subsequently worked for the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel, Peru Tribune, Kokomo Morning Times, and Indianapolis News from 1954 to 1966 and became sports editor of Bloomington Herald-Times, where he remained for 30 years until 1996.
During his tenure as a sports reporter, Mr. Hammel covered such events as the 1968 Rose Bowl, the 1972 Munich Olympics, Indiana University’s perfect basketball season in 1976 and subsequent national championships in 1981 and 1987, and the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. He is the former president of the United States Basketball Writers Association, Football Writers Association and National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association and is a 16-time Indiana Sportswriter of the Year, a four-time winner of Corky Lamm Award given by Indiana sportswriters and an inductee into the Basketball Writers Association Hall of Fame and Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame, among many other honors.
Mr. Hammel’s passion for covering sports was engendered at a young age. When he was 10 years old, he would go to the high school basketball game on a Friday and he would get up on Saturday morning and write his story before the Sunday morning paper came in. He would then compare his story with the newspaper’s story. Still passionate about sportswriting, Mr. Hammel is enjoying retirement while penning the occasional column.
For more information, please visit:
Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame
Indiana University Athletics Hall of Fame
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