Longtime football coach and teacher Jim Hammond passes away Saturday night

Longtime football coach and teacher Jim Hammond passes away Saturday night

Former Lemoore High School football coach and teacher, Jim Hammond, passed away late Saturday night. The 86-year-old had spent his final days surrounded by friends and family as he rested in hospice care in his Lemoore home. His daughter, Mary, said he had been unresponsive for several days.

Hammond’s wife Cathy, as well as their five children, Mary, Jim, Debbie, Nancy and Marion had been keeping a vigil at his side for the last week.

Jim Hammond arrived in Lemoore in 1962 to coach football and teach at Lemoore High School. He is the most successful football coach ever at Lemoore High School and was considered one of the top high school coaches in the Valley during his heyday. He won numerous league championships with the Tigers, often going undefeated. He coached football and several other sports for about 25 years.

He retired from coaching, but returned for a couple of seasons in the eighties to run his famous no-huddle offense which he originated upon his arrival in Lemoore.

Last week the family posted on Facebook asking friends to send postcards and letters to that they could be read to him.  “We were reading them to him,” said daughter Mary.

In the beginning of hospice friends and family visited him in his home. However, a few days ago he simply fell asleep and never woke up.

In 1971, the Hammonds turned their home’s swimming pool into a business known as the Hammond Swim School and since then they have taught approximately 24,000 children a respect and love for swimming.

The soft-spoken native of Idaho didn’t quite look the part of a football coach. In another life, he certainly could have been mistaken for a patrician United States Senator with his stately air and is ramrod trim figure, or perhaps a movie star. But above all he was indeed a coach and an innovator.

In addition to his patented no-huddle offense, one of the most intriguing things about Hammond’s coaching style was his reluctance to coach from the sidelines, where most coaches reside during games. The successful coach preferred a perch atop the press box where he said he often had “the best view of the game.”

For years after his retirement, Hammond was a regular visitor to Lemoore football games, often sitting on the top row near the press box. Last football season, despite poor health, the longtime coach, accompanied by family members, came to home games to watch his Tigers.

Funeral arrangements are pending.


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