Tom Hammond recently retired after a distinguished career in sports broadcasting with NBC. He covered 13 Olympic Games, the NFL, college and NBA basketball, thoroughbred racing’s Triple Crown and Breeders’ Cup events, and a variety of Olympic sports, including track and field, gymnastics, figure skating, speed skating, and diving. A University of Kentucky graduate, he got his start on radio in his hometown of Lexington, and began his television career as sports director at WLEX-TV in the late 1960s. This conversation covers, among other topics, the early assignments he handled in Lexington, the variety of events he broadcast to a network audience, and some of the partners he worked with over his 34 years with NBC.
He developed a strong friendship with the late Dick Enberg, another of NBC’s best known voices, and has enjoyed a near-lifelong friendship with Larry Conley, the former UK basketball star who was his partner on hundreds of SEC basketball broadcasts over a 30-year period. Tom has been honored many times over his career, and most recently received the UK Founders’ Day Award, which is presented annually by UK to recognize “individuals who personify goodwill and demonstrate, through their work, service, mission and spirit, a dedication to the Commonwealth of Kentucky and its residents.”
