Family and mates bid farewell to Bob Hammond

Bob Hammond passed away on May 30 but leaves a towering legacy. Picture: Calum Robertson

The North Adelaide legend and inaugural chairman of the Adelaide Soccer Club was remembered by loved kinds as someone who lived properly, laughed frequently and loved much whose challenging function and dedication experienced still left the globe better than how he experienced found it.

Hammond, who expended 6 decades associated in Australian football, died aged seventy eight on Could thirty, after a prolonged battle with Parkinson’s ailment.

Family members, close friends and previous teammates gathered to share stories and reminiscences of the much-admired footballer, when individuals who could not attend since of coronavirus restrictions viewed on livestreamed movie.

Hammond’s son Craig, talked about his childhood expended in both of those Perth and Adelaide, in which he was often seeking to retain up with his more mature brother Trevor, and how much of his education at both of those Kilburn Main School and Enfield High School was expended daydreaming about the activity coming up on the weekend.

Craig talked warmly about holiday seasons expended with family members close friends across South Australia and how Hammond’s eyes would sparkle when his “scallywag” side appeared, recalling his father at the time actively playing a properly-executed prank on a mate by thieving his roast meal from the backyard Weber and changing it with a brick.

“You’ve read a whole lot of about the champion, the rough gentleman of footy, the statesman,” Craig stated.

“To me, he was often a sounding board and a mentor … he taught me, he coached me and most of all he considered in me.

“He was sound but good he experienced numerous bullets in his belt but he almost never fired the gun.”

Hammond’s daughter Joanne talked about her father’s lighthearted side, his humour and the enjoyment stories he shared, when eldest granddaughter Jasmin praised the benefit of challenging function he experienced instilled in all his grandchildren.

Hammond, who in his actively playing times was renowned for his thumping 60m kicks out of the again traces, performed 234 game titles for the Roosters, in advance of embarking on a revered coaching and administrative occupation.

Other individuals to share their reminiscences were his North Adelaide teammate and ideal mate Adrian Sutter and businessman Glen McMahon, when Crows latest chairman Rob Chapman advised the services the football globe was not likely to see a contribution of the calibre of that of Hammond’s at any time yet again.

Hammond was praised for fighting Parkinson’s ailment more than the previous 7 decades in the identical way he experienced confronted all aspects of his lifestyle: with sheer dedication.

His coffin was carried as a result of the “Bob Hammond race” – the Crows’ player race named in his honour – in advance of getting offered a last lap of honour close to Adelaide Oval.

Sutter advised the services: “I can only hope some of Bob’s very best attributes of bravery, hard work, power, honesty and dedication will stay in the corridor to remind the gamers as they operate on to the oval that they have a good responsibility in carrying that jumper, that only their ideal hard work will do.

“Farewell my dear mate.”

Bob Hammond’s football occupation

234 game titles for North Adelaide, 1960-seventy three, kicking sixty nine goals

14 game titles for Norwood, 1974-75

Premierships 1960, 1971-72

Champions of Australia 1972

Captain 1973, North Adelaide

Captain 1974, Norwood

Seven game titles for SA

Norwood coach 1974-seventy nine, 89 wins, 52 losses

Premierships 1975, 1978

Champions of Australia 1977

SA coach 1983

Sydney Swans (VFL) coach 1984

Everyday living member – North Adelaide, Norwood, SANFL, AFL

Norwood FC board member 1981-ninety

Adelaide Crows chairman 1991-2000

AFL Commissioner 2001-eleven