Hammons have made this area their home
By KARL E. PEARSON
Staff Writer
With a 6-foot-5 frame and scoring and rebounding ability, Grand Valley’s Chris Hammon had various options for college basketball when he graduated in 1975. He chose Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea.
“I was looking at Findlay, Oberlin and Wooster, too,” he said. “B-W was just close enough to home, yet far enough away that it appealed to me.”
When he got to the Yellow Jacket program, coached by future Harbor High School principal Bill Clark, Hammon found out how tough college basketball is. He found that virtually every player was a standout in their respective high school programs. |
CHRIS HAMMON is shown with his family at their home in Hartsgrove. It also consists of son Eric and wife Cheryl, like Hammon a 1975 Grand Valley High School graduate. Hammon will be inducted into the Ashtabula County Basketball Foundation Hall of Fame on April 10.
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“There were 25 guys on the freshman team,” he said. “I stayed with it through that year. After that, I just decided to concentrate on my academics and play intramurals.”
He graduated from Baldwin-Wallace in 1979 with a bachelor of science degree in accounting and came back to the area.
Once he returned, he happened to renew acquaintances with Cheryl Kennedy, a fellow 1975 GV grad. She had been a statistician for the boys team, but also possessed her own serious basketball chops, helping the girls team coached by Cyndy Thomas to a 6-3 overall record and a share of the first Grand River Conference girls basketball title with the Pymatuning Valley team coached by ACBF Hall of Famer Beth Helfer when they tied at 5-1.
Chris and Cheryl had not been high school sweethearts.
“We dated once in high school,” he said. “Her brother (Jeff Kennedy) was playing basketball after we got back from college and I met her at one of his games.”
They have been married for 28 years. Their son, Eric, is a 2006 Grand Valley graduate and followed his father to B-W, from which he just graduated. He played soccer for the Mustangs.
Cheryl Hammon went to Lakeland Community College and Kent State University and earned a degree in horticulture, which she now uses in her work with farmers’ markets.
The Hammons have lived in Hartsgrove for 26 years.
Chris Hammon went into the business world and has worked since his graduation with the company now known as Stoneridge Electronics North America, with its offices based in Howland. At one time, he managed the plant in Orwell with responsibility for 600 employees.
“We do wiring assemblies for John Deere tractors and Navistar wiring systems,” he said.
He often finds himself falling back on the lessons he learned in basketball in his life.
“Working as a team definitely has helped me in the business world,” Hammon said. “I’ve found that a team always works better than an individual.
“When you supervise 600 people, you have to have patience. You have to learn to listen to both sides of the story.”
If basketball taught him nothing else, it taught him the skills for life.
“I enjoy working with people,” Hammon said. “Basketball definitely taught me that.” |
