Remembering ‘The Commish’

My dad had suggested I speak with Dr. Damore regarding a work-study job in his department. I suspect they had already discussed my possible employment. They were longtime acquaintances on the local sports scene.

Damore has joined FSUC in 1956 after a successful coaching career at Hammond High School. No relation.

He started the Blue Devil soccer program a few years later and served as varsity basketball coach for four years, ending in 1967.

When I walked into his office he had been AD for all of six months, having taken over for Dr. Joseph Keyser, who held the position for the previous 33 years.

Bill Hammond

Pat agreed to hire me as a department go-fer. I would spend a couple afternoons per week creating a scrapbook of newspaper clippings that featured FSUC athletes. I’d go through a stack of local and regional newspapers, searching sports sections for stories on Blue Devils.

He had other jobs for me as well. I aimed the spotlight when the Dods Hall gym would go dark before varsity basketball games and the starters were introduced. That bulky spotlight was dangerously hot.

Other times I’d do surveys on building venues, counting the number of people using the gym, pool, handball courts, weight room and dance studio at various hours. I kept score for the FSUC freshman basketball team, ran the game clock when needed and was the official scorekeeper for the varsity soccer team.

But my chief job was in sports information and publicity. The college had a media director, but the athletic department was on its own. There was no sports information director at that time and coaches were tasked with contacting the media outlets for preseason stories and postgame reports. Coaches had a bad habit of only reporting their successes.

Pat put me, at 17, in charge of making sure the word got out about all FSUC sports, win or lose.

I traveled by bus with the soccer, basketball and baseball teams, interviewed the coaches after games and called the various media with results.

In all the time I knew him, Pat was perpetually optimistic. He was especially happy when filling me in on the exploits of his soccer standout son, Rick “The Stick” Damore.

I only really saw him disappointed once. And then just for a second.

I traveled with the soccer team to a tourney and he asked me to bring back a game program for his scrapbook.

I complied and presented him with one. He scanned it, came across his name and winced. Instead of Dr. Patrick R. Damore it read Dr. Potuck R. Damone. His disappointment quickly vanished, however, and we enjoyed a good laugh.

Because of my FSUC employment and being a newspaper carrier since age 12, I knew my way around the OBSERVER newsroom and was quickly hired to write FSUC game stories.

Within a year I became sports editor of The Leader on campus, writing about all of the varsity teams and intramural sports.

I loved my various jobs. And the fact they financed my college education was a bonus. I was paid by FSUC, The Leader, OBSERVER and several media outlets. Back then, I would receive a buck per phone call by The Post-Journal in Jamestown, The Buffalo News, Courier-Express, Associated Press and United Press International.

In all, I was paid by eight different sources to watch and report on FSUC games. I know, hard to believe.

I would call the three Buffalo television stations as well, with WBEN Channel 4’s Van Miller by far the most personable. As a Dunkirk High School grad, he was always interested in promoting our local sports teams.

All those small checks added up and I was able to build my bank account as an undergrad.

And who was largely responsible for my success? Dr. Damore. He took a chance on a teenager during his first full year as athletic director and I was forever grateful.

Without his guidance I would never have been hired as EVENING OBSERVER sports editor four years later, starting a 45-year career in journalism.

And he rarely let me forget it, either. Invariably, the SUNYAC Commissioner For Life, lovingly referred to as The Commish, would ask me the same question every time we met over the years until his passing at 90 in 2021.

“Hey, Hammond,” he’d say with a knowing twinkle in his eye. “Aren’t I the guy who gave you your first job in sports? You know, jump-started your career in journalism?”

“You sure did, Commish,” I would respond. “You sure did.”

“I thought so,” he would add. And then we both would laugh.

Thanks, Commish.

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Bill Hammond is a former EVENING OBSERVER sports editor.