Tom Hammond

Horse Racing

While working at WLEX-TV in Lexington, Kentucky, Hammond's tenure at NBC began in 1984, when he was named as a co-host of the inaugural Breeders' Cup alongside Dick Enberg. It was supposed to be a one-shot deal for Hammond, but network execs were so impressed, he ended up getting a long-term contract. He was the main host of the network's thoroughbred racing coverage^[2] until Mike Tirico took over in 2017.^[3]

Football

Hammond's duties at NBC expanded to covering many other sports. He was the network's play-by-play voice for its coverage of Notre Dame football alongside analysts Pat Haden or Mike Mayock from 2000-2012. He was also the lead play-by-play man for The AFL on NBC.

From the 1985 NFL season until NBC lost the NFL on NBC after 1997 season, Hammond had a regular slot working regional Sunday games.

Hammond was considered the leading play-by-play candidate when NBC won the bidding for Sunday night NFL coverage beginning with the 2006 season, but ended up losing out to former ABC announcer Al Michaels after the latter signed with NBC. Hammond teamed with Cris Collinsworth to call the secondary Saturday Wild Card playoff game for NBC each year, including Chiefs-Colts in January 2007, Redskins-Seahawks in 2008, and Falcons-Cardinals in 2009, but teamed with Joe Gibbs and Joe Theismann for the Jets-Bengals Wild Card playoff game in January 2010.^[4] His final wild card game was Bengals-Texans on January 1, 2012.^[5]

Hammond and Collinsworth also serve as the announcing team on the Madden NFL 09 video game in 2008 and 2009,^[6] Madden NFL 10.^[7]

Olympics

Hammond also has been very much involved in NBC's Olympic Games coverage. At the Summer Olympics, Hammond served as the chief commentator for track and field, a position for which he debuted at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, where his broadcast partner that year was O. J. Simpson. Hammond has since said that, prior to the O. J. Simpson murder case, he and Simpson were great friends and got along well. Hammond also commentates on other track and field events shown on NBC.

Hammond continued as the lead track and field commentator for the NBC through the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio.

At the Winter Olympics, Hammond was the main commentator for figure skating and ice dancing^[8] from the 2002 Winter Olympics through the 2014 Winter Olympics.

For the 2018 Winter Olympics, Hammond moved to cover Speed Skating in what would be his final Olympic games.

Basketball

Hammond was a play by play announcer for the NBA on NBC for its entire run from 1990 through 2002. In the final years of NBA coverage he often worked a memorable three man booth with Steve "Snapper" Jones and Bill Walton.^[9]

SEC Basketball

In 1980, Hammond began regionally broadcasting Southeastern Conference basketball games. He continued with this package with various rights holders including Sports Productions Inc., Lorimar, Jefferson-Pilot, Lincoln Financial and Raycom. Hammond concluded his work on SEC games at the end of the 2008-09 season after which ESPN became the rightsholder.^[10]