My personal favorite comeback was one engineered in many ways by my brother.

Thomas Mark Hammond Jr., my younger by 13 months brother, is the best athlete in my family.

The only sport I may have held an edge on the red-haired tornado would have been baseball, and that’s because he all but gave it up for basketball and both brands of softball, fast-pitch and later slow-pitch.

Tom, called variously T, Tort or T-Tort by friends, earned All-Catholic honors as a Cardinal Mindszenty second baseman the year they reached the Georgetown Cup finals before losing to St. Joe’s. He was an All-SUNYAC infielder at Fredonia State and led the college’s freshman basketball team in scoring from the guard position. He scored over 30 points one remarkable night at Roberts Wesleyan.

Tom Hammond

He went on to coach championship high school teams and spent many years refereeing a variety of sports. He even spent one summer coaching at Ted Williams’ Baseball Camp near Boston.

After he graduated from high school in 1969, he had a dramatic growth spurt to reach the lofty level of 5-foot-8.

He had played in a televised WNY Little League title game as the losing pitcher and then starred on Dunkirk’s 1966 state championship Babe Ruth team led by future Major League Baseball player Dave Criscione and coached by our dad, Mark.

It was as a freshman basketball star playing in friendly Dods Hall in early 1970 that he engineered a remarkably improbable victory.

Matched against arch rival Buffalo State in the preliminary game this memorable night, his Baby Blue Devils were trailing by 5 points late in the game.

How late? Try 12 seconds. And this was before the 3-point shot was adopted.

Fredonia needed three baskets to win. Tom would have a hand or fist in all three.

Taking an inbounds pass, he raced down the right side of the gym, past the scorers table and let fly a prayer from just inside midcourt. It was answered.

As the shot went in, longtime Baby Blue Devil Coach John Szczerbacki called a timeout. There were now 7 seconds left and the margin was 3 points.

Fredonia fouled immediately, losing no time off the clock. The visiting Bengals missed the foul shot, the outlet pass found brother Tom and down the right wing he flew again. The crowd went wild when he buried a second bomb.

There were now 2 seconds left when Szczerbacki called another timeout. Fredonia still trailed by a point.

Fouling again, all Fredonia hopes now rested on another Buffalo State foul line miss.

There was not enough time for a third T Hammond full-court dash and shot. Luckily, Fredonia had a timeout remaining.

Once again the Bengals missed their chance to put the game away at the foul line.

As Fredonia rebounded and called its final timeout, the clock slipped down to 1 solitary second.

Coach Szczerbacki then made two critical substitutions. He brought in a former high school pitcher to attempt a court-length throw and the team’s tallest player to either catch it and shoot or rebound it off the backboard and shoot. All in a little more than a second.

Avid basketball fans will remember Angola native and Duke star Christian Laettner would have 2 seconds in a similar situation against Kentucky in the 1992 NCAA Regional final. He clearly wasn’t available this winter night, having been born only months earlier. His sister, Katie, would star for brother Tom’s Lake Shore Central team decades later, but I digress. I seem to do that a lot as a proud member of the Baby Boomer generation.

The game officials were busy during this final timeout, too. They offered the Buffalo State coaches the opportunity to have a representative at the scorers table to ensure the clock started on time. They declined. They didn’t think the Baby Blue Devils had a chance in hell.

Fredonia’s plan was no secret to the packed crowd or their confident opponents. Buffalo stationed four defenders near Fredonia’s big man under the basket and the other to shadow brother Tom. Just in case.

The game-deciding heave was heroic but woefully short. Hope began to fade.

All but Fredonia’s big man moved toward the errant toss dropping like a stone near the top of the key.

Somehow, brother Tom got there first. Using what he jokingly referred to as his SLA (sheer leaping ability), he punched it over a sea of outstretched hands to … you guessed it, the now undefended Blue Devil substitute center.

The big guy caught the deflection and laid it up and in as the horn went off. It was a truly miraculous Fredonia 1-point win and the crowd joyfully erupted. Quite the comeback.

The Buffalo State coaching staff stormed the scorers table, claiming clock mismanagement. They were summarily denied, reminded they were given a chance to monitor the clock operator and turned it down.

Did the clock start a little late? No way. How do I know? I was one seat away from the clock operator that night as the official team scorekeeper.

ııı

DO YOU have a favorite, funny, weird, best or worst memory of amateur sports refereeing, playing or spectating? Drop me a line at mandpp@hotmail.com and let’s reminisce.

ııı

Bill Hammond is a former EVENING OBSERVER sports editor.