Legendary Indiana sportswriter Hammel passes away at 88
Jul 21, 2025, 09:37 PM ET
BLOOMINGTON, Ind.– Bob Hammel, who covered 23 NCAA Final Fours and 29 Indiana high school basketball tournament champions throughout a 52-year sports composing profession that included a close relationship with late Hall of Fame coach Bob Knight, has actually passed away. He was 88.
Hammel died Sunday at Bell Trace, a senior living community in Bloomington, according to an obituary in The Herald-Times, his long time employer. No cause of death was given.The lifelong Indiana resident spent 40 years with the Bloomington Herald-Telephone and later Herald-Times, including 30 as sports editor.Hammel was a member of a number of halls of fame, consisting of the U.S. Basketball Writers Association, Football Writers Association of America, Indiana Journalism and Indiana University Athletics. He served terms as president of the Basketball and Football Writers associations. He got the Curt Gowdy Media Award from the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and the Bert McGrane Award from the Football Writers Association.Hammel won the Indiana Sportswriter of the Year award 21 times.Indiana Athletics grieves the loss of Bob Hammel, famous journalist & member of the IU Sports Hall of Popularity. pic.twitter.com/dJr3cyNJkA!.?.!— Indiana Hoosiers(@IUHoosiers)July 20, 2025 He authored or co-authored 14 books, consisting of the 2002 autobiography of Knight, the intense IU basketball coach who died in 2023. They likewise teamed in 2012 for a book titled” The Power of Negative Thinking
.” Upon retiring as Huge 10 Conference commissioner in 2020, Jim Delany said, “Bob Hammel is just the most important Big 10 writer in the last 50 years.” Hammel, a native of Huntington, Indiana, participated in Indiana University for a year. He took a summer season job as sports editor of his home town paper and rather of going back to school that fall, he stayed on at the paper for 8 years.
He worked at papers in Peru, Fort Wayne, Kokomo and Indianapolis before being hired as sports editor of the Herald-Telephone in 1966. His profession consisted of covering 5 Olympics before he retired from sports composing in 1996. He is endured by Julie, his wife of 67 years, son Richard Hammel and daughter Jane Priest.