THE GREAT GARY HAMMOMD

[rich59]

A story about Gary during his recruitment. Firstly, he was ranked as one of the very best blue chippers. Dave Smith called me one Sunday evening and asked me to drive down to Port Arthur with him and Gary's parents. I can't remember the exact circumstances but because of some recruiting rules he needed me to drive. Anyway, Ben Griffin had a brand new Ford Thunderbird that Gary and another recruit named Gordon Gilder were going to drive and Dave and I and Gary's parents were going in my car and Dave would drive the T Bird back. We set out that evening and were kind of staying together until we got to Kountze, which was Gordon's home town and where Gary was to drop Gordon off. We lost the T Bird there and went on down to Gary's house to drop his parents off. We waited and waited, seems like hours, and we all began to panic. Gary's parents thought something bad like a wreck had happened to the boys and Dave and I thought we had lost the best Q Back recruit in the state. Finally Gary came driving up and he said that Gordon, when they got to Kountze wanted to drive all over town so his friends could see him in a T Bird. We had quite a laugh when it was all over. It was late by the time we got Gary back with his parents and Dave said we needed to drive back to Dallas because Hayden expected him back in the office first thing. I told Dave he could head back but I was hunting a bed. Dave, being the gentleman he is said ok and we found a couple of rooms and spent the night.

[mrydel]

After freshman year, Gordon Gilder's car "broke down" on the way to 2-a-days every year. He was able to get it running and get to school right after they ended.