The Story of Hoosier Native Thomas Hammock
Born in Jersey City, New Jersey, Thomas Hammock moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana for his high school years where he excelled at running back for the Bishop Luers football team.
After a successful career with the Knights, Hammock would go onto play for Northern Illinois where he rushed for over 2,400 yards and 25 touchdowns.
In his lone game in his senior campaign, Hammock rushed for 172 yards and two touchdowns before an abrupt end to his football career after medical retirement.
Thomas Hammock's Life after playing football
Following his time as a star running back for Northern Illinois, Hammock immediately transitioned into the coaching world where he took a Graduate Assistant position at Wisconsin in 2003.
He would then return to Northern Illinois as a running backs coach in 2005, where he coached 2007 Bears draftee Garrett Wolfe to 3,500 yards and 34 touchdowns in consecutive seasons.
At his next stop at Minnesota in the same position, he helped overhaul a 1-11 2007 Golden Gopher squad into a 2008 bowl appearance after a 7-6 season.
After a year as the co-offensive coordinator in 2009, Hammock would take over as the Wisconsin running backs coach where he coached Montee Ball to consecutive 1,800 yard seasons.
2013 is where everything would flip for Hammock as he coached future NFL running backs Melvin Gordon and James White to each having a 1,400 yard season in the same year.
Transition to the NFL
After a decade of producing consistent running games at the collegiate level, Hammock broke into the NFL ranks as he coached the Ravens running backs from 2014-2018.
During his time in Baltimore, he coached a running back room that saw Justin Forsett surpass 1,200 yards in 2014 as well as two playoff appearances in his four years with the franchise.
17 years after medically retiring during his senior season at Northern Illinois, the Bishop Luers alum was able to take over the reins at Northern Illinois in 2019. Since taking the job, he has gotten the Huskies to two bowl games — winning the Camellia Bowl last season over Arkansas State.
This season, after a 2-0 start, Hammock has NIU ranked for the first time since 2013 after traveling to South Bend on Sept. 7 and beating then-fifth-ranked Notre Dame 16-14. During the upset, the Huskies rushed for 190 yards on 45 attempts.
With the new College Football Playoff format, Hammock’s NIU squad has their playoff hopes in their own hands as the top ranked group-of-five conference champion will get an automatic bid into the playoff.
NIU will be back in action against Buffalo on Sept. 21.
