T. Mark Hammond Dies At 70; Had Lifetime Sports Involvement

T. Mark Hammond, 70, a longtime high school and college sports official in Western New York and scout for major league sports teams, died Sunday (March 18, 1990) in Brooks Memorial Hospital.

A Middleport, NY native, he retired in 1974 from the Ford Stamping Plant in Woodlawn after working there for 23 years. He was employed as a sportswriter for the Dunkirk Evening Observer until his hospitalization in February.

Throughout his life, he was involved with sports. During the late 1940s and early 1950s, he was general manager of PONY League baseball teams in Jamestown, Lockport and Olean and general manager of the Tri-City Blackhawks of Moline, Ill., and the Syracuse Nationals, both of the former National Basketball League.

During the 1950s, he was the business manager of the Buffalo Bisons.

Beginning in the late 1950s to the early 1980s, at one time or another, he scouted for the Washington Senators, Kansas City Athletics, Cleveland Indians and St. Louis Cardinals baseball teams and the Philadelphia 76ers basketball team.

He also had his own college basketball scouting service for more than 25 years.

Hammond was a charter member of the Chautauqua Sports Hall of Fame, the Dunkirk Historical Society and American Legion Post 62. He served with the U.S. Army during World War II.

Surviving are his wife, the former Jean Schrantz; two sons, Thomas M. Jr. of Derby and William; two daughters, Kathryn Bellanca of Amherst and Mary Hartney of Kenmore; a brother, J. Regis of Frederick, Md.; two sisters, Margaret Mary Hammond of Medina and Anne Hammond of Buffalo, and 10 grandchildren.

Prayers will be said at 11 a.m. Wednesday in the McGraw-Kowal Funeral Home, 736 Central Ave., followed by a Mass of Christian Burial at 11:30 in St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church, 328 Washington Ave. Burial will be in St. Mary's Cemetery.