Clemson’s Cliff Hammonds Earns NCAA Sportsmanship Award

Oct. 30, 2008

Clemson, SC – Former Clemson basketball player Cliff Hammonds has been named a recipient of the 2008 NCAA Division I Sportsmanship Award. With the honor, the senior captain from last year’s #22 ranked men’s basketball team adds to an already lengthy list of achievements from his time with the Clemson program.

The award is designed for student-athletes that keep with the NCAA’s “desire to promote sportsmanship and ethical behavior and the highest ideals of respect, caring, civility, fairness, honesty, integrity, and responsibility.”

“Cliff was the finest leader and overall student-athlete I have ever been around in all my years of coaching,” said Head Coach Oliver Purnell. “He was a model student-athlete and was respected by everyone from our players and coaches to support staff.”

Hammonds has a shelf full of awards from this past season. The Cairo, GA native was the first Clemson player since 1967 to be named All-ACC on and off the court in the same season. He was the first-ever recipient of the ACC’s “Skip” Prosser Award, given to the league’s top scholar-athlete for men’s basketball.

He was also a recipient of the ACC’s postgraduate scholarship, the Weaver-James-Corrigan Award. Hammonds was a finalist for the Chip Hilton Award and runner-up for the Arthur Ashe Sports Scholar Award. After the season, he was named Amateur Athlete-of-the-Year by the South Carolina Hall of Fame. Most recently, he was named IPTAY Athlete-of-the-Year on behalf of his many accomplishments.

Hammonds, who graduated last May with a degree in architecture and psychology, is currently playing overseas in the Turkish Basketball League.