Malcolm Eugene Hammack (June 19, 1933 – July 19, 2004) was an American college and professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

player who was a

running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive American football plays#Offensive terminology, handoffs from the quarterback to Rush (American football)#Offense ...

in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

(NFL) for twelve years during the 1950s and 1960s. Hammack played

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

for the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preem ...

, and thereafter, he played professionally for the Chicago/

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Centra ...

of the NFL.

Early life

Hammack was born in Roscoe, Texas in 1933.Pro-Football-Reference.com, Players
Mal Hammack
Retrieved July 8, 2010. He attended Roscoe High School,databaseFootball.com, Players, . Retrieved June 3, 2010. where he played for the Roscoe Plowboys high school football team. After graduating from high school, he attended Arlington State Junior College in Arlington, Texas, and played football for the Arlington State Rebels.

Major college career

Hammack accepted an athletic scholarship to transfer to the

in Gainesville, Florida, where he played for coach

Bob Woodruff Robert Warren Woodruff (born August 18, 1961) is an American television journalist. Since 1996, he has served as a reporter for ABC News (United States), ABC News. Woodruff co-anchored ''ABC World News Tonight'' in 2006 with journalist Elizabeth ...

Florida Gators football The Florida Gators football program represents the University of Florida (UF) in American football, American college football. Florida competes in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the ...

team in

1953 Events January * January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma. * January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a Estonian government-in-exile, government-in-exile in Oslo. * January 14 ** Marshal Josip Broz Tito ...

and

1954 Events January * January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting. * January 7 – Georgetown–IBM experiment: The first public demonstration of a machine translation system is held in New York, at the head ...

.
2011 Florida Gators Football Media Guide
'', University Athletic Association, Gainesville, Florida, pp. 96, 103, 139–140, 181 (2011). Retrieved August 29, 2011. As a senior in 1954, he was a second-team All-Southeastern Conference (SEC) selection and the first recipient of the Gators' Fergie Ferguson Award, recognizing the "senior football player who displays outstanding leadership, character and courage." Woodruff later ranked him as one of the Gators' five best offensive backs of the 1950s. Hammack returned to Florida to finish his bachelor's degree in 1958, and was later inducted into the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame as a "Gator Great."

Professional career

The

Chicago Cardinals The professional American football team now known as the Arizona Cardinals previously played in Chicago, Illinois, as the Chicago Cardinals from 1898 to 1959 before relocating to St. Louis, Missouri, for the 1960 through 1987 seasons. Roots ca ...

selected Hammack in the third round (26th pick overall) in the 1955 NFL draft,Pro Football Hall of Fame, Draft History
1955 National Football League Draft
Retrieved May 27, 2010. and he played his entire twelve-year professional career for the Cardinals, in both

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

(–) and

St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

(–).National Football League, Historical Players
Mal Hammack
Retrieved May 27, 2010. Hammack was used primarily as a blocking fullback, but he still had 320 carries for 1,278 yards and seven touchdowns in his career.

References

Bibliography

* Carlson, Norm, ''University of Florida Football Vault: The History of the Florida Gators'', Whitman Publishing, LLC, Atlanta, Georgia (2007). . * Golenbock, Peter, ''Go Gators! An Oral History of Florida's Pursuit of Gridiron Glory'', Legends Publishing, LLC, St. Petersburg, Florida (2002). . * Hairston, Jack, ''Tales from the Gator Swamp: A Collection of the Greatest Gator Stories Ever Told'', Sports Publishing, LLC, Champaign, Illinois (2002). . * McCarthy, Kevin M.,
Fightin' Gators: A History of University of Florida Football
', Arcadia Publishing, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina (2000). . * McEwen, Tom, ''The Gators: A Story of Florida Football'', The Strode Publishers, Huntsville, Alabama (1974). . * Nash, Noel, ed., ''The Gainesville Sun Presents The Greatest Moments in Florida Gators Football'', Sports Publishing, Inc., Champaign, Illinois (1998). . {{DEFAULTSORT:Hammack, Mal 1933 births 2004 deaths American football running backs Chicago Cardinals players Florida Gators football players NFL announcers People from Roscoe, Texas St. Louis Cardinals (football) announcers St. Louis Cardinals (football) players UT Arlington Mavericks football players

Early life

Major college career

Professional career

See also

References

Bibliography