Hammonds building for his future through hard work

Cliff Hammonds tends to stand out as he makes his way down a stairwell on his way to class on a recent morning.

He's 6-3. He's wearing an orange windbreaker, orange jogging pants and orange shoes. He also wears a smile when a familiar face cracks a joke as the two cross paths.

"Can you wear more orange next time, Cliff?" the male student deadpans. "Come on, man. You've got to show more support."

Melissa Haneline
The Post and Courier

Clemson basketball player Cliff Hammonds (working with professor Yuji Kishimoto during an architecture lab class) is on pace to graduate with a double major in architecture and psychology in May.

Throughout a four-year college career that is winding down, Hammonds has done almost nothing halfway on the court or in the classroom. That much was evident last week, when he allowed a reporter to tag along and get a feel for life in his size 14 1/2 shoes.

"I know all this is going to pay off in the long run," he said. "So I may as well work hard on it now."

Good luck finding anyone at Clemson who does not speak in reverential tones when the subject turns to Hammonds, a senior guard on the Tigers' basketball team. Playing ball and breezing by on so-called "jock" courses wasn't enough when he arrived on campus in the summer of 2004. He chose architecture, perhaps the most exclusive and demanding major at the school.

He's not only survived this wrenching regimen, but thrived as well. He is on pace to graduate with a double major in architecture and psychology in May. He has broken out of his soft-spoken shell to become the unquestioned leader of a team on the cusp of its first NCAA Tournament appearance in a decade.

And in the process, Hammonds has earned almost universal respect and adoration from a university community that wonders how and when he manages to get it all done.

Hammonds and the Tigers (19-6, 7-4 Atlantic Coast Conference) play at Florida State tonight at 7. Before and after he starts his 122nd consecutive game — tying a school record set by Greg Buckner — Hammonds will probably be on his laptop or meticulously scrawling sketches with the handful of Sharpies he carries with him at all times.

"I don't think he wastes one second," said Yuji Kishimoto, who has taught architecture at Clemson for 28 years. "I don't know how he does that. I'm learning a lot from him, how to regulate your life and your precious time."

Hammonds' fascination with architecture goes back to when he was a 9-year-old and his grandfather was building luxury developments near Walt Disney World. He remembers using Legos to construct replicas of football stadiums.

Melissa Haneline
The Post and Courier

Hammonds has the second-highest scoring average on the Clemson basketball team.

At Cairo (Ga.) High School, Hammonds wanted to take a drafting class but couldn't because he was playing four sports — football, basketball, track and cross country. He still managed to finish fourth in his class, graduating with honors and a 4.0 GPA.

Hammonds was more accomplished at football than basketball, playing defensive back, receiver and running back. He had scholarship offers to play football at Georgia, Georgia Tech, Wake Forest, Vanderbilt and Duke. He ended up taking the basketball route, choosing Clemson over Stanford.

Hammonds has blossomed as a senior, recently elevating his play after moving to point guard. He averaged more than 20 points per game over a four-game stretch and put up a career-high 31 points in a double-overtime loss at North Carolina.

He's also willingly assumed a vocal role on the team — no small feat for a guy who was almost painfully reserved most his career.

"I think he's one of the most underrated players in ACC history," said head coach Oliver Purnell.

Associate head coach Ron Bradley has been with the Tigers for Purnell's entire five-year tenure. He remembers experiencing "total doubt" when he learned Hammonds was pursuing architecture, a major that accepts just 75 students per year.

Four years later, Bradley and plenty of other skeptics have been converted. Hammonds has maintained a cumulative GPA above 3.0, including a perfect 4.0 last fall. In October, he was one of 27 Clemson students inducted into the Blue Key Honor Society, which recognizes the top one percent of student leaders and scholars.

No Clemson basketball player has ever received a degree in architecture.

"I've never seen someone as self-disciplined in so many areas," said Bradley, a 32-year veteran of college coaching.

"He's the most disciplined athlete and the most disciplined student-athlete that I've ever seen. ... Very few kids who come in with very demanding majors actually stay in those majors. So he did shock me. Not shocked. Amazed."

The 22-year-old Hammonds is taking 12 hours this semester. He's shouldered much heavier loads, ones that required nights of little to no sleep, but this semester's demands are still the equivalent of a full-time job in the classroom — on top of another on the court.

Harry Harritos, who teaches graphics and drawing, said Hammonds has been an "asset."

"You can't hide here in architecture," Harritos said. "The day after they lost at North Carolina, he was right here in class the next morning."

Hammonds' normal routine rising early and eating breakfast with the team at 7:30. On this day, his first architecture class begins at 9. After that, he hops a bus to the training room and immerses himself in the cold tub for 15 minutes while sketching a drawing for his next class.

He buses back onto campus for a drawing class at 11:15, followed by a lecture at 12:20. His last class, senior studio, goes from 1:25 to 3:15. Then he's off to Littlejohn Coliseum, and back in basketball mode.

"He studies game tape more than any player I've ever seen," said assistant coach Shaka Smart. "Before practice, he'll watch three game tapes of every team. He's like a coach."

He's also a husband and a father. Last June, Hammonds married his high school sweetheart. He met Lakendra in Cairo when he was in eighth grade, she in ninth. They were married in June and have a 14-month-old son, Clifford V.

Mother and son are living five hours away in Cairo while she completes work for a degree in psychology at Thomas University in Thomasville, Ga.

Hammonds looks forward to the day when they'll be together for good.

He's planning on giving professional basketball a shot overseas, and he'll eventually return to school to pursue his masters in architecture.

Before every practice and game, Hammonds slips off his wedding ring from his left hand and ties it tightly onto his left shoe.

"We've been apart for so long," he said. "I know next year we'll be together regardless. That's an inspiration for me to finish up what I have to do here and go to class and get ready for the real world, so to speak."

Hammonds envisions himself eventually designing apartment complexes for low-income families. Lakendra wants to use her degree to help mentally disabled people.

"I think it's a good trait to have, to want to help people as much as possible," he said. "I just think the more you give, the more you're going to receive. And the more you give, the better you're going to feel about yourself."

For his senior project in architecture, Hammonds is giving back to the two people who have given him the most. His parents live in a mobile home in Cairo, but that'll change soon; Hammonds is designing a 3,000 square-foot home his parents plan to begin building within a year.

One of five siblings whose ages range from 18 to 27, Hammonds credits his parents with instilling the importance of academics. The military family bounced around often before settling in Cairo in 1999, but all five children compiled a GPA of 3.0 or better in high school.

Hammonds said his parents have long dreamed of having a house of their own.

"To me, it's kind of honoring them for what they've done for me," he said. "Everything I am today, I am because of them."

Tonight at Florida State, Hammonds will have a substantial cheering section at the Donald L. Tucker Center. Cairo is a mere 34 miles from Tallahassee, Fla., and last year 40 to 50 people made the trip.

They ended up witnessing perhaps the most defining and memorable moment of Hammonds' career. After hitting the game-winning layup on a length-of-the-court play, Hammonds couldn't walk off the floor because of full-body cramps.

His family and friends had to wait nearly an hour after the game as he received three bags of fluid intravenously in the locker room. As Hammonds' body shook uncontrollably from dehydration, his mother held both of his hands and calmly sang gospel to him.

Her son had given everything he had.

"I've never coached a student-athlete who I respected more," Purnell said. "I've never coached a more coachable player, someone who's any more driven. Someone who has developed himself into a tremendous leader. ... He's extraordinary and remarkable just in terms of, across the board, the things that he brings to the table as a student-athlete."

Reach Larry Williams at lwilliams@postandcourier.com.