ROCK HILL — Former Newberry football player and current South Carolina Secretary of State Mark Hammond will become Newberry’s 10th inductee into the South Atlantic Conference Hall of Fame at a ceremony in Greenville on May 30.
Hammond gives Newberry its third Hall of Fame inductee in the last five years and two of the six all-time inductees in the Distinguished Alumnus category.
“We are thrilled that Mark will be honored in such an appropriate way,” said Newberry College Athletic Director Ralph Patterson. “Being inducted into the South Atlantic Conference Hall of Fame as a Distinguished Alumnus is an incredible honor. We are proud of Mark’s accomplishments and proud to claim him as one of Newberry College’s finest.”
Hammond, a 1986 graduate of Newberry College, played football for the Wolves from 1984-85. After graduating from Newberry, he went on to earn a Master’s in Education from Clemson University in 1988. He began working with the South Carolina Department of Youth Services in 1988 and then moved over to the Seventh Circuit Solicitor’s Office in 1990 as a criminal investigator. He served in that role until he was elected as the Spartanburg County Clerk of Court in 1996, becoming the first Republican to hold the position since Reconstruction. While in office, he implemented initiatives that saved thousands of taxpayer dollars.
In 2002, Hammond was elected as South Carolina’s 41st Secretary of State and has since been re-elected four times. He has been dedicated to efficiency, accountability and customer service as the Secretary of State. Some of his more notable accomplishments as the Secretary include: initiating reforms that target telemarketing abuses, collecting more than $1.3 million in fines since July 2003, creating the S.C. Businesses One Stop (SCBOS), a web-based program that allows users to electronically register a new business or apply for other licenses with several state agencies at one time; and continuing the annual Scrooges and Angels list of charities.
Hammond is an ex-officio member of the South Carolina Consumer Affairs Commission and Legislative Council. He has served as the liaison to the Notary Public Administrators (NPA) section of the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS), where he has also chaired, co-chaired or served on the International Relations Committee, the Standing Committee on Business Services, and the Company Formation Task Force.
He was named an Outstanding Alumnus by the South Carolina Shrine Bowl for Public Service in 2006 and was named a Henry Toll Fellow by the Council of State Governments. He was a recipient of the Sesquicentennial Medal of Honor Award, received the Outstanding Alumni Award from Newberry College in 2007 and served as a trustee to Spartanburg Methodist College from 2009-2015. Hammond was also honored with NASS’s Medallion Award in 2017 for his outstanding service and longtime leadership support.
The Spartanburg native spent two years as a defensive end at Newberry after transferring from Lees-McRae, helping the team to a 14-7-1 record in those two seasons that included a 1985 victory at Setzler Field over defending national champion Carson-Newman.
Hammond joins Mars Hill cross country and track and field runner Craig Eckstein, Catawba women’s basketball player Danyel Locklear Jolicoeur, Wingate football player David Jones, Lenoir-Rhyne softball player Meredith O’Connor, and Mars Hill men’s basketball coach and Athletic Director David Riggins in this year’s SAC Hall of Fame class.
He joins a distinguished list of Newberry alumni and staff members in the SAC Hall of Fame: Fred Herren (Athletic Director and football coach, inaugural class of 2000), Charlie Coles (football, 2002), Clyde Miller (baseball coach, 2003), Jimmy Skipper (football, 2003), Rev. Eddie Taylor (football, 2007), Brandon Hughes (men’s basketball, 2008), William “D.D.” Boyd (football, 2011), Eric Wells (football, 2015, Distinguished Alumnus) and Aubrey Mosley (volleyball and women’s golf, 2017).