Richard Hammond

New UCA director of campus recreation brings experience

Richard Hammond stands outside the Health, Physical Education and Recreation Center at the University of Central Arkansas. Hammond is the new director of campus recreation. He came to UCA after 18 years in the same position at Valdosta State University in Georgia and said he’d never been to Arkansas before he applied for the job. “It was a good first impression,” he said.
Richard Hammond stands outside the Health, Physical Education and Recreation Center at the University of Central Arkansas. Hammond is the new director of campus recreation. He came to UCA after 18 years in the same position at Valdosta State University in Georgia and said he’d never been to Arkansas before he applied for the job. “It was a good first impression,” he said.

The University of Central Arkansas’ new director of campus recreation, Richard Hammond, seems to be a real team player.

He’s only been in his office since Nov. 2, and he has a photo of his four children — purposely dressed in UCA purple — displayed on his desk.

Hammond, sitting in his office with purple carpet and bear artwork on the walls, said he’s transitioning from his red-and-black clothes representing the Blazers at Valdosta State University in Georgia, where he was director of campus recreation for 18 years.

“My wife and I decided we needed a change, needed a whole new environment,” Hammond said.

His wife, Leighia, was associate director of housing at Valdosta State, and she is staying in Georgia with their children as they try to sell their home.

Hammond rents a room in the intramural house on campus, where there is a bedroom, bathroom and laundry room, in addition to office space.

“It’s like a fresh start,” he said. “It’s the first time I’ve made a decision this big with family.”

Before Valdosta State, he was a single guy taking jobs to further his career. “I married late in my life,” he said.

Hammond, 47, is taking the position vacated by Dave Dennis, who retired this year from UCA.

Hammond was born in Georgia but grew up in the small town of Bonifay in the panhandle of Florida, where his dad retired from the Navy and his mother was a legal secretary. Although it sounds like an enviable place to live, “I’m not a big beach person,” Hammond said. He is a warm-weather person, though.

He received a football scholarship to play quarterback at Culver-Stockton College in Canton, Missouri.

“The experience was not what I expected. It was colder than I expected; the program wasn’t what I expected — how they treated people,” he said.

Hammond was also a walk-on for the school’s baseball team.

After a year, he went back to warm Florida and enrolled at the University of West Florida in Pensacola, where he played baseball for one year as a walk-on. He started out in computer science, but “that didn’t fit my personality very well,” he said. Sitting still in front of a computer was not his idea of fun. Instead, Hammond followed his love for sports and received a degree in health, leisure and sports/sports science.

“The initial plan was probably [to go into] physical therapy or athletic training,” he said. Hammond got a student work-study job in the recreation center, which led to him being hired as an intramural supervisor. That changed the trajectory of his career.

He became a graduate assistant of intramural sports at Southwest Texas State University, now Texas State University, and earned a Master of Arts degree in interdisciplinary studies there. His first “real professional job,” he said, was at Georgia Southern University as an intramural-sports-program coordinator. He went to the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 1995 as assistant director of intramurals, club sports and special events, and stayed two years, until 1997, when he took the job at Valdosta State University. He settled in there for almost two decades.

“It was enjoyable. I enjoyed the people; I enjoyed the staff,” he said. However, Valdosta State experienced controversy and a changeover in the presidency, as well as a drop in enrollment, he said.

“It’s been interesting the last few years,” he said. “The last year I was there was the toughest as far as getting things done.”

He described it as a “bottleneck at the top.” Efforts, “in terms of making things better,” that normally would have taken a few weeks were taking months, Hammond said, and that was frustrating. He and his wife decided it was time for a change.

He’d never been to Arkansas, but Hammond said he found “a nice, welcoming staff” when he interviewed for the UCA job. What really impressed him was that UCA President Tom Courtway met with him. University presidents usually don’t participate in interviews for positions “at this level,” Hammond said.

“That was encouraging. It showed me he had interest in the program and campus recreation … that he was a buy-in, which is good,” Hammond said.

Courtway said he met in his office with each candidate for the position.

“I found Mr. Hammond to be very experienced, energetic and ready for a new challenge. He is a very good fit for what we needed,” Courtway said. “We have one of the best student wellness and recreational facilities in the country. It provides all forms of workout equipment, exercise classes and opportunities for our students, faculty and staff. The campus outdoor recreation feature is a very good addition. In my opinion, using these facilities keeps our students well-rounded, and exercising their bodies as well as their minds. Plus, it is a venue for them to interact with each other and make new friends based upon common recreational interests.”

Hammond agreed that campus recreation is important for many reasons other than physical health.

“It’s good, obviously, for the mental state to release some stress,” he said. Hammond said exercise also improves memory, and recreation is a way for students to socialize and play competitively together through intramural sports.

Hammond oversees nine staff members and 100-plus student workers in the recreation department.

Students who work in campus recreation get “a lot of transferable skills” to the real world, Hammond said, including working with customer service and conflict management.

“My goal as a recreation director — I don’t want people to not know we’re here. They’re paying for it. I wouldn’t want them to go out and get a gym membership somewhere. We have a very nice facility, very nice equipment and plenty of space.”

The Health, Physical Education and Recreation Center underwent a $15.5 million expansion that was completed a year ago. The 110,000-square-foot facility includes Campus Outdoor Pursuits and Activities, or COPA, where students can check out equipment for free. Students do pay a mandatory $9.12 per credit hour to pay for the recreation center.

“The concept of letting [the equipment] go out free is unique in the field,” he said. At Valdosta State, students must rent recreational equipment, he said.

Hammond said that although it’s nice that UCA students can check out equipment for free, sometimes students don’t adhere to the return dates. He’ll be looking at that.

Hammond oversaw the design and construction of the $9.6 million Student Recreation Center in 2002 at Valdosta State. That recreation center has a climbing wall, which is something he’d like to see incorporated into UCA’s facilities — if he can figure out where.

“I’m investigating that right now,” he said.

Other than that, he said, he’s just trying to look at budgets and numbers and learn policies and procedures.

The goal for the department as a whole, Hammond said, is to get more faculty, staff and students to use the HPER. He hasn’t had time to analyze the data to see if there has been an increase in the year the expanded facility has been open.

He also hasn’t had time to explore Arkansas, or even Conway. He has attended two UCA football games — one the Bears won; one they lost — as well as Southland Conference soccer and volleyball matches.

That’s fine with him, because he’s a UCA Bear now, and he has plenty of purple shirts to wear.

Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.

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