Hamming happy for pre-med and basketball at Augustana

By his own admission, 6-foot-10 basketball player Bruce Hamming came out of Rock Island High School in 1971 as a shy, insecure kid who wasn't sure if he even wanted to continue playing basketball.

He had plenty of colleges interested in him. He even took a recruiting trip to Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

When Hamming told them he was considering pre-med, the adviser said labs would conflict with practice. SMU had a good accounting program, the adviser noted, and with Hamming’s intelligence maybe he should consider that.

And so came about his decision.

Hamming opted for Augustana, where he studied pre-med and became an orthopedic surgeon. He also earned All-American honors and won an NCAA post-graduate scholarship.

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