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Contact Info
Home Town Hoopeston, IL
Last Address Chula Vista, CA
Date of Passing Apr 03, 1994
Location of Interment U.S. Naval Academy Cemetery and Columbarium (VLM) - Annapolis, Maryland
Official Badges
Unofficial Badges
Additional Information
Last Known Activity:
Thomas Hamilton, was an All-America halfback on Navy's undefeated football team in 1926. He went on to become a head football coach and athletic director at the academy.
Hamilton coached four seasons at Navy (1934-35 and 1947-48), compiling a 15-20-1 record. One of the losses -- to undefeated Army in 1946 -- led to one of sport's most quotable lines. After time expired as Hamilton's scrappy 1-8 Navy team was driving toward the goal line while trailing Army, 21-18, the coach justified his decision not to go for a game-tying field-goal by saying, "A tie is like kissing your sister."
During World War II, he and other coaches developed a 12-week physical training program for prospective Navy pilots. He participated in the invasions of the Philippines and the Gilbert and Marshall islands, Battle of Leyte Gulf, Battle of Iwo Jima, and other invasions and raids in the Pacific. His decorations include the Bronze Star and the Legion of Merit.
Hamilton, a rear admiral, retired from the Navy in 1948, and went to the University of Pittsburgh as its athletic director from 1949-59.
Under the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations, he served on the Youth Fitness Programs. He was also chairman of the National Collegiate Athletic Association Committee on Physical Fitness, served for 16 years on the executive board of the United States Olympic Committee and was inducted into the National Football Foundation and Hall of Fame in 1956. He died April 3, 1994 and was buried in the United States Naval Academy Cemetery at Annapolis, MD.
Other Comments:
US Navy Rear Admiral, College Football Coach. Hamilton graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1927. The Naval Academy football team won the 1926 national championship, with Hamilton as the quarterback being an integral part of the team. The only blemish on the 9-0-1 record was a tie with Army in which Hamilton drop kicked an extra point to tie the game with .30 seconds left. At the time it was considered the greatest game ever played. In 1929 he was designated a Naval Aviator after completing the training at Pensacola Naval Air Station. Hamilton became Navy's head coach in 1934 and remained until 1936 and then again became coach again in 1946 and 1947. The following year he became the Athletic Director for the Academy. In 1949 he left the Academy to become the athletic director at Pittsburgh for 1948 and 1949. He became the coach at Pittsburgh for the year 1951 and coached three games in 1954. Hamilton was the Commissioner of the Pac-8 Conference from 1959 to 1971 and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1965. During World War II Hamilton served on the Enterprise initially as the flight deck officer and later as the Executive Officer and in mid 1944 became the Commanding Officer. He served ashore much of the war in flight training capacities. In May of 1942 the Navy implemented the most effective and productive program ever devised for military aviation, known as "V-Five." The program was the idea of then Commander Hamilton. The goal was to produce combat pilots to wage war in the Atlantic and Pacific theaters. However, it's greatest effect was the most thorough and complete unarmed training the Department of the Navy had ever seen. Hamilton received the Theodore Roosevelt Award from the NCAA, the Stagg Award from the American Football Coaches Association, and the Gold Medal from the National Football Foundation, the Corbett Award from the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics.
Originally the unnamed "hull no. 680", the ship was laid down at Hog Island, Pennsylvania by the American International Shipbuilding Corporation under a United States Shipping Board contract. Named Wright on 20 April 1920, the ship was launched on 28 April. A little over two months later, the Navy signed a contract with the Tietjen and Lang Dry Dock Company of Hoboken, New Jersey to convert the ship to a unique type of auxiliary vessel, a "lighter-than-air aircraft tender." On 17 July 1920, the ship received that classification and was designated AZ-1. Wright was commissioned at the New York Navy Yard on 16 December 1921. Her first commanding officer was Captain (later Admiral) Alfred W. Johnson, who also discharged the collateral duties of Commander, Air Squadrons, Atlantic Fleet. Johnson was the first of a long line of commanding officers for the ship, some of whom later distinguished themselves; men such as John Rodgers, Ernest J. King, Aubrey W. Fitch, Patrick N. L. Bellinger, and Marc A. Mitscher.
