Knox College Athletics

Ziggy, a Galesburg High School graduate, had an outstanding athletic career while at Knox.  He has to be one of the best all-around athletes that ever represented the college.

He holds the distinction of being the only 16 letter winner that Knox has produced.  He competed and earned his “K” in football, basketball, track and baseball.  He captained the baseball nine in his sophomore year, as well as the track squad in his third year.  IN 199020 Ziggy Hamblin’s name was the first placed on the Hunter Trophy.  It was in his junior year too that he served as a student member of the Knox Athletic Board of Control

Following his service in the U.S. Army during World War I in the Medical Corps, Ziggy became an assistant instructor of biology at Knox from 1920 to 1921, also holding the position of head baseball coach.  In 1921 he became a faculty member at West Virginia State College, located in Institute, West Virginia.  Ziggy’s love for Knox College, its academic program, its athletic set-up, its projection of values and its respect for tradition- all these attributes were brought to bear upon the West Virginia College’s academics and athletics from 1921 until Ziggy’s retirement in 1966.  Here for 23 years he served as head football coach, winning the black College National Championships in 1922 and 1936.  HE also coached the schools basketballteam.  In addition to these coaching duties, he served as director and professor of the department of biological science, botany, and zoology for 45 years.
               
Through his teaching and coaching ideals, Ziggy established himself as a man of compassion.  During his 45 years at West Virginia State College, he was accorded the following honors:

1. Received his Honorary Doctor of Humanities from the college in 1936.
2. The Science building was named after Adolph Hamblin.
3. He was the first black to be included in the1936 West Virginia edition of “Who’s Who”.
4. Member of the Beta Kappa Chi and Sigma Xi honorary societies.
5. Member of the West Virginia Academy of Science.

Adolph “Ziggy” Hamblin, who received the Knox College Alumni Achievement Award in 1951, died August 17, 1966.  His family consists of his widow Miriam Atkins and children, Caroline H.  Tucker (Knox ’53), Ethel Hamblin Andrews and Olie  Barbara.