Former Baraga High standout Jim Hammerberg battles a double-team by Jeffers in a 1995 game. He gained all-state laurels in basketball and football in his senior season. (Paul Peterson photo)

BARAGA — As far as banner athletic seasons, it would be tough to beat the one Baraga’s Jim Hammerberg put together in the 1995-96 campaign. 

Hammerberg, a 6-foot-3, 215-pounder as a senior, gained all-state recognition in football and basketball that season.

He’s just one of a select few local athletes from the area to gain All-State laurels in two sports.

Chris Givens of Hancock and Bill Hauswirth and Brady Schaefer of Houghton accomplished the feat in football and hockey, and there have a few others.

Scott Artley, a longtime Baraga basketball coach, remembers Hammerberg as multi-talented.

“He (Hammerbeg) could handle the ball really well for a big guy, he could shoot from all spots on the floor, and he could rebound,” Artley said in a 2005 interview last year. “But he also put in the work to get that talented.”

The stats the Baraga ace put up were hard to match.

In basketball, he scored 2,010 points in his career.

At the time, there were only a handful of other athletes from the U.P. to reach the 2,000-point barrier.

Dominic Jacobetti of Negaunee St. Paul led the list with 2,140 points between 1962-65.

Trout Creek’s Jim Manning, 2,147, and Bob Gale, 2,086, also hit the 2,000 mark.

Of course, Jacobetti’s record was broken by Gage Kreski of St. Ignace a couple of years ago.

Reaching the coveted standard for Hammerberg came in a 10-point regional loss to Forest Park.

When it was announced that he had reached the plateau, he received a standing ovation from the crowd at C.B. Hedgcock Fieldhouse.

“That was really memorable,” he said recently. “Of course, I would have preferred it came in a win by us.”

Opponents often had different strategies to guard the Vikings ace.

“We usually used two or three guys to guard him,” former Jeffers coach Mike Maki recalled. “When you have a guy that big who can do so much offensively, it’s a tough job.”

Hammerberg averaged 23 points and 13 rebounds a game as a senior.

In football, he was a two-way player who started at quarterback on offense and played linebacker on defense. He was the Class D Defensive Player of the year in 1995.

His coach, Brian Sarvello, remembers him as a player who led by example.

“Jim hustled all the time, he never once let up,” Sarvello said at the time. “He was the kind of leader every coach really wants on the team.”

Baraga earned a spot in the Class DD finals with an 9-6 upset of Beal City, the defending champion.

“That was the big highlight of the season,” he said. “We won in the final seconds on a field goal by Rex Beach.”

Baraga, which lost to Fowler in the state finals, also was defeated by Forest Park and Lake Linden-Hubbell earlier. The Lakes made it to the Class D finals that season, losing to old nemesis Mendon.

Hammerberg was recruited by Lake Superior State to play basketball after graduating from high school. But his 6-3 size put him into the “tweener” class.

“I played three seasons at Lake State, but I fell into that in-between category. Not tall enough to play inside; not quick enough to play at guard.”

But he earned his degree at LSSU and has lived in Sault. Marie, Ont. area with his family for a number of years.

He has fond memories of his sports career.

“Those were really good days,” he said. “Of course, there were the games. But more importantly, there were the lifetime friends you make.”

Incidentally, Jim’s sister, Laura, was also an All-U.P. player at Baraga.