Hancock headed to the hall
Former Mullen track and field boss John Hancock to be inducted into the National High School Athletic Coaches Association Hall of Fame Wednesday in Lincoln, Neb.
In 1985, John Hancock put his signature on Mullen track and field.
“Did I know what I was walking into?” he pondered recently.
Probably not. The Mustangs, an all-boys school for five more years, had a dirt track. Very little equipment. A lower enrollment.
Undaunted, Hancock knew it was a parochial thing, as “Villanova was the NCAA Champion and (the Wildcats) trained on a golf course.”
Thirty-six years, including 33 on the job, 22 Colorado championships and hundreds of meets later, Hancock will be inducted into the National High School Athletic Coaches Association Hall of Fame on Wednesday, July 28. He’ll be joined by a nearby Coloradan, Duane Lewis, Jefferson County, an accomplished boys coach and lover of basketball, in Lincoln, Neb., festivities.
Said Hancock of his inclusion in the exclusive club: “I’m very honored.”
Not much has occurred in Colorado track and field the past four decades or so without Hancock implementing, observing, learning from and excelling in it, everything from the innovative to the humorous.
For instance:
--- His first Mustangs team consisted of seven individuals … and all of one hurdle.
--- Early competitors for Mullen had to be told by Hancock not to wear his boxer shorts under his track bottoms. They showed.
--- As head coach for boys, Hancock’s Mullen teams won 11 team titles. Officially, he was the leader of one for girls (who also have won 11 times), but clearly his fingerprints were all over the combined program.
--- For a guy who began by borrowing the track at Cherry Creek, he knew how to recruit sponsors and raise funds, make improvements, advance the sport statewide and create what used to be the premier regular-season event, a must-see stop in which there were no team scores, but virtually all of the top Colorado individuals and relays. He also beefed up coaches hospitality and awards for winners and top finishers.
--- Traveling? Hancock had his teams competing across the country well before any of today’s basketball tournaments and football excursions. The all-encompassing Mt. SAC (California) and Penn (Philadelphia) Relays were popular destinations for Mustangs. So were others at BYU, Kansas, Stanford and Texas. “I wanted them to see college track is a pretty cool thing to be a part of,” Hancock said of his Mustangs athletes, “and the second thing is it helped get visibility for our school.”
--- Additionally, Hancock was boys track coach of the year by the National Federation of State High School Associations; National Coaches Hall of Fame finalists twice for coach of the year; recognized regularly for in-state coach of the year in the days of Denver’s two metropolitan daily newspapers; coach of the year numerous times by the Centennial League; and one of his teams once won every Centennial League Relay event.
The son of Tom Hancock, a legendary, hall-of-fame Jeffco football coach, also was a star, all-around back as a schoolboy who went on to play in college and compile more than 30 years as an assistant in Jeffco and with the Mustangs.
Said Hancock of his days at Mullen: “I guess one aspect of my years there was I used former athletes often when I could or close friends, many who were with me for many years. I was also fortunate to have many families that would always step up to make sure we helped students have a positive experience.
“Thank you to everyone.”
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