Note: On the night of Jan. 27, 2001, while flying back to Stillwater, Oklahoma from a game at the University of Colorado, a Beech King Air plane crashed near Byers (Colo.) in a snowstorm, killing 10 members of the Oklahoma State traveling party. Will Hancock, the 31-year-old assistant media relations director for the Cowboys' team, was among the victims along with two players, the basketball radio broadcaster and support personnel affiliated with the Cowboys men's basketball program. The plane went down some 40 miles east of Denver, crashed during a snowstorm that January day in 2001.
William Ransom Hancock III was given his father's name at birth, then followed his dad's (Bill Hancock, current BCS Executive Director and former NCAA men's basketball Final Four coordinator and Big Eight Conference PR director) footsteps into a successful athletics PR career.
The Big 12 Conference has honored Will by naming its annual internship position the Will Hancock Communications Internship.
also see:
Okla. St. continues efforts to remember 10 men who died in basketball plane crash 9 years ago, by Murray Evans, AP (Jan. 27, 2010)
STILLWATER, Okla. - On the ninth anniversary of the plane crash that killed 10 members of its men's basketball travel party on Jan. 27, 2001, Oklahoma State will honor the crash victims with several observances around campus Wednesday.
Kendall Durfey, Bjorn Fahlstrom, Nate Fleming, Will Hancock, Daniel Lawson, Brian Luinstra, Denver Mills, Pat Noyes, Bill Teegins and Jared Weiberg were the 10 members of the travel party who died in a plane crash while returning from a game at Colorado.
On Wednesday at 10 a.m., Dr. David Bosserman, OSU's Vice President for Administration and Finance, along with his executive assistant, Nancy Horner, and OSU Physical Plant Director Rick Krysiak, will visit the crash site in Colorado. Their annual trek and ceremony will also include several members of the Colorado emergency response teams from 2001.
Later that day, at 6:37 p.m., the OSU Library Carillon will toll 10 times in honor of each of those that have been lost.
OSU will also observe a moment of silence in memory of those lost prior to Wednesday's men's basketball game against Texas A&M, which tips off at 6:30 p.m. in Gallagher-Iba Arena. At halftime of the game, organizers of the annual "Remember The 10 Run" will donate race proceeds to OSU Counseling Services.
The Memorial Lobby of Gallagher-Iba Arena will continue to maintain special hours throughout January. The lobby is annually decorated by families, friends, OSU alumni and current student-athletes as a way to honor those lost in the plane crash. On Wednesday, it will open at 8 a.m. and remain open through the end of the men's basketball game. However, seating for the game will not be available until 5:30 p.m., the customary one-hour-before-the-game practice.
The 2010 "Remember The 10 Run" is scheduled for April 17 in Stillwater.
NOTE: For those who might be interested in a great read, Bill Hancock wrote "Riding with the Blue Moth: A Father's Cross-Country Bicycle Odyssey", as a memoir of his son. Bill Hancock found peace and unexpected closure while bicycling across the country after the untimely death of Will. That journey undertook a 36-day, 2743-mile, nine-state, ocean-to-ocean bicycle ride, traveling from Huntington Beach, Calif. to Tybee Island, Ga., keeping a journal along the way. That journal turned into "Riding with the Blue Moth."