College Sports Information Directors of America

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Jerry Hanson – Clarke University, Sports Information Director

CoSIDA Lifetime Achievement Award

by Jake Knabel – Concordia University, Nebraska Director of Athletic Communications

In year 42 as a Sports Information Director, Jerry Hanson remains passionate about the vocation he has served throughout his professional career. He just can’t believe it’s gone this fast.

While reflecting upon more than four decades in the industry and his impending retirement, Hanson fondly recalls the early days when he obsessed over sports statistics and studied communications at his alma mater, Briar Cliff University (Iowa).

A heart condition as a child prevented Hanson from competing in athletics, but that did not stop him from getting involved in sports. In high school, he kept statistics at basketball and football games and then attended a broadcasting school prior to college. He caught his first big break in 1979 when NAIA Hall of Fame basketball coach Ray Nacke hired him as Briar Cliff’s full-time SID. At the time, Hanson was still a senior in college.

“I enjoy all the interactions and working with student-athletes on a daily basis,” Hanson noted. “It’s just a great experience to be around that your whole life. I still get excited about the work that I do and developing relationships with the great coaches and students I’ve worked with over the years. I also enjoy the change of seasons that you get in athletics.

It’s been a great experience, great career and great life. I’m very thankful to all the students who have helped me over the years.”
 

Hanson spent 18 years at Briar Cliff in Sioux City, Iowa before beginning his current role as Sports Information Director at Clarke College (now Clarke University) in 1997. (He also served as Clarke’s golf coach for seven years in addition to his SID duties.) He briefly dipped out of the profession in 1997 before quickly jumping back into what he knows and does best.

After spending his entire life in his hometown Sioux City, Hanson made the move across the state to Dubuque when hired by then Clarke Athletic Director Lon Boike 24 years ago.

Hanson’s roots in Sioux City still run deep. He remains friends with Mayor Bob Scott, former co-workers and others like longtime writers at the Sioux City Journal. Before local institution Coney Island closed, Hanson never missed an opportunity to stop in. And when Briar Cliff men’s basketball was rocking during Nacke’s “Panama Pipeline” years, Hanson was there to cover it.

Briar Cliff inducted Hanson into its Hall of Fame in 2000. Among other honors, Hanson also earned one of the NAIA’s highest honors given to an SID, the Clarence “Ike” Pearson Award, in 1994, for outstanding commitment and dedication to sports information.

Some of Hanson’s best memories from his Briar Cliff time came out of national basketball tournaments at Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Mo. Hanson loves to tell stories about the four Briar Cliff players who were drafted by NBA teams and about how a group of Briar Cliff alums played in Portland, Ore., against the famed USA Dream Team of 1992 as part of the Panamanian National Team. The Briar Cliff-Panama connection even made its way into a Sports Illustrated article.

Hanson’s life took an unexpected turn when he moved to Dubuque in 1997 with a fresh, new SID opportunity. Hanson noted “When I came to Dubuque I basically didn’t know anyone.”

Through a connection with the Franciscan sisters of Mount St. Francis in Dubuque, Hanson was able to feel more at home in his new surroundings. The relocation also gave him a chance to reconnect with a Briar Cliff classmate who had settled back in Dubuque. That classmate turned out to be Hanson’s future wife, Jeanne.

Eventually, Dubuque did become home and a place where Hanson became a father to Cody, Rebecca and Carter – and now a grandfather to four grandchildren.

Though the long hours are difficult on family life for any SID, Hanson incorporated his children into his job when he could. Cody, Rebecca and Carter attended Clarke games alongside their father. In so many ways, life was different from that as a single man when Hanson pounded the pavement, cut up and pieced together laborious media guides, and handwrote or typewrote statistics. Social media and the digital revolution have changed the dynamics for Hanson, who is tasked with managing social accounts that are unrelenting.

A true pro in the field, Hanson has been a regular at annual CoSIDA Conventions. Name a stat program and Hanson has probably used it, dating back from software like Stat Man and Stat Pro to Stat Crew and Dakstats.

As Hanson maintains, in order to last so many years in the profession, “You have to love it. It’s very time consuming. It never ends. It goes right from one thing to another.”

Yet Hanson would probably do it all over again if he could. The thrilling moments, the ability to work in sports for a living and the fulfilling relationships have made it all worth it.

At the close of 2020-21, Hanson will say goodbye to a profession that has been a major part of his identity. He’s appreciative of having a supportive family and Athletic Directors such as Clarke’s Curt Long, Hanson’s boss for more than 20 years.

Hanson looks forward to more time with the grandkids, summers up at a cabin in Minnesota - and less temptation to open up the laptop on a Sunday morning. He knows he will still have to get his sports fix by going to games. He just won’t have to worry about getting ready for a home basketball doubleheader on a Saturday anymore – or shivering his way through chilly March baseball games.

It’s been quite a ride for Hanson. He’s not one to seek notoriety or any type of grand sendoff. He would probably be just fine with a chicken planks combo meal at Long John Silver’s. If you’ll join him in Sioux City, El Fredo Pizza also will do the trick.

As Hanson jokes, he feels like Forrest Gump at the end of his run when saying, “I think I’ll go home now.”

Before that, let’s salute Jerry on his well-deserved CoSIDA Lifetime Achievement Award.