05.19.13 by Ray Sanchez
Some readers have asked me if I have trouble finding something to write about for my weekly sports column. No, I don’t. There’s so much going on locally, nationally and internationally – on the surface as well as behind the scenes – that I usually have a full plate to choose from.
For the subject this week I picked the UTEP Athletic Hall of Fame after I learned that UTEP assistant athletic director Jeff Darby had been put in charge of handling the annual event and was asking for nominations. The induction banquet won’t be held until October but selections have to be made early so that inductees can be contacted, interviewed, arrangements made for transportation, etc.
I QUICKLY nominated the late Wayne Hansen for the honor. Sometimes I’m glad to have been a sports writer as long as I have and can recall some of our greatest athletes of the past. We should never forget them. Allow me to reminisce.
I’ve always felt that football linemen don’t get enough credit. I’ve been lucky during my many years of sports writing to have watched some of the greatest at that position who have played for the Miners.
Wayne Hansen belongs with the best of the best.
He was the toughest Miner on the great UTEP teams of the late 1940s that won 21 of 31 games from1947 through 1949. He played both offense as a center and defense as a guard, tackle and linebacker. He’s the one who opened those gaping holes that star running backs Fred Wendt and Pug Gabrel ran through. And on defense he was an absolute terror.
It’s hard to believe that a lineman can dominate a game, but he could. He wasn’t only big and strong but quick. If Wendt was sent wide because of his speed, there was Hansen blocking for him. If Gabrel was sent up the middle near the goal line, there was Hansen opening the hole for him.
On defense, he was so quick he returned an onside kick 51 yards for a touchdown in the 1950 Sun Bowl to clinch a 33-20 victory over Georgetown. No opponent could catch him.
NOT ONLY WAS he an All-Border Conference selection but he was picked on the all-time All-Rocky Mountain Team made of players since the beginning of time. He was also chosen on the All-Time Miners team up to that point.
He was drafted by Chicago Bears of the National Football League in 1950. There were only 12 teams then and each team was composed of only 33 players. He not only made the team as a rookie but immediately became a starter. He played offensive guard and defensive tackle and even center for a while. In 1955 he was switched to linebacker and it fit him to perfection. He was selected All-Pro and made the Pro Bowl in 1956, 1957 and 1958, He was the Bears’ defensive captain those years.
He retired in 1960 but was lured out of retirement by the Dallas Cowboys and played for them in 1961 and 1962.
HE WOUND up his football career as an assistant coach at Texas Western College, University of Oklahoma and Stanford University. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree, later got a Masters in physical education and spent the rest of his life as a big backer of the Miners.
I got to know him personally. His son, Rick, and my son, Victor, played basketball together at Coronado High School in the 1960s.
Wayne Hansen was inducted into the El Paso Athletic Hall of Fame in 1973 and when the Sun Bowl picked an all-star team for its 75th anniversary in 2008 he was chosen on that team, too.
He definitely belongs on the list of UTEP’s greatest football stars.