By Brady Kokojan
Student Reporter
A Calument, Oklahoma, boy who never has been to a Cubs game before, Shane Hansen wanted to go to a game of his favorite team.
Last summer, Kaylyn, his wife who has been married to him for ten years and some friends took a trip to Chicago to watch the Cubs. It was raining all day and just as they got off the train, the game got canceled. They all looked at Hansen. Everyone waited for him to be upset because he really wanted to go to his first Cubs the game. “Instead, he replied no, its fine. It was God’s plan. “To drive all the way to Chicago and not get to see your favorite baseball team play and to look at it in such a positive way.”
“That’s just the great person he is,” his wife said. He stayed calm and mellow.”
Hansen’s time begin in 2004 when joining the basketball team and played all four years. He was one of the top scores for the team all four years averaging just over seven points his freshman year. He started 21 games as a freshman. He averaged over ten points a game from sophomore year to senior year. He was mainly a three point shooter. His senior year, he had 90 made field goals, and of the 90, 52 of them were three pointers; he shot 37% from there.
His wife, who is the director of student housing, said, “After ballgames he never wanted any of the credit whether he was high scorer or whatever it was. He’d rather someone else get the credit. He say it was the team. If you asked him to this day if he was good at basketball, he would not tell you.”
Someone Hansen looked up to and admired as a person and coach was, Coach Brad Franz who saw Hansen as a coach and as a player. “Shane’s a Hall of Famer,” Franz said. You go back and look over his four years here, a Hall of Famer is your whole body of work is what you do as an athlete but also what you do in your career. Hansen continued at NWOSU in many capacities. He is just a Northwestern guy,” Franz said.
Hansen is also a youth pastor at the Methodist Church in town and faith is an important thing in his life. “Instead of putting God first, Hansen said, for me it’s God and my family , it’s God and my job. He’s not something I just check off. He’s part of every priority. And I try to live my life through that lens of Christianity and him.”
Family is such a big thing in his life. “He has a great Christian family and relies heavily on his faith. Which is great and which makes him a well grounded young man,” Franz said.
While Hansen is a big Cubs fan, his wife is a Cardinal
fan. On their wedding day, Hansen requested a Cubs theme for his groom’s cake.
His wife played a trick by hiding the Cubs cake and showing him a Cardinal cake instead. He was disappointed. “He wasn’t mad, but he was, like, you’re serious?” his wife recalled. Then the Cubs cake came out and all was forgiven.
His wife refers to him also as “loyal and hard working.” “He will never leave a job unfinished, and it’s done to his best abilities,” his wife said. He’s very loyal. Even if he doesn’t like you, he’d bend over backward to help you in anyway.”
A friend that he did like and saw a few examples of this was Chris Lauderdale the NWOSU comptroller, who was also in their wedding. One summer Lauderdale didn’t have a place to stay and with open arms the Hansens let him stay the whole summer at their place. “Shane’s just one of those guys that will help with a drop of the hat no matter what he is doing.” Lauderdale said.
As a teenager Hansen was the only guy that had a truck “If you ever need anything moved and my brother Tim will vouch for this, call Shane and he’d always be happy to help,” Lauderdale said.
Still to this day Hansen still brings his truck if Chris Lauderdale and his brother Tim who is the associate director of athletics for NWOSU, need to borrow his truck or just need some help. Another person who will vouch for this is Calleb Mosburg, the dean of student Affairs at NWOSU and a friend of Hansen. “This is a guy that takes time out of his day in a heartbeat if someone needs help, he said, There are so many examples of this.
He gives a lot of time to his community whether it’s as a school board member for Alva District or a Youth group leader. He gives up his time constantly and I’m just Lucky to call him a friend and a college for sure.”
Every friend of Hansen has nothing but nice things to say about him, he’s friendly, super helpful and caring for everyone whether its family or just friends. I don’t want to overstate it cause you say, well they are just saying the nice thing. Lauderdale said. “But you really can’t find a better person than Shane.”
He’s also a big family guy with two kids, his son Ryan who is named after a famous baseball player of the Cubs Ryan Sandberg, and a daughter Sutton.
“Our kids always ask for him, and always wants to know where he is and he’s just a fantastic dad.” his wife said. Though he agreed to the interview, Hansen was uncomfortable talking about himself and his successes. He said he wanted to give the credit for all he has done to his creator, Jesus Christ.