THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. - Before the athletes and coaches at Cal Lutheran could prove their worth in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, the university needed an advocate to help build bridges in the transition.
That man was Dr. Paul Hanson.
For nearly 20 years, Hanson served as the faculty athletic representative for CLU before stepping away last year.
The SCIAC honored Hanson this year with its Distinguished Service Award.
The award recognizes an individual who has promoted collegiate athletics and the concept of the student-athlete.
Hanson is the first recipient from CLU in the 30-year history of the award, and the 27th person honored overall.
"I was really quite surprised," said Hanson, a history professor at CLU. "It was very nice to be pleasantly surprised. Most of the time you get surprises and they aren't very good ones. This one was good."
During his tenure as CLU's faculty athletic rep, Hanson served as the chair of the faculty athletic committee and was a key advisor to the conference on a variety of subjects such as realignment, the Division III athletic philosophy, student-athlete recruitment, conference membership expansion and conference tournaments and championships.
Hanson, a Moorpark resident, was instrumental in helping CLU build relationships in the SCIAC once the university joined the conference in 1991.
"I can't say there wasn't some weariness about us getting in, so I think my main job the first few years was sort of establishing we belonged in the same club they did and that we had similar academic standards and philosophies of athletics and academics," Hanson said. "It was really about getting to the point where people felt comfortable with us and we built a mutual trust and respect."
Hanson wasn't a stranger to Division III athletics when CLU joined the SCIAC. He played basketball at Luther College in Iowa before earning his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.
"It was a good experience for me playing sports to see the value of it in lots of ways," he said. "I think sports at the Division III level is the way collegiate sports ought to be played. I think things have gotten out of hand in the revenue sports in Division I in basketball and football. It bears no resemblance whatsoever to the experience of the rest of college athletes."
Of all the changes Hanson's seen during his involvement in athletics at CLU, one of the biggest "is the great improvement and growth of women's athletics and the skill level of the players," he said. "The sports have dramatically improved with the effect of Title IX and also the way in which coaching, nutrition and other things being more equally distributed between males and females."
Hanson is teaching part-time at CLU this year and continues to attend many CLU athletic events.
He taught CLU football coach Ben McEnroe when McEnroe was a student-athlete at CLU. McEnroe changed his major to history because of his exposure to Hanson's teaching.
"I recall walking into the committee interview in 2007 when I applied for the head coaching job here and seeing Dr. Hanson in the room gave me confidence, both on a personal level and professionally," McEnroe said. "It was like I had a friend in the room, but there was an obligation to not let him down. It motivated me. Having him on our team all these years, I've always felt that he had our back, and I can't tell you how much that means to me and my program."
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