THE HISTORY OF THE LEG PROPELLING THE LIONS
By Paul Ellis
Jason Douglas Hanson (Thunderfoot) died last night at his home in Detroit after a brilliant career placekicking for the Detroit Lions.
Hanson, born June 17, 1970 in Spokane, Wash., was the Detroit Lions all time leading scorer and only their second kicker in the past 25 years.
A graduate of Mead High School in Spokane, Wash., Hanson was a tri-sport athlete earning first team All-State and the All-Greater Spokane League honors as a kicker and punter.
Upon graduation from high school, Hanson attended Washington State University. Hanson set seven NCAA records at WSU. Hanson earned All-American honors in college as a kicker and punter. He graduated from WSU with a Bachelor of Science degree in pre-med holding a 3.8 GPA, earning Academic All-American honors.
Following his final season at WSU, Hanson was drafted by the Detroit Lion. Prior to beginning his professional careern, Hanson married his wife, Kathleen. They now have two sons, Ryan and Luke, and a daughter, Jessica.
When asked how he feels about spending his entire career with the Lions, he replied "I feel good about it. It's something that I hoped would happen, so when the Lions approached me about setting something up and it worked out, my family and I were very happy about it."
His records for the Lions are as numerous as in college. Career points, longest field goal, field goals made, field goals attempted, Pro Bowl selections, and 17 game-winning field goals.
After being asked about his role in games and the pressure he faces, he said "I put the same pressure on myself no matter what the game situation is. I still have to prepare the same way. It doesn't matter if I'm kicking one field goal or if I'm kicking six."
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5 comments:
Good obit. The only thing that sounded weird was "they now have two sons." If he is dead, then he is survived by two sons. Otherwise good work. I like the quotes you chose.
Hey Paul, I really enjoyed the quotes in this obit. I remember the day we painstakingly had to cut all of our juicy sports statistics. You made nice work of it.
PS- you leave the ultimate best comments. I think we need to be facebook friends. =)
I like the coverage here and the use of quotes selected. Nice work and organization of the piece.
good job paul, i thought this was a great summary of his life and i loved the quotes that you used. i do have to agree with kara on the thing about the sons because that seemed a little weird to me when i first read it, but other than that i thought it was a great obit!
I agree about the sons and I like the information in the piece, but I did think that using his last name over and over again became repetitious - maybe try something else?
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