Terry Hanson

Terry Hanson, is an American on-air personality of the John Boy and Billy Big Show, a nationally syndicated radio show. He was the first head of the sports division at TBS Sports and an NAIA National Men's Soccer Coach of the Year. He has also owned and operated the Charlotte, N.C. based Hanson Enterprises since 1994.

Early life
Hanson was born in East St. Louis, Ill. June 16, 1947.

Education
Hanson earned a bachelor’s degree in Education from St. Benedict’s College (now Benedictine College) in Atchison, KS in 1968. He earned his master’s degree in Education from Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau, MO in 1970.

Benedictine College
He began his career at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas, where he was the head coach in both soccer and baseball, and he was named the National Soccer Coach of the Year in 1974 by the NAIA.

Professional Sports
Hanson also spent four summers as an associate scout for two major league baseball teams the Philadelphia Phillies and San Diego Padres, and five seasons as a senior executive for three North American Soccer League (1968–1984) teams the Rochester Lancers, Washington Diplomats, and Atlanta Chiefs.

Turner Sports
Formerly, he was a Turner Sports executive. He was with the company from 1980 to 1984. In 1982 Hanson, Robert Wussler and Russ Potts successfully outbid CBS to air what was dubbed "The Game of the Decade," on Turner Network Television a college basketball game pitting The University of Virginia against the Georgetown Hoyas in a matchup which featured the two biggest stars in college basketball at the time Ralph Sampson and Patrick Ewing going head to head. This was an important step for sports broadcasting on cable television, because high profile sporting event broadcasts had always been featured on major networks prior to this. This was also the first use of the name Turner Network Television or TNT.

PGA Tour
From 1984-1991, Hanson was a PGA Tour executive serving as Director of Communications and Broadcasting. He also negotiated network coverage.

Raycom Sports
Hanson was hired in 1991 to oversee the Raycom events division, which included the Blockbuster Bowl and the Diet Pepsi Tournament of Champions, later titled by Harris Teeter, Food Lion and Hardee’s, which was a high profile college basketball tournament.

On Air
Since 2007, Hanson has been a regular ensemble member on The John Boy and Billy Big Show. He has also done television color analyst work in college basketball and professional soccer.

Medical intervention
In 2005, Charlotte Observer writer Michael Gordon wrote an article titled, “Life, Death and Terry Hanson.”

In the article, Gordon documents three separate times in Hanson’s life, when he was in the right place at the right time to come to a person’s rescue.

1970- While Hanson was the baseball and soccer coach at St. Benedict’s College in Atchison, Kan., he performed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on a retired Army officer, who had collapsed in front of Hanson’s office. At the age of 23, Hanson was unable to save his life.

1972- Hanson’s friend, Ed Ireland, goes missing on a Saturday night after closing the Knights of Columbus in Atchison, Kan with Hanson and friend Richard Dyer. The following Monday, Hanson, Dyer and Ireland’s brother go searching for their friend. They stop at every skid mark on a 20-mile stretch of highway. By a stroke of luck, Dyer slips down an embankment and spots Ireland pinned underneath his car in the mud.

1991- Lloyd Cox, 86 at the time, collapsed at a baseball game. Nearby, Hanson rushed over and performed CPR on Cox for ten minutes. Afterward a paramedic tells onlookers had Hanson not stepped into action, they would have watched Cox die.

2005- Hanson is at a lunch meeting with friend Andy Abdow, when Abdow collapses at the restaurant from a heart attack. Hanson performs mouth-to-mouth resuscitation while two other men assist. Abdow is later stabilized by repeated shocks from a defibrillator at a hospital where he stays for 15 days.

Hanson Enterprises
Hanson’s company is based in the Charlotte, N.C. suburb Cornelius, N.C. Through his company, Hanson provides services in sports marketing, representation, television negotiations, executive placement, event management, personal coaching, media relations, speeches and on-air talent, movie development, and radio programming development.