A two-sport standout, Jerry Hanley was a four-year starter on both the Hobart football and baseball teams.
A fullback in football, Hanley played a key role in the Statesmen’s unbalanced wishbone offense. Hanley rushed for 2,387 yards and 22 touchdowns in his four year career, helping the team to a 27-8-1 overall record. He was a lead blocker contributing to the great successes of future Hall of Famers
Don Aleksiewicz ’73,
Rich Kowalski ’76 and
Robert Raleigh ’73. A selfless leader, Hanley was named a team captain as a senior, guiding the team to an 8-1 record that season. When he graduated, he ranked third at Hobart in career rushing yards and career rushing touchdowns.
The Geneva Times described his play against Union in 1972 as follows: “Against a stubborn, good Union team, it was Hanley who came up with the key blocks as Kowalski zipped to his three touchdowns on runs of 47, 14 and 23 yards. All three TD’s came on option pitch outs to the left side and on all three, there was Jerry to throw the block that allowed Rick to turn the corner.” A year later against the Dutchmen, Hanley exploded for 193 yards rushing and two touchdowns.
Hanley was also a four-year starter at third base for the Statesmen. Named the captain of the team in his senior year, he always took the field with a fierce attitude and competitive spirit. Hanley played the hot corner and as a senior wielded a hot bat, leading the team with a .304 average.
Hanley garnered the Murray Bartlett Memorial Award, the Abraham Training Award and the Blazer Award in his time as a Statesman student-athlete. Additionally, Hanley received the Michael Roberti ’90 Memorial Award for sportsmanship and love of the game and shared the Francis L. Kraus ’24 Memorial Award as the Hobart senior athlete of the year with his friend and teammate
Tom Korn.
After Hobart, Hanley went on to earn a master’s degree in American studies from Norwich University in 1976. He taught and coached football at Milford Academy for two years. Hanley spent a year coaching football at Cornell before returning to Hobart in 1979 to serve as an assistant coach for the Statesmen football team and the head coach of the baseball team, a position he held until 1981.
