Thomas C. Hanzel
Colonel Tom Hanzel was born near Faribault, MN, to Francis J. and Charlotte Hanzel on July 9, 1916, one of 7 children. Tom was a gifted athlete and starred in basketball both in high school and college. He married Ellen Gwyneth Brown in June 1942 and began an outstanding military career in the Air Force. Tom belonged to the 90th Bombardment Group, The Jolly Rogers, during World War II. He piloted B-24s on 41 missions out of New Guinea. Over the course of twenty-four years, Tom traveled around the world and held various positions in the Air Force including Commander of Iwo Jima. He and his family moved to San Antonio in 1960 where he retired from the Air Force in 1965. Tom served as Director of Sunshine Cottage, 1966-67, and became Director of Personnel at Trinity University in 1968. He retired from Trinity in 1985. Tom Hanzel was an avid sportsman all his life. He held course records at several golf courses around the country and brought the same passion to competitive skeet shooting. He enjoyed introducing people to the sport of shotgun shooting, and was an enthusiastic instructor to all his students including his son, daughter-in-law, and grandchildren.
Colonel Tom Hanzel coached the Trinity Trap and Skeet teams from 1970-1985, and was also the founder of the program. Hanzel guided Trinity to four national collegiate team championships in 1975, 1976, 1977, and again three years later in 1980. In addition, the colonel had a number of individual shooters who won National Skeet Shooting Association World Championships. Six shooters under Coach Hanzel are currently in the National Skeet Shooting Association (NSSA) Hall of Fame and he himself was inducted in the NSSA and Texas Skeet Shooters Hall of Fame in 1981. Coach Hanzel as a shooter captured 19 world individual titles, and earned 40 All-America ratings from various trap and skeet shooting associations including being named a member of the Senior All-America teams from 1977-1982. The coach also held the senior division world record with a score of 397 out of 400, a feat he accomplished in 1979. Coach Hanzel’s teams throughout his 15 year career managed to win 13 national collegiate team and individual titles. The colonel died on August 1, 2001 and went on to be inducted into the Trinity Hall of Fame in 2007. Tom loved his “Trinity Kids”, and took great pleasure in keeping up with them after graduation.
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