[TRANSCRIPT]
0:00:00 - (Kent Hance): My mother and I went to see St. Newman who was the principal and counselor, and he listened to me and my mother talk about what went in college and how much money I had or really how much money I didn't have. My mother was a secretary at the courthouse. My dad was a rural Malil care and so he really said, your choices are West Texas state in Texas. Check. We talked about it in both good school and that Texas Tech was bigger. It was about 11,000 students.
0:00:33 - (Kent Hance): Time 1011 thousand. And Mister Newman told my mother, what you gott to decide? Do you want to be a big fish in a little pond or a little fish in a big pond? We talked and anyway we left. When we got in the car, I was driving and I put the keys in. I was getting ready to started my mother grab my wrist and she said, as long as you live, don't you ever let somebody tell you're a little fish. I don't care what size pond is.
0:01:01 - (Kent Hance): I'm countn hace and I still got things to do. There's still things that I'not done if they're going to be done. I don't know what they are, but I think there's plans out there.
0:01:28 - (Toby Brooks): Hey friend, I'm glad youre here. Welcome to another episode of Becoming Undone, the podcast for those who dare bravely, risk mightily, and grow relentlessly. I'm Toby Brooks, a speaker, an author, and a professor. I've spent much of the past two decades working as an athletic trainer and a strength coach in the professional, collegiate, and high school sports settings. And over the years, I've grown more and more fascinated with with what sets high achievers apart and how failures that hurt in the moment can end up being exactly the push we needed to propel us along our paths to success.
0:01:59 - (Toby Brooks): Each week on becoming undone, I invite new guests to examine how high achievers can transform from falling apart to falling into place. I d like to emphasize that this show is entirely separate from my role as a professor, but it my attempt to apply what ive learned and what I'm learning, and to share with others about the mindsets of high achievers. If you're checking out the show for the very first time, welcome.
0:02:20 - (Toby Brooks): Over the past year and a half, I've had the pleasure of interviewing some incredible guests for the show. And I hope after enjoying this episode, that you'll scroll back through and pick out some previous episodes of high achievers who didn't let failure or setback stand in the way of their eventual victories. And if you're a regular. Welcome back. I hope you'll continue to find value in these conversations with high achievers and I'm thankful for your time and your listens for Dem at Texas native Kent Hants it may have started as humble beginnings in small town west Texas, but it didnt take long for big dreams to sprout.
0:03:07 - (Toby Brooks): After being introduced to the possibility of life and politics before he was even a teenager, Hans planned the next steps of his life, including an undergrad degree from Texas Tech with a goal of someday running for and being elected to office. In a life of accomplishments and impact with no shortage of setbacks and detours along the way, Hans is perhaps best known today for his work and impact on Texas Tech University, where he served as chancellor from 2006 until his retirement in 2014.
0:03:38 - (Toby Brooks): He still serves the university today as chancellor emeritus and now has a podcast of his own, the best storyteller in Texas. I hope you'll enjoy my conversation with Ken Hans in episode 84 Big Fish.
0:03:54 - (Kent Hance): The first real job I thought about was in about 1954. I went to a town hall meeting. Congressman Walter Rogers represented Demit, Texas, where I grew up, and he was from Pamppa. And my mother took me to a town hall meeting and I was eleven or twelve and I watched him. I was fascinated with the way number one, people treated him and number two, that he had a command of so many subjects. He knew what was happening.
0:04:33 - (Kent Hance): And so when we got in the car, I told my mom, I said, that's the job I want. And about 23 years later I had it. So my mother got me. She read to me in when I was three, four, five, and she read certain books. She read all of Laura Ingall'little house on the prairie, all those books and which were books of problems and solutions. And then I started reading some books about people in politics, read a book about FDR and Hoover and different people, Eisenhower and how they got in politics.
0:05:18 - (Kent Hance): And so I was already interested in politics. And my mother took me at ten hal meeting. And I well, that is the job I wanted. And so I was focused on it. And I was focused on law school and went to law school and then got out of college at Texas Tech and, and then went to law school at University of Texas.
0:05:44 - (Toby Brooks): After finishing up his bachelor at tech in law school at UT, Hans was well on his way to realizing those political ambitions. But he wasn't quite there yet. With all the education but little of the experience, he found himself in the familiar conundrum of youth. You can't get a job without experience, but you can't get experience without a job. Undeterred, he headed back west and started to lay the groundwork for those big dreams in politics.
0:06:10 - (Kent Hance): When I got out of law school, I came back to Lubbock and taught business, law and practice, law and a combination, two really helped me for a foundation in politics. I met a lot of students and stayed in contact with them. And when I ran for office, they helped me.
0:06:33 - (Toby Brooks): Hans'love for Texas Tech took root early, and despite the cost, he knew that he wanted to go to college in Lubbock. It wasn't easy though, and through the process his mother taught him a lesson about self perception that he'd never forget.
0:06:47 - (Kent Hance): It was close by and my mother and I went to see St. Newman, who was the principal and counselor. And he listened to me and my mother talk about what to college and how much money I had or really how much money I didn't have. And my mother was the secretary at the courthouse. My dad was a rural care and he talked about junior college and I didn't want to go to a junior college. And so he really said, your choices are West Texas State in Texas Tech.
0:07:27 - (Kent Hance): We talked about it in both good schooled and that Texas Tech was bigger. It was about 11,000 students at the time, 1011 thousand. And Mister Newman told my mother, he said, what Kent got to decide money wise you got two choices. Westx State, Texas Tech. And he said, what you got to decide? Do you want to be a big fish in a little pond or a little fish in a big pond? And we talked and anyway we left. When we got in the car, I was driving and I put the keys in, was getting ready to started. My mother grabbed my wrist and she said, as long as you live, don't you ever let somebody tell you a little fish. I don't care what size pond is.
0:08:16 - (Kent Hance): And she was mad at Mister Newman for years that he would think that she would have a fish that would be in a little pond. And I knew right then I was going to Texas Tech. And I came to attack. Lived in Bled Soe Hall. I wanted to go to law school. And people said, you ought to get a business degree in case things don't go right, you ll have something fall back on. And that's what I did. And I was involved in student, I was president student body in high school and vice president student body of tech.
0:08:50 - (Kent Hance): I was president of student body at University of Texas law and I worked at the Cap capital. When I was in law school I worked pre Smith and Beaker Ben Barne. So I got to meet some of the people I'd read him. I got to be good friends with his son, Mickey Smith. And then he is political consultant that ran all his campaigns. A guy by the name of Otis Green. And Otis Green was one of the smartest men I've ever known.
0:09:21 - (Kent Hance): And he was one of the best advisors politics. So I stayed in touch with him and he was great and could think through things.
0:09:37 - (Toby Brooks): A gifted people person, Han started his career and did what he does best, connected with people. Through those connections, those lofty political aspirations started to become clearer. And as they did, opportunity came knocking.
0:09:52 - (Kent Hance): One day, Dwin Jones, who was a state representative and had been defeated by my friend Pete Laney. Dwin Jones was working for state senator Doc Blanchard. There was a famous football player called Doc Blanchard, and he got the same name, picked it up, used it, and Dwin came to see me and he said, doc's not going to run for rect, and I want you to be my campaign manager. And I thought about it when told him I didnt have time.
0:10:29 - (Kent Hance): The more I thought about it, I thought, dwin il beat Delwin, I can beat him. And the more I thought about beating Dwin, the more I got interested in the race. And so I got committed to run. And then doc at the last minute said, I'm gonna run one more time. I was committed by then, and something I've learned from that. If you're in politics, don't go say, I may not run again, or stuff like that, but somebody will get out there and they'll get all wrapped up in it, and they'll be committed and they won't back out.
0:11:08 - (Kent Hance): So if you say that, if you say, I'm just going to run one more time, you can guarantee you're going to have an opponent. But Blanchard had a good law practice and he did a good job, but he didn't get out and travel and see people. He didn't work it hard. He was senator, and that was about it. So I started working in the campaign January and now, and started going to every little town, and I found there were people that had been my campaign, that had been my students, that I got to be my campaign manager in different town.
0:11:52 - (Kent Hance): And I had Bob, Linda Nyder in Odessa in the day of the election, Linda, as she said, nine and a half months pregnant, and was standing out there handing out cards, and everybody felt sorry for her. And they were voting for me, but they had both been students of mine. And then there was Tom McMahon, another guy in Odessa, and those three ran my campaign in Odess, and I won. And so things went well for them.
0:12:25 - (Kent Hance): I won 5446, which is not a landslide, but it's pretty good victory. And I beat him on two issues. I didn't have the money to produce an ad that showed people walking through the park with the dog and their children all that feel good ads, what they call them. And so I had issue ads, and I was seated at desk, and these are the ads I had. Number one, I said, I'm Kent Hans, and I'm running for state senate against Doc Blncher.
0:13:01 - (Kent Hance): Now, the old school was, you never mentioned your opponent, but Otis said, we need to do that. Let people know who the race is against, because you're going to point out why he shouldn't be there. I said, I'm Ken Ha'running, for state senate. My opponents, Doc Blnard, and he missed 20% of the votes in the last two sessions. That's like missing your job one day out of fight. And if you missed your job one day out of five, you wouldn't have a job there that'd get rid of and if you vote for me, I'll e there and I'll vote for you, and I'll stay on top of.
0:13:44 - (Kent Hance): And then the other ad said, I'm Ke Anm run against Doc Blackard for state senate. And he voted for a sales tax on groceries. And if I had to pay a sales tax on groceries, I'd have to leave 5% of my groceries on the ship. If you vote for me, I will not vote to tax your gross. And so those were really, they were easy to understand. Shouldn't run in politics unless you've got issues that are easy to understand.
0:14:19 - (Kent Hance): That guy voted for tax on groceries and see nobody tax grocery. And people get think, boy, they taxed me for buying a car or this or that, but just for grocer, they shouldn't be able to do. And both those ads caught on, and I hammered away at it. With students. We organize a door to door campaign, and we still hit on those issues. We made sure that our bumper stickers and our yard signs and everything looked the same.
0:14:53 - (Toby Brooks): Although a newcomer to the political game in terms of experience, Hans had been preparing for this chance for decades. And once that chance showed itself, he grabbed it with both hands and ran. Bucking the conventional ethos of the era, he came out swinging. He used a branding approach, more commonplace today, novel for the time, to give his campaign a polished and professional look. And he mobilized his connections to put boots on the ground all across the area.
0:15:21 - (Toby Brooks): It worked. His political career was no longer aspirational. It was actual.
0:15:28 - (Kent Hance): We had a message, that's time for a change. And the reason it'time for a change. He voted for groceries and he was missing 20% of the time. So they needed to vote for me, and they were understandable and got out there and worked hard. Number one reason somebody will vote for you is they know you. Number two reason is if somebody asked him that knows, say, would you vote for a neighbor, Ken Hand and things like that.
0:15:59 - (Kent Hance): Now you get into larger elections. Third thing, what they see on tv or radio, you got to be able to have adats. I later ran a governor's race where a guy spent $23 million of his own money.
0:16:16 - (Toby Brooks): Hanse had won his first election through strategy and execution. He understood from an early age what it took to be successful, and he applied that work ethic, learned through his parents to connect with his constituents. That didn't mean he'd never experienced failure, but he did learn how to leverage those failures to grow.
0:16:35 - (Kent Hance): There had always been some setbacks, but I guess this is something that'in my DNA. I had no fear. And at times, if I had more knowledge, I wouldn't have done certain things. If I had known what I know today about politics, I wouldn't have runump. I'known that I couldn't win, but thank God I was dumb enough to think I coulded. And they got out there and won. But when I moved back to Lublk and I was teaching part time in practicing law, I went to the district attorney and said, I want to get appointed to all criminal cases where you have to appoint him a lawyer.
0:17:13 - (Kent Hance): I want to learn to trial, and I'd go watch. When there was trial coming up, I'd go watch. Take note. And I represented three people on murderer jges in my first year and a half out of law school. I was totally incompetent to do, but I worked at sorry. I got a not guilty on the guy in self offensen. I got a guy that shot his wife in the back four times. I get him two years and I got a guy ten years on a murder with a motor vehic.
0:17:42 - (Kent Hance): So I was out there trying. I was working it hard, and I went to see ever trial that come along was going to be a big trial. I'go watch them and id'pick up every good point. And I learned how to practice law. You got to be pretty good at it. And it was fun. I've enjoyed it. I enjoyed practice law I enjoyed being a state senateator.
0:18:05 - (Toby Brooks): Those early experiences as a state senator were exciting and gratifying. But eventually the thought of ascending the political ranks grew increasingly possible for hands, if not likely. But the question for most high achievers isn't always the when so much as the how. For Hans, it was a conversation with a more experienced politician that initially opened the door or running for Congress. At first he wavered on whether or not to throw his name in the race.
0:18:32 - (Toby Brooks): But after meeting with a number of state senators who had gone to Washington themselves, he decided it was an opportunity he couldn't afford to pass up. But in order to win he'd need to beat a deep pocketed rival from the permian basin by the name of George W. Bush.
0:18:49 - (Kent Hance): I got a call right before July 4 from George Mayhon and he said I want to call you and tell you I'm going toa announce the day after July 4 I'm not running. So I'mn announ it's on the fifth and I want you to have a heads up and so if you want to run that you get started. And I didn't know I enjoyed being a state senator and I'd looked at maybe running for attorney general and I just thought Mister Mayhon had been there 44 years. I thought he'd be there forever. And so he, and now 20 announced there was a guy in the air Force reserves now he was frontning.
0:19:36 - (Kent Hance): And then Marsh sheets, a preacher here in lub of Nest, he was running. Bush announced that he was considering it and Jim Reese who had been mayor of Odessa announced he was considered. And I took my time and that was July 5 and I didn't announce until September. I really, I struggled with making the decision and there were a lot of good reasons to run. A lot of good reasons not to run. I went to Washington. I finally decided I need to go see some of those Congress, especially the ones that have been state senators.
0:20:16 - (Kent Hance): You've been a senator in Congressry too. And I met with Charlie Wilson who became famous in the movie Charlie Wilson's war. And I've got a lot of Charlie Wilson's stories. He was a character, very effective. And I listened to him and he said look theyre re both good job but the state senator is going to fight over teacher pay rateise and up here youre voting on a b one bomber that would annihilate Russia if they try to attack us.
0:20:49 - (Kent Hance): He got world issues instead of stabish and they'all big. Its a better job. And Jim Matdox told me in state legislature, we used to getting fights over who can cut hair, collesmetologist or barber or whoever. And he said, I guess thats important. But in Washington, we getting to fight over somebody getting their income tax cut reduced. And that affects everybody. And so I made the decision to run. I got in the race and we watched Bush. And my plan was to be the guy next door.
0:21:35 - (Kent Hance): I'm the guy next door to you and, but that was his plan. He was a guy next door. So I changed my plan. Im'm a guy in the house with you. You know, I had to get a little closer it and I watched this. He was enthusiastic. He had good people skills and he was going toa go places. And so right then I figured he was going to be toughest because I thought he could win the republican primary. I was a conservative Democrat and so was sheets.
0:22:14 - (Kent Hance): And there are a lot of people just didn't feel like that. They wanted to vote for a preacher at that time. And it'say things and it have some bible. Folks are pretty good. One time somebody, how are you going to stand up to all those politicians in Washington? And he gave the quotation about the lion and the lamb slept together. So when I got up, I said, what he didn't tell you is the lamb didn't get any sleep.
0:22:40 - (Kent Hance): He was worried all night and everybody laughed. And he was effective, though. But I beat him 70 30. And then I had Bush and Reese, because of the reserve Air Force guy had to get in a run up in Bushel won that. And I had one radio ad I had in zero eight. I had dinner upstairs at the White House one night. George Laura, Jody Arrington, who later became Con, who worked for me. And two things Bush brought up. One is that the cancer society had a race marathon and they wanted me and Bush to run in it.
0:23:31 - (Kent Hance): That's 26 mil house. I'm not going to run 26 miles. And it didn Bush agreed to. So I got Beck Henry, who'a cross country runner. He's a Texas tech guy. And we got him a t shirt that said on the back of it, Countn Han is a ha. And that's all it said. And so Bush, that was in 78. He never mentioned it until zero eight. Waited 30 years. And he said, han, who was that guy you had run that ref? And we both laughed about, he said, bo, I was mad at you. He said 26 miles.
0:24:12 - (Kent Hance): And he said, the only injury in that race was that guy got his neck strained. Looking back to make sure I wasn't too far back because I told him, you stay 15ft in front of it. Don't let him get too far back. You drop back. He tries to passion, he says. I tried to pass him twice and these a city just sprinted on.
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0:25:48 - (Kent Hance): And then I had a radio ad that we ran in the rural areas. That said, in 1961, when Ken HNs was a senior at Demmitt High School in the 19th congressional district, his opponent, George Wudley Bush, was attending a private prel school for boys in New Hanch. And in 1965, when Ken hat graduated from Texas Tech in the 19th congressional history, his opponent, George W. Bush, was attending Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. In 1968, when Ken Ha graduated from University of Texas, his opponent, George Bush was hall and said, get this at Harvard getting a maske.
0:26:43 - (Kent Hance): We need somebody that's one up that takes our message to Washington. We don't need somebody that's been up there telling us what to do. It's pretty effective, it's pretty good of ad and Bush had, he had some clever comebacks. He said, Hansa using that ad, we're out talking. He said, I wanted to be in the 19th district, but my mother was in Connecticut at the time when I was born. I thought I'd need to be near her when I was born.
0:27:16 - (Kent Hance): And so he had a pretty good answer. And we weren't best to friends when the election was over, but we weren't enemies and we ran good solid campaigns but we got to be real close friends, and I worked hard for him to get elected governor and president.
0:27:33 - (Toby Brooks): In retrospect, Hans had delivered the only defeat future us president George W. Bush ever encountered prior to making his way to the White House. As Hans captured the US House of Representatives seat for Texas 19th district in 1978, where he would serve until 1985. After considering his options, Han decided to try and head back to Texas in making a run for the governors'office in 1986. It would be a hard fought effort with plenty of lessons learned along the way.
0:28:03 - (Kent Hance): I changed parties. It was obvious I'd run for the US Senate in the Democrats were not gonna support me. They were very liberal, and they weren't like they were in West Texas, East Texas. And I got beat in a runoff. I came in first in the first go around, Bob Kruger was in the race. He had d been a congressson, he came in third. And Lloyd Doggget, a state senator, came in second. And there were only less than 2000 bones separating the three of us out. About two men close race, and I law to dog it.
0:28:44 - (Kent Hance): And he won 30 something counties, and I won 220 count. But the cities had switched, and conservatives in the cities were vot in republican primary, and Democrats, liberal Democrats, had taken over the primary. And so I changed parties and ran for governor. And I'd met with governor Clements, and he assured me he wasn't goingn to run, he didn't want to run, that I'run that I could be more quiet. And so I announced, and then Congressman Tom Leffler announced I felt like I could be Tom.
0:29:27 - (Kent Hance): He had never run statewide, so he didn't have the name on. He was effective member and good guy. And then we both announced we were re out there running. And Clements went, whoa, I'm running. And cleups came to me, and I look back, this may have been a mistake. He sent two of his top guys to see me and said, if you run for attorney general, we can get the other people out of the race. Probably should have done that.
0:29:54 - (Kent Hance): But I was set on governor, and I stayed in the race, and I came in second. Cleumb was won. And then two years later, Clements appointed me to the railroad commission. And I ran two years later for railroad commission in into one b, and was the first Republican to ever hold office in Texas below the office of government. We'd had a us senator, we'd had a govern. There were the rest of it all been Democrat.
0:30:23 - (Kent Hance): And I won that. And then I ran for governor in 90. And that's when Clayton Williams came in and spent $23 million of his own money and just drown me. If you have a business in your car is, and your competitor spends eight times more money on tv than you do, they're gonna sell more cars. Doesn't matter who's got the best car they're goingn sell. And that's what I learned from plague Williams. I mean, he had good ads.
0:30:59 - (Kent Hance): They didn't make any sense, but they appealed to people. Talk about let's make people in prison go bust rock well, you'had to pay him minimum wage. It cost money and would'it was a gimmick, and it worked, and he got the nomination. And so I got out of politics. I helped him in his campaign, and Richards won. And she told me later, I'd never beat him. You wouldn't have said the things Clayton would say, things that didn't sit well with the public.
0:31:33 - (Toby Brooks): So just like that, a career in politics was abruptly brought to a halt at the hands of a rival who had outspin him eight to one. For many, that sting of defeat might have been reason enough to peel back a bit and reflect on a career consisting of more wins than losses, but losses nonetheless. But KN can handce when deterred at a second lost bid for governor, he went back to work, eventually getting the opportunity to head up his alma mater, Texas Tech, as the university's third chancellor starting in 2006.
0:32:05 - (Toby Brooks): It would mark an unprecedented season of growth for the university and for hands.
0:32:10 - (Kent Hance): And I started practiceic law, did some lobbying and built up a good practice, and was partners with a guy named Terry Scarborough, who had, growing up, played football in Texas time, and we built a pretty good practice in Austin and Washington. And then Texas Tech had an opening for chancellor, and I was encouraged to apply. And I applied, did the interview and got the job and became chancellor and served for eight years.
0:32:45 - (Kent Hance): I told my law partners and a wife that I wouldn't serve more than four or five, and they had arithmetic when they could count. So I got up to seven years and seven months and retired. I gave the school back as I went along what they were paying, and that was another reason I needed to get out. I was losing money, you know, I didn't have any paychecks, was giving it back, and Texas Stateape did a lot, opened a lot of doors, helped me, and I've been back with my law firm since 2014.
0:33:26 - (Kent Hance): So I've been back ten years in law firm doing well.
0:33:33 - (Toby Brooks): Did you catch that in almost eight years of service to the university that had given him his start hand? Sk back more money than the university had paid him. In 2011, construction was finished on Hans Chapel, a gorgeous building on the southeast corner of campus that's a popular spot for weddings and in my case, concerts for vocal performance majors like my daughter, it's been a busy life. And at its peak, the chancellor job consisted of 14 to 15 hours a day, work seven days a week.
0:34:03 - (Toby Brooks): So you might think that now that he's handed those reins on to current TTU chancellor Ted Mitchell, that it's been easy street. But if that's what you think, then you don't know Kenhance.
0:34:14 - (Kent Hance): So I'm busy and I do a podcast. My podcast is Ken Hance, the best storyageler here in Texas. Not saying that you're not the best, but I claim that title and it comes out every Monday morning. You can go to Spotify or Google or anything. Put in Ken Antt's best storage geller in Texas. Listen to it.
0:34:37 - (Toby Brooks): In what has been a long and storied career, highlighted by beating the future ruler of the free world in an election and ascending to the highest possible position in a massive state university system, it's hard to put a finger on an aspect of his legacy that Han is most proud of. But when pressed, he would say it has been the people he's chosen and mentored and helped along the way. It all boils down to his humble roots of working hard, serving well, and never losing sight of the fact that he was, never, is not, and never will be a small fish in any sized pond.
0:35:11 - (Kent Hance): There are several things that I'm proud of. Number one, I grew the universe. My goaly, if you're going to lead something, have goals that are simple, that people understand it. Don't have a policy page that's 40 pages long. And they got my go, my go number, 140 thousand students by 2020. Texas Tech, the three years before I got to be chancellor, had lost students every year. They were going downhill.
0:35:41 - (Kent Hance): And to be a great university, state university, we need to be bigger and better. And so I set a goal of 40,000 with 2020, and we accomplished that and a lot of people, so you have to lower your standard. We raised our standard. We told people we got tougher standard. You're going to have to apply, try to get in. Then we wanted to spend a lot more money on research. I got more research dollars spent and I wanted to raise a billion dollars. And we raised a billion, 200 million in that seven and a half year.
0:36:14 - (Kent Hance): And that really helped the university. He got the university where we had an end downment of a billion five and now it's over 2 billion. And with what the legislature passed and the voters passed last year, Tex the tech, it'll help tech. We'renna have in a short period of time, we'renna have about $4 billion. So we'll be above, say most state university. The reason we are not above a and M or Texas.
0:36:46 - (Kent Hance): They've got the land out in West Texas permanent university fund and theyve got 30, $40 billion. And a lot of tech people don't like that because it right here, it's money in our backyard that we're going to give them. But we've made a lot of progress. But the one thing that, that I was really proud to build, building the university, getting more students, because with more students, you look what it's done to the lubbo economy.
0:37:16 - (Kent Hance): More students, you got to have more faculty, more faculty, you got to have more buildings. You got to build this. You go back and look at this university in 26 to 2006 and look at it now. It's completely changed. They had 26,000 students, now we've got 40,041 vals. The health science center had about 2000 students, now they got 5000. We added Angelo State since I left. They also added Midwestern, added the vet school under Duncan Mitchell was the one that added the schooling which to fall midwestern.
0:37:56 - (Kent Hance): And they were involved in other things. I added El Paso, el sana and ra. The money was important. We had people like Paul Foster, Jerry Raw, Ed Whitaker. We gave some big money. But the thing I think that I'm proudest to, I brought in good Pete, Ted Mitchell I hired, it made him president of the health SC that he was my doctor. He was Bushy's doctor and Perry's doctor. My doctor. I kneeling and I tried an experiment on other part didn't work. Yeah, I worked to promote Lawrence Scuvvent and he got to be, he was department head and then he got to be dean, then he got to be provost and hes worked hard.
0:38:40 - (Kent Hance): And Los, this university, he has done a great job. And there are ten people that I hired at Texas Terry, that went on to be college president or chancellor. And usually if you get one or two, you're lucky. But I hired good people, always sought to find people that I thought were really good and they could do the job. Every once in a while you'll make a mistake, y'all. But we hired some Pam Iber, dean of engineering.
0:39:11 - (Kent Hance): She got to be president University of Pacifica Stockton, California Juan Muosz is president of University of California at Santa Clara. He was president of University of Houston downtown. That was one of my. And so we had a lot of people that it did well. Taylor Amy president of UTsa Yah Baily president of University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. So I'm really proud of those. Always try to find people that are smarter than you.
0:39:44 - (Kent Hance): I've toldly God that one time I was was doing these. That shouldn't be too hard for you. I like that. But I'm proud of that. We've changed the universe. I think Monford did a good job. He changed how they thought about raising money and he raised 500 million. Do we were able to raise a billion too. The vet school wouldn't be here if it weren't for Dunc Mitchell. We wouldn't have midwestern if it weren't for Mitchell in the school of Public Health, in the school of Dentistry.
0:40:17 - (Kent Hance): So those are all important. We've had some great leaders and I'm proud to be friends. When I was young kid, I always had pretty good confidence. I think that's my mother. She is mad at Mister Newmanair insinuating I might be a little fished. When I thought was mother thans death then, hell, I probably think. I think that every time you have a challenge and you went, you do well for yourself. For the future.
0:40:45 - (Kent Hance): If you have a challengee don't we? You're gonna win something out of it. I ran for governor and didn't win. And then I wound up getting the job as chancellor at Texas Tech, which is a better job than being of. You don't have as much people yelling, screaming at y all the time.
0:41:06 - (Toby Brooks): Never wanted to shy away from big goals. If Hans had to pick a song to represent his life, hed have a ready answer. And one befitting a man who has served his university, his state and his nation at some of the highest levels.
0:41:20 - (Kent Hance): I'd say to dream the impossible dream to defeat the undefeatable foe. That's a great song. The song. If you could read my mind. That's one of my favorite song. That what I was thinking about recruiting students. Every Sunday night I took 15 names home with phone numbers. And these were kids that made thousand hundred on the SAT. I personally called them and invited them come visit Texas Tec. We got a lot of people like that.
0:41:55 - (Kent Hance): Lawren has really recruited national marriage conolgress and a call from the president or the chancellor. University is a big deal.
0:42:07 - (Toby Brooks): For as good as it has been and for all that it's meant to Texas Tech to Lubbock and to all of West Texas. Hans isn't content to call it a career and ride off into the legendary Texas sunset just yet. He's still undone.
0:42:20 - (Kent Hance): I don't know. I'm steadly enjoy what I'm doing. I'm doing the podcast. I really enjoy that. Still practic law, enjoy that. And still helping Texas Tech on some issues in building apartments. I'm 81 and I worked 1012 hours a day. Enjoyed. And somebody said, y'all just quit, play golf. Just shoot me. And there's nothing wrong with just playing golf, being retired. But I enjoy what I do. I enjoy being busy.
0:42:50 - (Kent Hance): I'm Ken Hance. I've served this area as a state senator and as a us congressman, as chancellor at Texas Tech, chairman of the railroad commission, and still got things to do. There's still things that I have not done if they're going to be done. I don't know what they are, but I think there's plans out there. Thank you. This was a great interview.
0:43:14 - (Toby Brooks): For more info on today's episode, be sure to check it out on the web. Simply go to undonepodcast.com ep 84 to see the notes, links and images related to today's guest, Kent Hans I know there are great stories out there to be told and I'm always on the lookout. So if you or someone you know has a story that we can all be inspired by, tell me about it. Surf on over to undonepodcast.com comma. Click the contact tab in the top menu and drop me a note.
0:43:41 - (Toby Brooks): Coming up, I've got some great conversations with a fantastic bunch of new guests including learning scientist and physical therapist F. Scott Feeliel, followed by my conversation with world class flute professor doctor Lisa Garner Santa. So stay tuned. This and more coming up on becoming undone Becoming Undone is a nitro hot creative production written and produced by me, Toby Brooks. For now, I im m a one person show relying on AI tools from descript, decipher and opus clip to create, produce and deliver the best show I know how.
0:44:29 - (Toby Brooks): Follow the show on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn at becoming undone Pod and follow me at Tobyj Brooks on x Instagram and TikTok. Check out my link tree at Linktr ee tobyjbrooks thanks for listening and please subscribe. Leave me a review at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, ieart radio or wherever you get your podcasts t until next time, keep getting better.