Syracuse Basketball: Top 50 Players in School History (35-31)

#35: Vic Hanson

Forward: 1924-1927

Vic Hanson was three sport star while at SU and excelled at everything he did. Despite that, he’s hard to place when compared to SU’s all-time greats. Grantland Rice, a sportswriter during Hanson’s lifetime, called him, “the best all-around athlete Syracuse ever had“, according to Orangehoops.org. Now Rice never lived to see the late 20th century athletes or 21st century athletes who played at Syracuse, as he died in 1954, but the fact he was bold enough to say that in his time tells you how talented Hanson was.

Vic played baseball, basketball, and football. Of those sports, in the latter two he was an All-American for three consecutive years (1925-1927), according to Cuse.com. In his junior year, 1926, he led Syracuse to its second National Championship during the Helms Athletic Foundation era. He only averaged about 14 points a game for his career, but that was good enough back then.

After college he joined the New York Yankees farm system where he played for one year. Following that he played one year of pro basketball in the ABL with Cleveland.

Following his short professional stints in baseball and basketball, he turned to coaching. He became an assistant basketball coach at Syracuse in 1928 & 1929, and then became the Head Football coach of Syracuse in 1930. Hanson was only 27 years old at the time. As Head Coach of the Orange Football program they went 33-21-5.

Since he played so long ago and the standards, rules, and opponents for basketball back then were far different than they are today, it is hard not to take his accomplishments with a grain of salt. To most, 14 points a game is just a role player. However, when you win a national championship in any era, then you take notice. Vic Hanson did just that which is why he lands here in our rankings even though his #8 jersey is retired (1981).