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Weekend Plans With BCS Exec Dir Bill Hancock: Symphony Tickets And Fresh Air

The BCS era officially came to an end Monday night, and despite this being the first Saturday without college football since Labor Day weekend, longtime BCS Exec Dir BILL HANCOCK has no plans to slow down or take a break. While Hancock is looking forward to spending more time with his grandkids and on his hobbies this offseason, he is looking ahead to the College Football Playoff that will debut next year. Hancock said, “I believe it’s very important to begin the work for next year right after the previous year. I don’t subscribe to the ‘go spend a week on the beach’ theory. I subscribe to the ‘get right back to the office’ theory.”

UP IN THE AIR: I enjoy flying, I like to travel. I always work on the plane. My system is, when I board the plane I’ll read until we get to 10,000 feet, and when they allow us to turn on our computers I go to that and immediately start working. I’ll catch up on e-mail, or if I have a paper or some kind of a document to prepare I do it on the plane. You may have seen that I’ve written two books. I wrote almost all the books -- both of them -- on airplanes. I don’t listen to music or watch TV, I just work on my computer. It’s quiet. It’s not very comfortable, but I’ve learned to get comfortable.
 
FAMILY MATTERS: I live in Kansas City and have been here since 1978. Most of my family’s still in Oklahoma, where I grew up. But my son NATE and two grandsons, and daughter-in-law KRISTIN are here. When we’re home, we see them about every other day. We go to their music programs and their sports events. We’re very involved in their lives. It’s sort of like being a parent again, but only we’re calmer. The grandsons in Kansas City are 10 and 7, and we also have a granddaughter in Oklahoma who’s 13. We go to see her about once a month. Our grandkids went to the Rose Bowl game, all three of them, and they had a blast. The boys are bigger fans than the 13-year-old girl is, but they love being together.

THE PIANO MAN: Sunday will be a good day. I hope it will be a typical Sunday for me. I’ll go to church -- I sing in the choir -- and Sunday afternoon we have symphony tickets. The only season tickets that I have are season tickets to the Kansas City Symphony. Their program is probably eight or 10 performances during the year. I always wanted to be a musician. In college I had a dream of majoring in piano. I played piano, clarinet and the sax. I grew up in a very musical home. I listen to classical music mostly, but I dive into some ‘50s or ‘60s music in the car. And I also love show tunes. I can probably quote all the dialogue from “OKLAHOMA,” “SOUND OF MUSIC” and “MY FAIR LADY.”

BREATH OF FRESH AIR: The other thing about my Sunday is I go for a reasonably long bike ride -- 15 miles -- or a long walk with my wife. I’m not running marathons anymore -- I broke my hip and am out of the marathon business -- but I’m still a bike rider. In the summer, on the days that I ride, I ride between 10-15 miles and enjoy doing a longer ride on the weekend when I can -- 30-50 miles. I rode my bike across the country a few years ago, which is one of the great experiences of my life. So I’m still biking and I love to also hike. I love to backpack. I’m dreaming of the Appalachian Trail someday when I retire. There’s a lot of places to hike in Kansas City, but not backpack, not overnight. There’s lots of streams, lots of creeks and many of them have hiking trails alongside. It was 9 below the other day, but I like the winter, I enjoy it. And the secret is to get out in it. Clothing today is so good that the temperature hardly affects you. So I don’t miss any days of getting outdoors either to walk or to bike ride.

SOCIAL STUDIES: Spending time with my grandchildren is the best. But I also work on my hobbies, which are music, and have the exercise of course, and then also history. I research history of my hometown of Hobart in Oklahoma. I love all kinds of history and that’s my primary way of relaxing.

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