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The charismatic player known around the state to legions of high school basketball fans simply as "Handshake" did more than just shake hands and score points in bunches.

Richard Hanson would also have a little fun.

Countless stories have been told over the years about Hanson, the Blaine High player who starred on two state-placing Borderite teams in 1963 and 1964 before going on to become a first-team NAIA All-America standout at Central Washington University.

Here's a favorite from Gary Clausen, now Blaine's athletic director but then a younger student a few years behind Hanson at Blaine:

As Clausen recalls it, Blaine was on defense and the Borderite guards were pressing in the forecourt, while Hanson and the opposing center were at the offensive end.

"He's down there talking to the guy in the key, and every time the kid tries to get out of the lane, Richard would sort of move in front of him, just talking to him," Clausen says. "Richard's still talking to him, while blocking him from getting out of the key, distracting him -- and with his back hand, behind his back he's waving to the official, like, 'Look at this guy in the key.' "

Sure enough, Clausen says, the official took note of the unfortunate fellow's lingering presence in the lane and blew his whistle for a three-second call. "The ball never even got across halfcourt," Clausen laughs.

"Richard had that way. He could do things like that," Clausen says. "In the old gym, we had dead spots in the floor and he'd get kids to dribble over the dead spot so the ball would go down and not come back up enough ... and he could steal it. When it came to basketball, there was nobody smarter in what he could do, what he could make happen."

Especially when it came to coming up with the basketball itself. Once the ball was shot from anywhere on the court, Hanson was moving into position, sliding into the very spot that the ball would end up, whether coming off the rim or the backboard.

"It was just fascinating to watch him," says former Port Townsend coach Tim Black. "The ball would come off the board, and there he was. The ball would come off the other way, there he was. He just knew where the ball was going.

"And then, offensively, all people got was air when they went after his shot. Just great timing, great moves. When he needed to pull up, he'd pull up. He wouldn't try to overpower you -- he took what you gave him. And you had to give him something, because you can't take everything away.

"He was something."

As good as Hanson was, though, he constantly worked at improving. When he first began playing at Blaine, says then-coach Dennis Heinrick, "he was the worst free throw shooter we ever had." In the state tournament of his senior year, he sank 59 of 70 free throws, both records that still stand.

Here are a few other Hanson nuggets gleaned from interviews during the production of the Yakima Herald-Republic's look at the all-time Class 1A tournament players and teams:

● From Bill Kelly, Nooksack Valley coach and four-time title-winner at Cashmere: "I wish the kids that really think they have it together could have seen him play. He was unbelievable."

● From former Nooksack Valley coach Galen Reimer (as related by longtime announcer Dick Stark) on his orders to his team prior to playing Blaine: "If Richard Hanson's covering you, fake twice and pass.")

● From former teammate Don Ambrose: "When we needed to, he could take over the game like Luke (Ridnour, a 2000 Blaine graduate and now All-America guard at the University of Oregon) could. Richard was long and gangly, and he could play wherever we needed him to play. If we were in trouble with ballhandling against a press, get out of the way and he'd get the ball across."

● More from Ambrose, on whether Hanson or 1974 Blaine star Tim Evans was better: "They were both similar. Tim was taller, but handled the ball well. I think I'd be biased, but I'd put Richard No. 1 ... and I'd probably put Evans 1 1/2. He was that good. They were both that good."

● From Stark on the "Handshake" aspect: "At that time, they jumped center before every quarter, and before every jump, he would go and shake hands with every player on the other team and look them in the eye. With every single guy. And when somebody would foul out, he'd go over to their bench, particularly if it was a star player, he'd go over and look him in the eye -- and if the guy had sat down, he'd go down to a knee, so he could look the guy in the eye -- and shake his hand. He truly was that way."

● From Hanson himself: "The handshake thing was from the heart. It was something that ... I can't even tell you why I did that. I just thought it was a kind of sportsmanship thing. There were times people wouldn't even shake my hand, but I made a point of letting them know I wanted to.

"I just thought when you get to districts and you get to state, you cross those paths very few times, maybe once in a lifetime, and I just thought you shouldn't just let that go by or take it for granted."
 

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     "It Was Just Fascinating to Watch Him"
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