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Former University of Tennessee Volunteer and Kansas City Chief Anthony Hancock will be the guest speaker at the annual West High Quarterback Club kickoff event.

The event, scheduled for August 17 at First Presbyterian, is open to the public. Tables or individual tickets are available through the Quarterback Club.

Hancock earned All-SEC Honors in 1980 and set the UT bowl record for yards receiving. In addition to his success on the football field, Hancock was an All-American hurdler for the track team. The Cleveland, Ohio native planned on being a running back in Knoxville but his speed led him to wide receiver. The 11th selection in the 1982 draft, Hancock played five years for the Kansas City Chiefs before retiring from the NFL.

After his retirement, he returned to Knoxville and began working with the Great Smoky Mountain Council of the Boy Scouts of America.

During his tenure with the Boy Scouts of America; he coordinated and worked with local churches, civic and community organizations in the development of our youth through volunteerism. He worked specifically with inner-city youth to engage them in programs that would build character. He worked with the Boy Scouts for 8 years and became known as “The Boy Scout Man” of the Inner-City District which produced 15 Eagle Scouts.

Hancock made a position change in extension of his work with the Boy Scouts of America and took a position with the University of Tennessee’s Center for Industrial Services Small Business Development Office for the Tennessee Department of Transportation.

While with the Center for Industrial Services, he marketed and trained small minority-owned businesses to seek out and compete for contracts with the Tennessee Department of Transportation. For 8 years he supported the efforts of small minority-owned businesses in the state of Tennessee from Mountain City to Memphis.

Today, Hancock is a Special Education teacher, of 11 years with Knox County Schools in a Comprehensive Development Classroom (CDC) at Bearden Middle School.

As an educator working with Knox County Schools, he works with our youth in providing a free appropriate public education, as well as Coach Track and Field. He is a strong advocate for students, educators and public schools. He serves as an advocate on the national level for the National Education Association Resolutions Committee; the state level as the Tennessee Education Association Board of Directors District 4 Representative, Southeast Regional Minority Leadership Training Committee, Co-Chair of “The Johnella Martin TEA Statewide Minority Affairs Conference”, and New Teachers Training Committee; at the local level as a member of the Knox County Education Association Executive Board as Parliamentarian, Minority Affairs Leadership Committee and Association Representative for Bearden Middle School.

He is a member of Foster Chapel Baptist Church where he serves not only as a Deacon, but also as Assistant Superintendent of Sunday School; Chair of the Bereavement Ministry, and member of the Culinary Arts Ministry. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology, and teaching certification from the University of Tennessee; and a Masters of Religious Education from Covington Theological Seminary. Deacon Hancock resides in Knoxville with his wife, Paula of 30 years, and has two daughters, Somer, and Shauna; and two grandsons.

For more information, call David Wild at 423-312-5639.