By Greg Gielczyk
LocalSportsJournal.com

LUDINGTON–Todd “Scoop” Hansen is probably best known as the radio voice of Ludington High School sports, but it has been quite a journey that started when he joined the U.S. Navy when he was still in high school.

He is an unabashed homer for his alma mater – which comes through loud and clear during his broadcasts. He confesses to bleed Oriole orange and black, which started his journalism career in the service.

“I joined the Navy actually in late April of 1984 on the delayed entry program although I was a senior at Ludington High,” Hansen, 57, related during a lunchtime interview. “I went on active duty in August of 1984.

“My whole company were graduates from Michigan, and we were sworn in behind home plate at Tiger Stadium (in Detroit). The great memory about that is ’84 was the last time the Tigers won the World Series.”

It was a Tiger game he’ll never forget.

“The Tigers were playing the Angels that night, and I remember very well Dan Petry outdueled Tommy John,” he said. “Kirk Gibson was the Tiger rightfielder, and we were sitting right there in the first two rows of the lower deck.”

Hansen added that Gibson turned and saluted the group a couple of times during the game.
Ludington Orioles Varsity Baseball Team Manager Sam “Lightning” LaDuke and Bench Coach Todd “Scoop” Hansen on May 8, 2017 at Fifth Third Ballpark prior to the start of the O’s game against the Spring Lake Lakers. The O’s would comeback to win 5-4 in a thrill

 
Afterward, he went to boot camp in Great Lakes, Ill. and later was assigned to Sardinia, Italy. He was unassigned at the time, but applied for journalism school because he enjoyed going out on interviews and putting a story together.
Moreover, he loved sports. He played baseball and football in high school, handling quarterback duties for a time before being switched to defense.

“I enjoyed hitting more than getting hit,” said Hansen, who was 5-10 and 150 pounds.

Following a tour of duty with print media, Hansen – who retired from the Navy in 2004 — went through the Support Information Entertainment course and then did a voice audition, but didn’t land a broadcasting assignment.

Hansen received orders from the Navy Public Affairs Center in Norfolk, Va. and spent 3 years there doing feature stories on sailors and Marines which were then sent out to their hometown newspapers.

“They would send us to Europe, and up and down the East Coast,” Hansen said. “That was pretty neat. I went on a seven-week European assignment.

“I went to Scotland, England and over to Belgium. A lot of memorable times there. After that I went over to Iceland for my one and only tour in broadcast journalism. It was a year and a half tour, but I loved it so much I extended it so I was up there 42 months.”

For 38 of those months, Hansen worked as a radio program director. He also did the morning show, as well as the afternoon show on various shifts.

After a tour in California, he was stationed aboard the U.S.S. Bataan, a multi-purpose amphibious assault ship (the last of three ships he served aboard) and was the ship’s journalist for 3 years, and ran the ship’s closed circuit television, in charge of programming the ship’s 24-hour movie channels.

“I got a nice dose of everything that a Navy journalist can do while aboard the Bataan,” Hansen said. “After the Bataan, I had 22 months left and I went to Great Lakes and the U.S. Navy Processing Command Headquarters.

“It was a wonderful career, saw a lot of the world, made a lot of great friends. For the most part, I really enjoyed my time,” he said. “Didn’t make my six-month deployment until I was on the Bataan, and made a seven-month deployment after 911, when we went to Afghanistan.

“I got to go ashore in Egypt. I didn’t get to see the pyramids, though.”
With Lt. Col. Oliver North, USMC Retired on my last ship in the Navy — the USS BATAAN (LHD 5)

 
Hansen had mulled over the idea of taking over for former Ludington Daily News sports editor Lloyd Wallace after Wallace retired, but dismissed it when he realized he didn’t want to work for a daily newspaper.

He did write an occasional column for the LDN.

What did happen was Hansen was hired as the first non-singing entertainer aboard the Badger car ferry, telling his self-admitted “cheesy jokes.”

This year will be his 19th aboard the Badger, where he has been entertainment director for a number of years and has enjoyed meeting people from every state in the Union.

He hooked up with WKLA in 2011 doing Oriole football when the late Rod Beckman began having health issues, and then in 2012, did seven games before taking over completely in the 2013 basketball season, doing the play-by-play announcing for both girls and boys for WMOM 102.7.

WMOM went off the air for a year in the spring of 2019 and boys basketball coach Thad Shank called asking if Hansen would do the broadcasts for Oriole Sports Network.

He’s also in his ninth year as an assistant baseball coach for the Orioles.

“There have been some pretty memorable games since I’ve been doing the football and basketball games,” said Hansen. “One that really comes to mind right off the bat is the 2017 Class B state semifinals in boys basketball.”

 
That’s when Ludington’s Joshua Laman hit a last-second 3-pointer to defeat River Rouge.
“It’ll be tough to top that,” Hansen said. “The only way that will be topped is if Ludington wins the state title on a buzzer-beating shot.”
While in Monterey, California with my boss at the time … Army Col. Daniel Devlin
 
Hansen has been on the board of directors for the Mason County Sports Hall of Fame since 2011 and vice-president since 2015, and has been honored by the Ludington Education Association for his support of high school athletics.

“I’d like to do the play-by-play for many more years,” Hansen said. “The other great thing is meeting the athletes as they come up. I remember when I first started this one of the coaches came up to me and says ‘Scoop, to get to know the student-athletes. Talk with them. Don’t just show up at the games.’

“One of the more popular things we do is the Ludington Oriole Player in the Spotlight, where I ask all these questions that range from favorite teacher in school to favorite flavor ice cream, to favorite food your mom or dad prepares.”

Hansen’s wife, Michelle, was an All-State softball player at Mason County Eastern, and also played basketball and volleyball for the Cardinals.

The couple do not have any children.

5/24/16 at the old Fremont Baseball Field … back in early June 1984, the Ludington Orioles won the school’s first District championship on this field and I am pictured where I played in that game .. behind home plate as the Orioles catcher. I am holding up my Ludington Orioles #3 jersey that I wore during my junior and senior years as an Oriole. I am also wearing my high school ball cap that we wore that year. The ’84 Orioles began that District by defeating a heavily favored Fremont Packers team in a Pre-District game by the score of 15-13. The O’s then beat the Reed City Coyotes 12-7 to put them in the title game against the Fruitport Trojans. The Orioles would prevail 6-1 and play the next weekend in the Regionals at Central Michigan University and beat Cadillac before their season came to an end in the Regional title game against Grand Rapids Christian. Thanks to Tyrone Collins for taking the pictures between the Orioles doubleheader against the Packers on their new field. The O’s swept the doubleheader 10-6 and 8-4. This was my first time back on this diamond since that memorable Saturday nearly 32 years ago.