Cook Strait swimmer had spectacular fall from grace
long-distance swimmer b October 13, 1938 d January 21, 2019
Keith Hancox was once described as someone who deserved both a knighthood and a prison sentence. He was arguably on the way to receiving the former but ended up with the latter.
The long-distance swimmer, whose prowess in the water earned him the nickname ‘‘Flipper’’, broke records swimming Cook Strait and the English Channel before going on to a career in journalism and high-profile sports administration.
But in a gargantuan fall from grace, Hancox was convicted in 1992 for defrauding the Sports Foundation he headed of more than $1 million.
It was a stunning and sudden decline in his reputation as one of the most high-profile and influential people in New Zealand sport at the time.
Born in Napier, Hancox recalled as a teenager sitting on the beach looking out to Cape Kidnappers and telling himself that one day he would swim from there to Napier – and then tackle the English Channel.
In 1964, at the age of 25, he became the second person to swim Cook Strait, completing the 23-kilometre crossing in nine hours and 34 seconds.
Two days before his swim, his close friend and fellow swimmer Lesley Jordan was taken by a white pointer shark at St Clair beach in Dunedin. His death was the first authenticated shark death for about a century.
That sent Hancox’s team into panic mode, and three police marksmen were added to the support boat. ‘‘By late afternoon my back was screaming and the only way of relieving the pain was to bend over, grip around the knees and stretch my back. But the fear was that I was going to sleep,’’ he recalled more than 50 years later.
‘‘At that point I heard three rifle shots, looked up and around, and yelled: ‘Shark, shark. Where’s the shark?’ The response was: ‘Shark be buggered. If you don’t get your head down and swim, the next one will be up your .... . ’’
The following year Hancox swam the 33.8km English Channel in 15 hours 33 seconds. He was the first New Zealander to accomplish the crossing.
Hancox, who played water polo for Hawke’s Bay and Wellington, also represented New Zealand in Canada in a 1968 marathon swimming team. After an 18-hour swim, he was admitted to hospital where 2lb of silt from the murky lake was removed from his stomach.
Swimming was his main focus but Hancox – a big burly man even in his early years – was also a wrestling champion, winning the New Zealand amateur heavyweight title in 1957.
Out of the water, he lent his skills to sports administration. He was a member of the NZ Surf Life Saving Council and the National Water Safety Commission. He was the secretary of the Royal Life Saving Society’s Hawke’s Bay Centre and of the Wellington Surf Life Saving Society.
Having started out as an insurance officer, he went on to work in journalism. He was a politics and economics writer for The Dominion and later the Wellington bureau chief for the New Zealand Herald, before ending up as news director at Capital City Radio.
During his days on The Dominion, his swimming skills were put to the test when his chief reporter sent him down to inspect the sunken Wahine. Hancox didn’t need to be asked twice. He came back with some memorable photos taken with his underwater camera and got a good story for his troubles.
He ended up as a political writer in the press gallery at Parliament. But the column inches he devoted to others would in turn bear his own name.
Hancox, who had persuaded Robert Muldoon’s National government to establish the Sports Foundation, was given the top job running it in 1978.
But his tenure there would end under a cloud. After a tipoff, the Serious Fraud Office investigated Hancox and discovered he had been siphoning money from the foundation to the tune of $1,045,030.58.
He pleaded guilty in Wellington District Court to 482 charges of fraud and forgery. The money he embezzled was meant for the athletes he was supposed to be serving as executive director of the foundation.
He had used the money to fund a lifestyle of travel, boats, and general high living beyond his already generous salary.
Hancox was sentenced to four years in jail, after being given credit for his previous good record and glowing character references. He served 17 months in Wellington Prison.
According to one associate, Hancox was a paradox: a classically tragic figure who deserved both a prison sentence and a knighthood.
Cementing his humiliation, he was expelled from the Sporting Hall of Fame he helped to create and to which he had been entered for his swimming achievements.
He worked to make amends after his release by helping other former prisoners find employment.
Working with the Wellington Prisoners Aid and Rehabilitation Society, he helped find former inmates jobs and integrate back into society.
Speaking last year at NZ UltraMarathon Swim awards, where he was being recognised with a lifetime award for his swimming achievements, Hancox referred to his spectacular downfall. ‘‘Looking back, I believe I have long since atoned for my stupidity in a way that provided substantial societal benefits.’’ – Sources: Stuff (Joseph Romanos), The Dominion, North & South (David McLoughlin), Richard Long, Alan Hitchens. Hancox’s family did not wish to contribute.