Hancock’s come-from-behind win speaks of his resilience

The Broncos had their back against the wall in the 1986 AFC Championship game. Playing in front of a hostile Cleveland Brown’s crowd in freezing temperatures, they were down 20-13 with 5 minutes 43 seconds left in the game.

With the ball on their own 2yard line, guard Keith Bishop told his teammates, “They don’t know it, but we have them right where we want them.”

In 5 minutes and 2 seconds, John Elway led the Broncos 98 yards in 15 plays to tie the game with 37 seconds left in regulation. Denver won the game in overtime making a 38-yard field goal.

A Manual High School senior named Michael Hancock was the Broncos mascot, Huddles, that year.

Thirty-three years later, Mayor Hancock, engineered his own legendary drive.

It was May 7th, and the score wasn’t favorable for Hancock. Sixty percent of Denver voters cast their ballot for someone other than the incumbent. Three opponents forced him into an overtime runoff as he failed to garner the 50 percent needed to win in the primary. Citing growth, equity issues, anti-incumbency sentiment and the mayor’s inappropriate text messages to a subordinate many forecasted the end of his political career.

Things looked even more daunting when his opponents formed a “team of rivals” to actively campaign against him in the runoff.

The day after that election, Michael was his typically steady self. He expressed that they could have done things differently and that he was ready for overtime.

He adjusted the game plan and charged ahead to re-engineer his own winning drive.

Indeed, the challenges of this campaign were nothing compared to the challenges he has faced in life.

Hancock rarely talks about his personal journey, but after the election Tuesday, Hancock shared with me details of some of what has shaped his life and given him the tools to lead and win at home in Denver.

Michael’s family hit rock bottom when his parent’s divorced, he was 6. He and his twin sister and mother found themselves homeless, living in a motel and later public housing. They endured times of extreme poverty and desperation, they went without electricity at times.

Later, Michael would discover his sister, Karen, in her car, murdered

in a domestic violence incident. She died in front of him while he waited for the police arrived.

Then he lost his brother to AIDS in 1996.

When life gave him lemons, he made lemonade. Through these crises Michael, didn’t wallow, he didn’t recluse, he didn’t become bitter, instead he learned to embody empathy and resiliency, he leaned in. He helped open a domestic violence facility, the Rose Andum Center, which helps survivors access services including temporary housing, counseling and legal assistance to prosecute abusers.

Hancock is a deeply religious person with unwavering faith in God. I journeyed with him to Israel in 2013 and witnessed him being baptized in the Jordan river, and trace the steps of Jesus’s crucifixion and life.

As overtime began, Hancock grew and positioned his team wisely. His lingering opponent, Jamie Giellis vacillated, exposing weakness and inexperience.

The candidates painted two very different pictures of Denver. Most Denver voters agreed with Hancock that Denver, while facing serious challenges like affordable housing, was headed in the right direction. With a booming economy and low unemployment, running a growing city was a much better option than trying to save a dying one. Denver wasn’t even on the list of America’s best cities when Hancock first got elected, but we are now number two.

But perhaps Hancock’s greatest strength came from the reservoir of goodwill he created during his professional career where he celebrated diversity and inclusivity.

This reservoir of goodwill created an excited and motivated volunteer organization. He enjoyed a degree of connectivity that no other candidate could have matched. During the runoff, they knocked on over 50,000 doors, sent 200,000 text messages, and made 20,000 phone calls.

It’s hard to compete with that when you haven’t consistently voted or been actively engaged on that scale before.

The final score, like his two previous elections, wasn’t even close. Like Elway and the Broncos, Hancock had them right where he wanted them.