Dick Hansen has made sure Sportshow has its wild side

Dick Hansen, 79, has a few things left on his bucket list.

This is his 50th Kansas City Sportshow, and after years of doing everything from exhibiting wildlife to running the Willow Creek Trout Pond at the event, he says he is retiring.

But don’t believe it.

“I still have a lot of things to do before they put me in the ground,” Hansen said at the show, which will run through Sunday at Bartle Hall. “Like, I am going to come up with a tank with lanes in it, then have fish races.

“We’ll lift the gates, then see which fish can swim the fastest to the other end of the pool.”

As workers stocked a tank in Bartle Hall with trout, Hansen sat on the edge of the water and daydreamed.

Retire? Not this guy. He says he is turning over the business to his wife but you can bet he will remain active in how it’s run.

Guys like Hansen don’t simply walk away. He has too many ideas pinballing through his head.

He tells stories about how he created a river for the Chicago show. “People could get in canoes and kayaks and paddle down that stream,” he said.

He also talks about the ice-fishing setting he created for a recent show. The set had fake ice, with holes so that fishermen could take a simulated ice-fishing trip. Live fish waited in a pool beneath that set.

That’s just part of a long history Hansen has of bringing the outdoors on the road. He spent the first years of his life as a city kid, growing up in Chicago. But when his parents moved to Wisconsin, his lifestyle took an abrupt change.

“I loved the outdoors and all of the wildlife,” said Hansen, who now lives in St. Croix Falls, Wis. “I used to tag along with the game warden and I would help him rehabilitate wildlife.

“I thought right away that I would like to do something like that for a living.”

Later, that dream became a reality. Hansen build a wildlife park to give visitors a look at native wildlife. He called it Bambi Land at first, but when Disney threatened legal action, a contest was held to rename the park.

Eventually, a young girl suggested the name “Fawn-Doe-Rosa,” a takeoff on the name of the popular television series, Ponderosa. Soon, Hansen and his wife Sandra began taking their animals to sports shows. And Dick came up with unique ways to “advertise.”

“I remember one show where I took my mountain lion, Sis, for a walk around the lock,” Hansen said. “She was a tame big kitty; she didn’t know how tough she could be.

“Well, we come across this man sitting on a bench with a tiny dog. That dog sees Sis and starts barking his head off. Sis kind of snarled and I had to tighten up her leash and hope something didn’t happen.

“Well, later, I found out that dog was the featured act in the Sportshow. My cat almost ate the star dog.”

Eventually, Hansen phased out his traveling animal exhibit, partly due to tighter regulations on the transportation and display of live wildlife. Today, the Hansens’ children run the animal park in Wisconsin.

But Dick and Sandra still tour the country with their Willow Creek Trout Pond, offering children a chance to catch trout inside. And Dick remains involved with educational programs for children and helping others reach hunting and fishing dreams.

He helps his son with the Make A Wish program, and guides ill children on deer hunts. And some of those experiences have been as rewarding for him as for the children.

“I took a girl who had cancer out last fall and she shot her first deer,” Hansen said. “Her parents told me that she might not make it; that it didn’t look good.

“But she had a great attitude. She was so excited to be out there hunting.”

When the Hansens hit the road, they travel with an unusual partner. Knock on the door of their RV and you’re likely to be greeted by a loud, “Kaw! Kaw!” That’s Joe, the Crow, the tame bird they rehabilitated.

The bird was brought to them, badly injured years ago. As a licensed wildlife rehabilitator at the time, Dick nursed it back to life, though its wing was broken and it would never fly again.

“I could tell you a lot of other stories, but we would be here forever,” Hansen said. “I’ve lived a full life.”

This story was originally published January 22, 2016 at 5:37 PM with the headline "Dick Hansen has made sure Sportshow has its wild side."