Karen Hancock Reflects on 25 Years Since OSU Plane Crash

Karen Hancock sat comfortably in her living room recliner at her Stillwater home.

Jan. 27, 2001. Not a worry in the world seeped into her mind that evening. Her sole focus was on HBO, watching over her adolescent daughter, Andrea, and awaiting the arrival of her husband, Will Hancock, the media relations coordinator for the Oklahoma State men’s basketball team.

Life felt at ease. Until it wasn’t.

A couple of phone calls from friends made reality seep in. But one phone call from former OSU basketball coach Eddie Sutton made that harsh reality apparent.

“There’s been a plane crash. Will was one of the passengers.”

Those piercing words altered Karen’s life. What had seemed like a normal night with Karen waiting for Will’s return home from the Cowboys’ game at Colorado swiftly shifted into a traumatic life experience that tethered her to one of the most-monumental events in OSU basketball lore.

“I was sitting at home waiting on Will to come home,” Karen said in a phone interview with The Stillwegian. “Next thing I knew I was panicking to find out if everything was true.

Weeks after her life trajectory reached an abrupt halt, Karen was faced with a vital life decision — stay in Stillwater, or embark on a new life chapter elsewhere.

Remember the Ten memorial plaque at Gallagher-Iba Arena with portrait photo of Will Hancock surrounded by flowers commemorating Jan. 27, 2001 plane crash that claimed 10 lives at OSU. — A memorial inside Gallagher-Iba Arena honors the 10 victims of the Jan. 27, 2001 plane crash near Strasburg, Colorado, including Will Hancock, OSU's media relations coordinator. The memorial, dedicated Feb. 23, 2002, features photos and tributes to each victim and remains a focal point of the annual Remember the Ten commemoration.

Twenty-five years after a plane crash took the lives of 10 members of the OSU basketball family, the Stillwater community and university remain dedicated to celebrating and memorializing each of them. The amount of people connected to the tragedy have decreased. Still, Karen’s memory of her husband and the other nine victims involved in that calamitous January 2001 night remains.

As weeks went by, the weight of the decision ahead grew heavier. Karen took her time, allowing grief to coexist with clarity. She said she trusted that the right choice would reveal itself without fear as time progressed.

For Karen, her answer was rooted in stability. Stillwater wasn’t merely a beacon of where tragedy had occurred. It was where unity and passion surfaced most clearly. And it was where Andrea could continue living her life, surrounded by familiarity. Where Karen could rebuild a life shaped not by loss, but rather by persistence.

“I thought my world had ended,” Karen said. “And in many ways it had. What I knew had ended.”

That’s where her parents — Steve and Linda Horstman — came in.

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Shortly after Will’s death, they moved to Stillwater to take care of Andrea. Meanwhile Karen continued serving as OSU’s soccer coach.

Of course, members within the community did their part. Sutton and his wife Patsy would follow up with her routinely, sometimes taking her out to a movie or hosting her for dinner. Other coaches and administrative officials checked in on her well-being, too.

But above all else, Karen said, her parents aided in her gaining clarity where it once lacked.

“Without the help of my parents, I truly am not sure that I could have been able to continue doing what I was doing in athletics coaching,” Karen said. “I just don’t think I could have done it. I just think that it would have been too difficult. My life would have changed in more ways than one, and I probably would have ended up doing something else.

“They were very important in me just being able to keep my job, continue what I was doing and stay put where I was.”

Gradually, Karen’s decision became evident.

With the help of family and the strength she found within the community, she chose continuity over an abrupt exodus.

“I knew I had a decision to make, and I knew I wouldn’t be making a rash decision — whether to stay or leave,” Karen said. “I really did like Stillwater. I still do like Stillwater. And I had just made the decision that it was a good community to stay in and raise my family in.”

So, she stayed.

“Besides the small-town feel, I knew that we would be looked after a little bit more, and that was the case,” Karen said. “I stayed, and now my kid is 25 years old, off on her own, and I’m still here.”

To this day, Karen has stayed in Stillwater. She no longer leads Cowgirl soccer, but still maintains a role with the university as the senior associate athletic director and senior woman administrator for OSU athletics.

“Because I love it here,” she said. “Always have, always will.”

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And 25 years later, that love and deviation from the community lives on. Even in 2026.

Before fans crowding Gallagher-Iba Arena erupted in an almost unceasing cascade of noise, it quieted. For a brief moment, everything stopped as dead silence struck the 13,611-seat, orange-permeated arena.

Not too long before tip-off for the Cowboys’ home game against No. 3 Iowa State commenced, an honorary moment of silence was held in honor of the lives lost. As the silence prolonged, a sense of fulfillment struck Karen.

She could see the unity within everyone present. Most hadn’t a tie to the victims of the tragedy. Yet, they still attended. Despite hazardous winter weather conditions, fans filled the venue. Not only to watch OSU host a marquee opponent, but out of reverence.

That precise element, Karen said, is what makes the continuance of Remember the Ten so sentimental. For her. For the other families of the victims. And for the Stillwater community as a whole.

“The biggest thing is just how passionate people are about that terrible day,” OSU coach Steve Lutz said. “And not only the families of the people who were lost, but just the people in Stillwater and the people at Oklahoma State.

“Nobody can ever replace them. But what we can do is we can always remember them, and they’ll never be forgotten, and we can always honor them. And no one has stopped short in doing that.”

It makes the first word of the mantra all the more important for Karen — remembrance. Something she said she hopes never dwindles as the memory of the 10 lives lost lives on.

“I’m obviously very appreciative that we do it,” Karen said. “It’s always kind of a difficult time for myself and everyone, but it’s also kind of good for all of us to gather, I think. It helps us remember the importance of this tragic event and what it means to everyone in this community.”

Victims of the Jan. 27, 2001 plane crash