How Kansas Jayhawks golfer Hanna Hawks was chosen to sing national anthem at Final Four
Hanna Hawks knows the pressure of staring down a 15-foot putt on the golf course.
She’s hoping that will help her when she sings the national anthem before Kansas’ NCAA Final Four men’s basketball game against Villanova on Saturday in front of more than 70,000 fans in the Caesars Superdome and a national television audience on TBS.
Hawks, a sophomore on the KU women’s golf team, was chosen as the Jayhawks’ representative in a quartet of student-athletes who will perform at approximately 4:57 p.m. Saturday. KU’s game tips off at 5:09 p.m. with Duke and North Carolina playing in the second semifinal.
“I’ve actually never done an anthem before,” Hawks, a native of Wellington, Kansas, told The Wichita Eagle in New Orleans before her Friday night rehearsal. “This is a big stage for my first.
“It’s probably a perfect combination of nerves and also excitement. I’m super humbled by this experience. Most college athletes don’t get the opportunity to showcase any musical talents. I never dreamed this would happen for me.”
When KU punched its ticket to the Final Four last weekend, a memo went out to the university’s coaches that a student-athlete was needed to represent the Jayhawks in the quartet.
Because her teammates knew she liked to sing, Hawks was nominated from the women’s golf team. She sent in an audition on Monday and was selected by KU on Tuesday.
“I never expected any of this to happen,” Hawks said. “So I’m just rolling with things right now and we’ll see what happens.”
Hawks, who has a 76.3-stroke scoring average this season for the Jayhawks, is a former Kansas high school state champion at Wichita Trinity Academy, where she won the 2018 championship with a state-record score of 68.
It was at Trinity where Hawks enjoyed choir and music theatre and where she sang at Wednesday night chapel and occasionally at Eastminster Church in Wichita. She currently sings in the choir for Velocity Church in Lawrence
“I actually went home and saw my high school music teacher and got her opinion on technique and how I should be singing,” Hawks said.
The last time Hawks performed outside of a church setting was her high school graduation in June 2020 — just a little bit smaller than the Superdome.
But instead of thinking of the nerves, Hawks is looking at the experience as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Not only does she get to perform in front of a monumental audience, but she essentially gets a free trip to the Final Four to watch her team.
“I go to all of the games back in Lawrence, I love my Jayhawks,” Hawks said. “When they were like, ‘You can stay after you sing,’ I was like, ‘Oh, that’s a no-brainer. I would love to.”
This story was originally published April 2, 2022 at 5:00 AM with the headline "How Kansas Jayhawks golfer Hanna Hawks was chosen to sing national anthem at Final Four."
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