From Broncos mascot to Mile High mayor

Denver Mayor Michael Hancock leads city with vision

Eric Peterson //May 22, 2017//

From Broncos mascot to Mile High mayor

Denver Mayor Michael Hancock leads city with vision

Eric Peterson //May 22, 2017//

Denver Mayor
Michael Hancock, 48

After playing the role of the Broncos' mascot while attending Manual High School in 1986, Hancock hung up his horse costume and moved into politics. He interned with Mayor Federico Peña in his college years and became the youngest head of an Urban League affiliate at age 29. Then he served two terms on the Denver City Council before winning his first mayoral election in 2011. He breezed to another victory in 2015.

Hancock's tenure at the city's helm has been marked by Denver's ascendance. He helped drag the city out of the Great Recession and into one of the biggest booms the notoriously boom-and-bust economy has ever seen.