Hankwitz was a three-year football letterwinner for the Wolverines and started on the 1969 Big Ten championship squad that played in the Rose Bowl.
He has served as an assistant under a number of accomplished head coaches, including Bo Schembechler at Michigan, Jim Young at Arizona and Purdue, Bill McCartney at Colorado, Glen Mason at Kansas, R. C. Slocum at Texas A&M, John Mackovic at Arizona, and Gary Barnett at Colorado.
There he helped the Wolverines to two Big Ten Conference titles, a 30–3 record, three top-ten national rankings and an appearance in the 1972 Rose Bowl.
Next Hankwitz was the defensive coordinator with additional responsibilities for the secondary, punters, and punt team at Western Michigan University from 1982 to 1984.
Colorado put together the nation's fifth-best record (58–11–4) from 1989 to 1994, won a share of the national title in 1990, captured three Big Eight Conference titles, made two appearances each in the Orange and Fiesta Bowl, and finished top-20 all six years including three top-five finishes.
The 1995 Jayhawks recorded the school's first 10-win season since 1905, played in the Aloha Bowl and ranked 10th in the final national polls.
Among Hankwitz's standout players at Texas A&M was Dat Nguyen, who won the Lombardi and Bednarik Awards.
The Badgers limited six of their opponents to ten or fewer points and allowed only three foes to reach the 20-point mark.
Eight of the 11 defensive starters from the 2006 squad received at least honorable mention All-Big Ten recognition, including first-team cornerback Jack Ikegwuonu and second-teamers Matt Shaughnessy and Roderick Rogers.
After allowing 31.0 points per game in 2007, Northwestern surrendered just 20.2 in 2008 to rank 27th in the country and fourth in the Big Ten.
The defense was the best the Wildcat program had seen since their head coach, Pat Fitzgerald, led the unit on the field in 1995 and 1996 as an All-American linebacker.
The Wildcats posted 20 defensive shutout quarters on the year and held four opponents to under 100 yards rushing—including a school record four-yard performance against Ohio.