Ralph Hutchinson

Ralph Hutchinson

Wickiup 1923, Idaho State yearbook
Biographical details
Born	(1878-02-19)February 19, 1878 Elmira, New York, U.S.
Died	March 30, 1935(1935-03-30) (aged 57) Moscow, Idaho, U.S.
Playing career
Football
1898–1899	Princeton
1900	Greensburg A. A.
Position(s)	Quarterback
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
Football
1900	Greensburg A. A.
1901	Dickinson
1902	Princeton (backs)
1903–1905	Texas
1911–1916	New Mexico
1918	Washington & Jefferson
1919	Idaho
1920–1927	Idaho Technical / Idaho Southern Branch
Basketball
1910–1917	New Mexico
1919–1920	Idaho
1926–1927	Idaho Technical
Baseball
1904–1906	Texas
1910–1917	New Mexico
Administrative career (AD unless noted)
1911–1917	New Mexico
1928–1929	Idaho
Head coaching record
Overall	62–55–6 (college football) 3–6–1 (pro football) 56–18 (college basketball) 69–44–2 (college baseball)

Ralph Fielding "Hutch" Hutchinson (February 19, 1878 – March 30, 1935) was an American football, basketball, and baseball player. He served as the head football coach at Dickinson College (1901), the University of Texas at Austin (1903–1905), the University of New Mexico (1911–1916), Washington & Jefferson College (1918), the University of Idaho (1919), and the Idaho Technical Institute (now Idaho State University) (1920–1927), compiling a career college football record of 62–55–6. Hutchinson was also the head basketball coach at New Mexico (1910–1917), Idaho (1919–1920), and Idaho Technical (1926–1927), amassing a career college basketball record of 56–18, and the head baseball coach at Texas from 1904 to 1906 and at New Mexico from 1910 to 1917, tallying a career college baseball mark of 69–44–2.

Born in Elmira, New York, Hutchinson played varsity football and baseball and ran track at Princeton University.^[1] In football, he was a quarterback and later played the position as a player-coach for the Greensburg Athletic Association, an early professional football team out of Greensburg, Pennsylvania, in 1900.^[2]

Hutchinson also played minor league baseball. He played for the 1902 Flandreau Indians of the Iowa-South Dakota League. There, his manager was Art Hillebrand, who played college football with Hutchinson at Princeton and was later inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.^[3][4]

Hutchison was the third head football coach at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, serving for one season, in the 1901.^[5][6][7]

From 1903 to 1905, Hutchinson coached at Texas, where he compiled a 16–7–2 record.

Hutchinson was the first basketball coach at the University of New Mexico, compiling a 32–8 record from 1910 to 1917. New Mexico played games only sporadically before the 1920s, with no regular schedule.

Hutchinson was hired in August 1918 as head coach at Washington & Jefferson, south of Pittsburgh.^[8]

Hutchinson was the head football coach at the University of Idaho for the 1919 season. A "shorter than normal" season, his team posted a 2–3 record. He also coached the basketball team for the 1919–20 season.

In 1920, Hutchinson moved south to the Idaho Technical Institute in Pocatello. He coached through the 1927 season, tallying a 25–22–2 (.531) record at the two-year school, which was renamed the "University of Idaho–Southern Branch" in 1927. It was renamed "Idaho State College" in 1947 after gaining four-year status and became Idaho State University in 1963.

On November 4, 1922, the Idaho Tech football team played its first game on Hutchinson Field, named in his honor.^[9][10] The field was used until partway through the 1936 season, when football games moved to the "Spud Bowl".^[11][12] The former Hutchinson Field area continues to be known as the Hutchinson Memorial Quadrangle.^[13]

After eight years in Pocatello, Hutchinson returned to the University of Idaho in Moscow in 1928, where he was the athletic director for a year, as well as the head track coach and an assistant football coach.^[14] After the hiring of Leo Calland in 1929, Hutchinson was the athletic trainer and a professor of physical education,^[1] and the head coach of minor sports.^[15] Following a brief illness, he died at the age of 57 on March 30, 1935, of a heart attack at his Moscow home.^[16] In 1980, Hutchinson was inducted to Idaho State's athletic hall of fame.^[17]