Ralph Hutchinson


Ralph Fielding "Hutch" Hutchinson was an American football, basketball, and baseball player. He served as the head football coach at Dickinson College, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of New Mexico, Washington & Jefferson College, the University of Idaho, and the Idaho Technical Institute , compiling a career college football record of 61–53–6. Hutchinson was also the head basketball coach at New Mexico, Idaho, and Idaho Technical, 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.

Playing career

Born in Elmira, New York, Hutchinson played varsity football and baseball and ran track at Princeton University. 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.

Coaching career

Dickinson

Hutchison was the third head football coach for the Dickinson College Red Devils in Carlisle, Pennsylvania and he held that position for the 1901 season. His overall coaching record at Dickinson was 3–4. This ranks him 25th at Dickinson in terms of total wins and 15th at Dickinson in terms of winning percentage.

Texas

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

New Mexico

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.

Washington & Jefferson

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

Idaho

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

Idaho Technical Institute

In 1920, Hutchinson moved south to the Idaho Technical Institute in Pocatello. He coached through the 1927 season, tallying a 25–22–2 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.

After coaching

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. After the hiring of Leo Calland in 1929, Hutchinson was the athletic trainer and a professor of physical education, and the head coach of minor sports. Following a brief illness, he died at the age of 57 on March 30, 1935, of a heart attack at his Moscow home.

Head coaching record

College football