Carol Hutchins (2021) - Hall of Fame - Michigan State University Athletics

Carol Hutchins

Induction:
2021
Class:
1979

Carol Hutchins
Softball/Women's Basketball (1976-79)
Lansing, Mich.
MSU Athletics Hall of Fame Class of 2021

HIGHLIGHTS:
• Starting shortstop for 1976 AIAW National Championship softball team
• 1976 team RBI co-leader
• 1978-79 basketball team co-captain
• 2006 NFCA Hall of Fame inductee and two-time National Coach of the Year

HALL OF FAME FEATURE: CLASS OF 2021

Softball and basketball standout Carol Hutchins, a 1979 graduate, adds the Michigan State Athletics Hall of Fame to her considerable list of career accomplishments. Already on her resume is a spot in the Greater Lansing Sports Hall of Fame (2000), the National Fastpitch Coaches Association Hall of Fame (2006) and Michigan Athletics Hall of Fame (2011), showing just a portion of the impact she has had throughout her career. An AIAW National Champion as an undergraduate, she's now the NCAA's winningest active softball coach, with nearly 1,700 victories to her credit. Her coaching tree is lush with collegiate head and assistant coaches who have followed in the steps of their mentor.

Those accolades, however, likely pale in comparison to the lives she's impacted throughout her career as a standout athlete, championship-level coach, and most importantly, vocal advocate for the women in her charge. She's brushed off her own opportunities for the spotlight to tilt the light instead toward her players. (She once deflected an interview request after an NCAA regional win because the athletes in uniform "are the ones with the dream, the ones who did the hard work to get here.")

Her upbringing in Lansing – one of six children who grew up playing all sports in her backyard – cultivated her career path from an early age, even if she didn't quite put it all together until later. Growing up a mile and a half from the MSU campus, she idolized Duffy Daugherty and MSU's football program. When she learned that being a college athlete was something she could pursue, it became her dream. While her parents may have preferred that she start at the more affordable Lansing Community College, she made it known that she would be attending Michigan State if the acceptance letter came.

"I finally got my Michigan State University acceptance letter that August," recalls Hutchins – or "Hutch," to anyone who knows her. "It was truly the happiest day of my life. It was my dream – it was where I wanted to go my whole life."

Earning a starting spot at shortstop her freshman season, she helped pilot the softball program to an Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) National championship in 1976 – prior to the NCAA sponsoring championships for women. A two-sport athlete who lettered in basketball in addition to softball, she recalls that the women leading those programs played a large part of helping forge her career path.

"I wanted to be that person that everyone was to me when I was a young athlete," recalls Hutchins. "I wanted to be what Karen Langeland was to me, what Diane UIibarri was to me. I remember [former track & field coach] Nell Jackson being this elegant, fine woman who set an example. I changed colleges, but I never left college. My experience at Michigan State is really what drew me into my love for that particular area of athletics. It was my senior year of high school before we were considered 'varsity athletes' – we were just happy to be there, and I don't know that we knew all of what our coaches were doing behind the scenes to try to give us an equal opportunity, to ensure that we weren't an afterthought."

Hutchins was named the head softball coach at the University of Michigan in 1985 after two years as an assistant coach for the Wolverines, and over the last 37 years has built UM into a perennial Big Ten and NCAA contender. More important to her, however, is how that has happened. She stresses a family atmosphere within her program – with hallmarks of hard work, supporting one another and of course some tough love. Expectations and accountability must be high. The how has always been of the utmost importance, with the end product producing the high level of success that is the end goal.

Her Wolverines have been a consistent winner, capturing 22 Big Ten titles and advancing to the NCAA College World series 12 times. In addition to the countless conference, regional and national coaching awards in her career, Hutchins was named the inaugural recipient of espnW's Pat Summitt Coaching Award in 2016, presented to the coach who "exemplifies the character and courage" of the legendary basketball coach who led the Tennessee Lady Vols.

And that award is perhaps the most indicative of what Hutchins legacy will be. Win the right way – do the right things, get the desired results. Stand up for equity and equality. Women need to feel more than "happy to be there." She's been an outspoken critic of inequalities when it comes to women's athletics when she sees them.

"I'm fortunate - and I'm at a place in my career where I should speak out," notes the newest MSU Hall-of-Famer. "People like me who have a platform, we should use it. I'm lucky that my longevity gives me that platform, and those of us with a larger safety net than others, we need to use it. I get furious at some of the other big dogs who sit and kind of let these things just happen and only worry about themselves. You know, it isn't about us – it's about our entire sport, and all women in athletics."

Physically, she's only an hour from her hometown and the place she got her start. When she brings her team to East Lansing, she shows her team the plaque honoring those 1976 AIAW National Champions affixed to Secchia Softball Stadium, and an acknowledgement of that team accomplishment also adorns the outfield wall. She's forged her own path to coaching champions, including a 2005 NCAA title.

On her finger that weekend in Omaha? Her 1976 AIAW championship ring. It took the team nearly 20 years to get those baubles – in 1995, when Spartan head coach Jacquie Joseph learned that MSU's title team had never received championship rings. Joseph wanted to right that wrong – to advocate that the women who brought the Spartans a national title be honored the same way that their male counterparts would have enjoyed.

In her own way – and even wearing the colors of her alma mater's fiercest rival for 37 years, Hutchins has embodied "Spartans Will."