Doug Hutton of Clinton and Mississippi State was surely one of the most gifted and versatile athletes in Mississippi history. What you need to know about that is this: You never would have learned about Hutton’s remarkable athletic exploits from Doug, who died Saturday at the age of 84. He was as humble as he was versatile.
Rick ClevelandWithout question, Hutton enjoyed the greatest day in the history of the Mississippi High School Basketball Tournament with two performances that more than 66 years later still boggle the mind. This was before there was a Mississippi Coliseum, before there was a 3-point line, and, yes, before integration. It was also before ESPN and SportsCenter, which is a shame, because if it happened today, the whole sports world would know know about it.
This was back when the State Tournament championship was held at old City Auditorium in Jackson. The semifinals were played in the afternoon, the finals the same night. On March 5, 1960, William Douglas Hutton performed a basketball feat for the ages.
That afternoon, Hutton scored a state tournament-record 47 points to lead Clinton to a 95-79 victory over Philadelphia. Six hours later, before a standing-room-only crowd of nearly 3,000, Hutton broke his own record, scoring 54 points in Clinton’s 81-72 victory over Florence.
That’s right, Hutton, who stood all of 5 feet, 11 inches tall and weighed all of 150 pounds, scored 101 points in one memorable day of basketball. In two games, Hutton made 38 of 71 field goal attempts and 25 of 31 free throws.
“To me, it’s still unbelievable,” Hutton told me years ago. “I had no idea I had scored that many points. I was so involved in the game, I didn’t realize what was going on. If you had asked me after the games how many points I had scored, I would have said, maybe, 30.”
In the stands watching that afternoon and night was Babe McCarthy, the Mississippi State basketball coach. State was Hutton’s dream school. He had grown up rooting for the Bulldogs, who, under McCarthy, had begun to challenge Kentucky for SEC basketball supremacy.
McCarthy had held out on offering Hutton a scholarship, probably because of Doug’s height and slight build. Hutton thought he would probably wind up playing at Mississippi College. But how could you ignore 101 points in one day? McCarthy could not. He signed Hutton the very next day and he had his future point guard. Back then, freshmen could not play varsity basketball, but Hutton was a three-year starter and and a key player on back-to-back SEC championship teams.
But that’s not all. He also pitched for State’s Diamond Dogs and made All-SEC in baseball. In 1963, he achieved a perfect 5-0 record and a 2.15 earned run average. In ’64, he won his first three decisions before hurting his arm.
And that’s not all. In track and field, competing at the same season as he was playing baseball, Hutton ran on the SEC Championship 4×100 relay team and also long-jumped over 24 feet.
And, still, that’s not all. Later, he became a coach, including freshman basketball coach at State the year after he graduated. Later, he coached high school teams at Hazlehurst, Florence and in his hometown of Clinton. Besides being in the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame, he also is a member of the Mississippi Association of Coaches Hall of Fame. His 1990 Clinton Arrows won the state baseball championship.
That’s not all either: Trust me on this, if you were playing golf with Doug Hutton, you wanted to be on his team. That way, you could win. See the photo above. That’s Doug on the left and Willie Richardson, the Jackson State and NFL football great, on the right. A dozen years ago, I had the opportunity to play with the two of them in a tournament that honors Mississippi State and NFL football great Kent Hull. Hutton and Richardson rode together and, trust me on this, seldom has one golf cart carried so much athletic talent at once.
We came to the last hole where an award was given for the longest drive of the day, and we were the last group to play it. Doug, who was 72 years young, hit first and drove the ball 275 yards right down the middle of the fairway, the long drive of the day. Willie, who was 74, hit next and drove it precisely one inch past Doug. And, oh, my gosh, did they – and I — get a kick out of that!
Later that day, I documented the occasion, snapping the photo of two of Mississippi’s greatest athletes, both as humble as they were gifted.
Hence then, the article about doug hutton 101 points in one day of basketball that s just part of his amazing story was published today ( ) and is available on Mississippi Today ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Doug Hutton: 101 points in one day of basketball. That’s just part of his amazing story )
Also on site :