NICHOLAS STOLL
Managing Sports Editor

Carol Hutchins, Michigan’s true legend

S

itting atop the bleachers at 
Alumni Field — home of the 
Michigan softball team, and 
home of its former head coach for 
the past 38 years, Carol Hutchins 
— Schembechler Hall is plainly 
visible.
Sitting 
atop 
the 
bleachers 
at Alumni Field — home of the 
Michigan softball team, and home 
of now-former head coach Carol 
Hutchins for the past 38 years 
— Schembechler Hall is plainly 
visible.
Outside the hall is a bronze 
statue 
of 
its 
namesake, 
Bo 
Schembechler, 
the 
so-called 
“legendary” former football coach, 
idolized by many fans, former 
players and even current coaches. 
Despite his complacency with the 
abuse by Dr. Robert Anderson, 
Schembechler’s name remains and 
the statue still stands.
Somehow, Schembechler is still 
the face of Michigan athletics, as 
ugly and contorted as it may be.
Monday morning, a real legend 
stood inside that very hall to speak 
in the wake of her retirement. A 
legend who goes by one name: 
“Hutch.”
“I came here as a girl with 
potential, and I leave a woman 
with no limits,” Hutch said. 
“That’s my wish for every woman 
who walks out on the field.”

A sentiment reflected in every 
one of her actions since she arrived 
in Ann Arbor until now.
So as Hutch’s time as an active 
coach for the Wolverines having 
drawn to a close, it’s time to replace 
the misshapen face of Michigan 
athletics with a new one — hers.
Hutch is the type of person the 
University tries to cultivate and 
wants representing it:
“A leader and best,” Samantha 
Findlay, a member of the 2005 
National 
Championship 
team 
under Hutch, labeled her former 
coach. “She has withheld that title 
to the utmost respect, not only for 
the University of Michigan, but 
for any athlete or coach who has 
played softball.”
At the forefront of Findlay’s 
summary 
stands 
the 
word 
“leader.” It’s easy to label a coach, 
a winning head coach at that, a 
leader. Boiled down, their job is 
to lead. But “leader” in that sense 
is not what Findlay meant; it’s too 
shallow a definition.
Hutch leads in everything she 
does.
Back in April 1978, Hutch 
— then a two-sport athlete at 
Michigan State playing basketball 
and softball — had had enough.
Hutch and her teammates were 
being treated unfairly, simply 
because they were women. 
“Well, we have to let (the female 
athletes) go out and play, so let’s 
just let them,” the Michigan 
State athletic department said, 

according to one of the players. 
“Just make sure they don’t get in 
the way of the boys.”
That was the attitude held at 
the time, an attitude reflected 
through actions. The year prior, 
the Spartans’s athletic department 
budgeted 
$776,000 
to 
men’s 
athletics, but less than $85,000 
to women’s. It showed in the 
facilities — or lack thereof — for 
the female athletes, even in their 

travel arrangements and even the 
amount they could spend on food 
while on team road trips. 
It was a full-scale violation of 
Title IX, the landmark legislation 
minted six years prior.
The women, with Hutch as the 
spearhead, took action. From that 
action, two things were borne:
The class action suit, Hutchins 
v. Board of Trustees of Michigan 
State University, and Hutch, Title 
IX trailblazer.
Over 40 years later, Hutch has 
created monumental change for 
women in sports. But nothing 
has changed in her resolve, still 

SPORTSWEDNESDAY

blazing a path forward.
“Anybody you run into knows 
who Hutch is and knows the 
impact that she’s had on young 
athletes 
and 
just 
women 
in 
general,” Findlay said. “The fact 
that she’s continued to fight for 
women athletes for such a long 
period of time is something that a 
lot of us former athletes hold close 
to our heart because we appreciate 
all that she’s done.

“And we wouldn’t be able to do 
it if there weren’t pioneers for the 
sport like her.”
Beyond athletes, Hutch has 
made an impact on coaching, the 
sport of softball as a whole, and 
women in general. From propping 
women up, to raising millions of 
dollars in support of breast cancer 
awareness, Hutch has made her 
mark.
It culminated in Hutch winning 
the first ever Pat Summitt award 
in 2016, as she “exemplifies the 
character and courage” of the 
longtime 
Tennessee 
women’s 
basketball coach for which the 

award finds its namesake.
“Her impact is immeasurable,” 
assistant coach Jennifer Brundage 
said in 2017. “Ever since those 
college 
days, 
she’s 
been 
an 
advocate for women and gender 
equality, and increasing salaries of 
coaches in our sport and increasing 
opportunities for women in our 
sport. The list goes on and on.”
Ask anyone who knows her: 
Hutch stands for what she believes 
in, and nothing will get her to back 
down.
Fortunately for the athletic 
department, Hutch also believes 
in creating a winning culture for 
Michigan softball. 
So when it comes down to the 
full phrase “leaders and best,” 
Hutch has a firm grasp on the 
“best” title as well — retiring 
as 
the 
winningest 
coach 
in 
NCAA Softball history and the 
winningest coach ever at the 
University of Michigan.
Through the lens of athletic 
achievement, her success as a 
coach can’t be denied. No one has 
done it better than Hutch.
This 
level 
of 
achievement 
has 
only 
been 
accomplished 
by expecting nothing less than 
excellence; 
from 
herself, 
her 
players and from everyone in the 
program.
“She doesn’t really allow you 
to be anything but your best and 
doesn’t allow you to make excuses 
for yourself,” former Michigan 
shortstop Abby Ramirez told The 

H U T C H

With Hutch’s time as an active 
coach for the Wolverines coming 
to a close, it’s time to replace 
the misshapen face of Michigan 
athletics with a new one — hers.

Daily. “Sometimes it looks tougher 
than other days. Sometimes it was 
a kick in the butt, other days, it was 
words of confidence and boosting 
you up. …
“When I think of Hutch, I think 
of someone who does things to a 
standard of excellence always. She 
does things the right way with the 
right intentions.”
She does everything with the 
right intentions, and none of it for 
her own glory.
“This isn’t Hutch’s program, 
this is Michigan,” Hutch said 
in 2017. “I am a servant of the 
University of Michigan. My job is 
to make Michigan softball great, to 
make these student-athletes great 
in everything they do, to teach 
them all the great lessons that you 
don’t learn anywhere else.”
That’s just Hutch.
Whether she’s heralded as a 
Title IX trailblazer, an excellent 
coach, a women’s rights activist, 
a role model or just “Hutch,” she 
will no doubt go down as a legend 
in Michigan history and in college 
softball. 
So put up a statue, name a 
hall after her, do something to 
commemorate her legacy.
Because the time to make Carol 
Hutchins the face of Michigan 
athletics is now.
Stoll can be reached at nkstoll@
umich.edu or on Twitter @nkstoll .
Managing Sports Editor Jared 
Greenspan 
contributed 
to 
the 
reporting of this story.

JENNA HICKEY/Daily
FILE PHOTO/Daily

FILE PHOTO/Daily

FILE PHOTO/Daily

FILE PHOTO/Daily

FILE PHOTO/Daily
FILE PHOTO/Daily

