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Former NFL wide receiver Hutchinson dies

May 7, 2007

COLUMBIA, Ky. (AP) -- Former wide receiver Tom Hutchinson, who played on the 1964 Cleveland Browns team that won the NFL championship, has died. He was 65.

Hutchinson died Saturday at the Taylor Regional Hospital in Campbellsville, Ky.

A member of the University of Kentucky's Hall of Fame, Hutchinson was the Browns' first-round draft pick in 1963. He played three seasons for Cleveland and finished in 1966 with Atlanta.

Hutchinson played for Kentucky from 1960-62. He set school records with 94 catches for 1,483 yards, marks that stood for 35 years.

Hutchinson passes away at 65
Steve King, Staff Writer
05.07.2007

In a sad bit of irony, the Browns' first-round NFL Draft choice 44 years ago passed away last Saturday, exactly one week after the team selected Joe Thomas and Brady Quinn in the first round of the 2007 draft.

Tom Hutchinson, a wide receiver from Kentucky who was selected No. 9 overall from Kentucky in 1963, played with the Browns for three years and was a member of their NFL championship team in '64, died at Taylor Regional Hospital in Campbellsville, Ky. from complications from cancer.

Hutchinson, who was 65, is the second former Brown to die in a span of three days, following Alex Agase, an offensive guard and linebacker from 1948-51 who passed away last Thursday.

Hutchinson is also the third member of the 1964 club to die. Pro Football Hall of Fame place kicker/offensive tackle Lou Groza (2000) and outside linebacker Galen Fiss (2006) are the others.

The Browns at the time were using the first round of the draft to conduct a major search for wide receivers, taking Rich Kreitling of Illinois in 1959, Bobby Crespino of Mississippi in '61, Gary Collins of Maryland in '62 and Hall of Famer Paul Warfield of Warren (Ohio) Harding High School and Ohio State in '64 in addition to Hutchinson.

"He's an outstanding pass receiver, and he runs the 100 in 10 flat," Browns head coach Blanton Collier said when Hutchinson was drafted. "He's got a natural knack for getting in the open.

"He was the one guy left we were pretty sure can move in and play. We debated on two or three other people and finally decided it was no use getting a guy unless we can use him right away."

Warfield remembers how classy Hutchinson was when they met in training camp in the former's rookie season in 1964.

"Tom actually played ahead of me briefly (opposite Collins) that year," Warfield, who, in his role as college scout/senior advisor to the general manager with the Browns, just returned to his home in the Palm Springs, Cal. suburb of Rancho Mirage after spending most of the last month in Cleveland helping the team get ready for the draft.

"He was very giving. Here I was a new player coming in and he was generous with his counseling and advice and in showing me how to execute the pass routes.

"He was a very nice man who just wanted to give his best for the Browns. And if it meant helping a player who was vying for the same position, as he and I were, then so be it. He did so willingly."

Another Ohio State and Northeast Ohio high school product who was on that 1964 club, outside linebacker Jim Houston from Massillon, said from his home in the Cleveland suburb of Sagamore Hills that Hutchinson was "a utility player who did the best he could to help the Browns."

As such, Hutchinson embodied the spirit of the club, which used the total team concept probably better than any squad in Browns history to over-achieve and win the title with a stunning 27-0 upset of a Baltimore Colts squad that was chock-full of future Hall of Famers.

As a Hall of Fame running back Jim Brown put it, "The whole was greater than the sum of its parts that year for us."

Although Hutchinson did not get much playing time as a rookie in 1963, he made the most of it. He averaged a team-high 27.1 yards for his nine receptions, including a 70-yarder that was the second-longest pass play for the Browns that year.

Warfield beat him out for the job in 1964, limiting Hutchinson to just three catches. He did, however, continue to be a big contributor on the Browns' outstanding special teams, including being put into the middle of the line on the field goal defense unit so that he could use his leaping ability to try to block kicks He had been a state champion in high school in the high jump and a member of the track team at Kentucky.

Although missed most of 1965 with a broken collarbone, Hutchinson didn't figure into the mix as a replacement. While Clifton "Sticks" McNeil and Walter "The Flea" Roberts split time, at wideout Hutchinson played primarily at tight end, a position that was just evolving in the NFL at the time.

The 6-foot-1, 190-pounder was still technically with the Browns at the start of the 1966 season, but they soon cut him and he went on to play that year -- his final one in the NFL -- with the expansion Atlanta Falcons.

Hutchinson finished the Cleveland portion of his career with 18 receptions for 381 yards (21.2) and two touchdowns.

Once out of football, he worked for a Kentucky ladder business, from which he retired.

Born in Stanford, Ky. on June 15, 1941, Hutchinson went to New Albany (Ind.) High School, where he starred in a variety of sports. He went on to Kentucky and was dubbed "the South's greatest pass catcher since Don Hutson" after leading the Southeastern Conference in pass receptions for three straight seasons. As a junior, he set the school mark for catches with 32 and tied it again as a senior.

Hutchinson is survived by his wife, Mary Alice Burton Hutchinson, two daughters, a son and a step-daughter, a brother and a sister, and four grandchildren.

Grissom Funeral Home in Columbia, Ky. is handling the arrangements.

And another former Brown passed.

Browns remember Alex Agase
Steve King, Staff Writer
05.04.2007

The Browns have lost another well-known player from their early championship years.

Alex Agase, who played offensive guard and linebacker from 1948-51 with the team before launching a successful college coaching career, passed away Thursday near his home in Tarpon Springs, Fla.

He was 85.

His death comes just three months after that of one of his Browns teammates, star cornerback Tommy James of Massillon, Ohio, who came to the team the same year as Agase.

Agase was a sixth-round draft choice of the Green Bay Packers in 1944 but never played for them, instead beginning his pro football playing career with the Los Angeles Dons and Chicago Rockets of the All-America Football Conference in 1947. The Browns acquired him, along with man-mountain, 294-pound tackle Forrest "Chubby" Grigg, from the Rockets in a trade in the ensuing offseason for running back Bill Lund of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio and rookie guard Joe Signaigo.

Both Agase and Grigg played for the Browns through the 1951 season and as such were part of the club's AAFC championships squads in 1948 and '49, the final two years of the league's existence. In 1948, the Browns became one of the few teams in pro football history to finish a season undefeated by going 15-0.

The winning continued for Agase and the Browns when they moved to the NFL in 1950. They captured the title there that first year and then played in the title game again in 1951, losing late to the Los Angeles Rams.

Named Alexander Arrasi Agase, he was born just outside Evanston, Ill on March 27, 1922. He starred for Evanston Township High School before going to Illinois, where he became an All-American as a sophomore in 1942 in his first year of eligibility (freshmen were not permitted to play on the varsity then).

He was chosen an All-American at guard in 1943 at Purdue after transferring there to train for the Marines. He then spent three years in the service in World War II and led the extreme right flank in the pivotal invasion of Okinawa. When he came out of the Marines, he returned to Illinois to play a final college season and was named an All-American again in 1946. Upon leaving the school, he was selected by alumni and sportswriters as the best lineman in Illinois history.

After Agase departed the Browns, he finished his six-year pro playing career in 1953 with the Baltimore Colts and then went into coaching, for which he is most known nationally. He was a coach for 17 years at Northwestern in his native Evanston, spending from 1956 to '63 on the staff of Akron, Ohio native and former Browns teammate Ara Parseghian. When Parseghian left to take the Notre Dame job, Agase was named head coach of the Wildcats.

Agase served in that role for nine seasons, through 1972, compiling a 32-58-1 record. His best seasons were 1970 and '71. In 1970, the Wildcats finished 6-4 overall and 6-1 in the Big Ten, their only conference loss coming to champion Ohio State. That earned him National Coach of the Year honors by the Football Writers Association.

His 1971 team didn't do quite as well, going 7-4 overall and 6-3 in the Big Ten, but it won 14-10 at Ohio State, which still stands as Northwestern's last victory over the Buckeyes in Columbus.

Agase then went to Big Ten rival Purdue as head coach for four years (1973-76) before spending five years as athletic director at Eastern Michigan. One of his stars with the Boilermakers, running back Mike Pruitt, was the Browns' first-round draft choice in 1976.

"His best football still is ahead of him," Agase said at the time of Pruitt. "He has what I call quick feet. Mike has great acceleration. His improvement since his sophomore year really is amazing. He'll keep getting better."

Agase was right on target with his assessment because after a slow start, Pruitt blossomed with the Browns, being a key member of the Kardiac Kids teams as he rushed for 1,000 yards four times in a five-year span en route to becoming the franchise's No. 3 career rusher with 6,540 yards.

Dub Jones, the former Browns star wingback who was selected as a member of the Cleveland Browns Legends club in 2004 with, ironically James and Pruitt, had high praise for Agase when reached at his lifelong home in Ruston, La. Despite the fact the Browns were filled with stars, many of whom would eventually land in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and Agase wasn't a full-time starter, Jones said he was "a savvy ballplayer who was the hub of our team -- a vital part of our team, the kind of person who makes your team special."

Continued the 82-year-old Jones, who was an assistant coach of the Browns for five seasons and was part of their NFL championship team of 1964, "Alex was like Leroy Kelly was when the Browns had Jim Brown in that he backed up some good players and was a good player himself. When I think of Alex Agase, I think of Chuck Noll and Ara Parseghian, who were other players like that we had back in those days.

"He had the respect of everybody. That's about the greatest legacy you can leave."

In addition to his heroics during the Okinawa invasion, Agase broke his nose four different times while playing in college. Those are the type of things Leo Murphy, the Browns trainer from 1950-89, remembers about him.

"He definitely was a tough guy. He was like all of the guys who came out of the service and played for us in the early days," Murphy, now 83, said from his home in suburban Medina, Ohio, located about a half-hour southwest of Cleveland.

"He wasn't a big guy. I don't think he was even 6-foot (only 5-10 and 212 pounds), but he played way above what his physical attributes were. He had a problem with his elbow and I always had to wrap it, but he never let it bother his play.

"He was a quiet guy -- a well-liked fella by everybody. Guys like him were why we had such great camaraderie on those teams back then."



Copyright 2001 - 2007 Cleveland Browns |

Sad news.

Quote:

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The Browns at the time were using the first round of the draft to conduct a major search for wide receivers, taking Rich Kreitling of Illinois in 1959, Bobby Crespino of Mississippi in '61, Gary Collins of Maryland in '62 and Hall of Famer Paul Warfield of Warren (Ohio) Harding High School and Ohio State in '64 in addition to Hutchinson.

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Who was our GM at the time, Matt Millen's grandfather?

Sad new's for the familey and all Browns fans