Mel Hutchins

Mel Hutchins
Hutchins from the 1951 Banyan
Personal information
Born (1928-11-22) November 22, 1928
Sacramento, California
Nationality American
Listed height 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m)
Listed weight 200 lb (91 kg)
Career information
High school Arcadia (Arcadia, California)
College BYU (1947–1951)
NBA draft 1951 / Round: 1 / Pick: 2nd overall
Selected by the Tri-Cities Blackhawks
Playing career 1951–1958
Position Power forward / Center
Number 14, 2, 9, 4, 10
Career history
1951–1953 Milwaukee Hawks
1953–1957 Fort Wayne Pistons
1957–1958 New York Knicks
Career highlights and awards
Career NBA statistics
Points 4,851 (11.1 ppg)
Rebounds 4,186 (9.6 rpg)
Assists 1,298 (3.0 apg)
Stats at Basketball-Reference.com

Melvin R. Hutchins (born November 22, 1928) is a retired American basketball player. He played professionally in the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1951 to 1958.

College career

A 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) power forward–center, Hutchins attended Brigham Young University in 1946–47 and 1947–48 as a freshman and sophomore, and after a one-year absence where he worked in Southern California, in 1949–50 and 1950–51. As a senior, he led BYU to the 1951 NIT National Championship. At the conclusion of the 1951 season, Hutchins played in the annual East-West College All-Star game, where he was named MVP after leading the West to victory.

On February 16, 2013, Hutchins and his BYU teammate Roland Minson had their jerseys retired during a ceremony at half-time of a BYU and University of Portland basketball game.[1]

Professional career

Hutchins was taken with the second pick in the 1951 NBA draft. He played for the Milwaukee Hawks, Fort Wayne Pistons, and New York Knicks. In 1952, as a rookie, he was the co-leader of the NBA in total rebounds with 880, at a rate of 13.3 rebounds per game. As of 2016, Hutchins and Wilt Chamberlain are the only rookies in NBA history to lead the league in rebounding. Hutchins and Bill Tosheff were named co-NBA Rookie of the Year by newspaper writers—a designation not currently recognized by the NBA, although it has appeared in the official NBA record book as recently as 1998.[2][3] During his career, Hutchins appeared in four NBA All-Star Games, (1953, 1954, 1956, and 1957), and finished fourth in MVP voting in 1956.[4]

Hutchins helped lead the Pistons to back-to-back NBA Finals in 1955 and 1956, when the Pistons fell short of a championship in both series, in 7 and 5 games, respectively. Along with being one of the top rebounders in the NBA, Hutchins was renowned for his defense.[5] During his Hall of Fame induction speech in August 2011, Satch Sanders said that Hutchins was one of the great defenders who inspired him to play defense at a high level: "He (Hutchins) was so smooth defensively, always in the right place", Sanders told CSNNE.com moments after delivering his acceptance speech. "I thought to myself, 'I sure hope one day I can play like that.'"[6] After sustaining a serious knee injury midway through the 1958 season, Hutchins retired after seven NBA seasons, with 4,851 career points and 4,186 career rebounds.

NBA career statistics

Legend
  GP Games played   GS  Games started  MPG  Minutes per game
 FG%  Field goal percentage  3P%  3-point field goal percentage  FT%  Free throw percentage
 RPG  Rebounds per game  APG  Assists per game  SPG  Steals per game
 BPG  Blocks per game  PPG  Points per game  Bold  Career high
* Led the league

Regular season

Year Team GP MPG FG% FT% RPG APG PPG
1951–52 Milwaukee 66 39.7 .365 .644 13.3* 2.9 9.2
1952–53 Milwaukee 71 40.7 .379 .654 11.2 3.2 11.7
1953–54 Fort Wayne 72 40.8 .401 .677 9.7 2.9 10.3
1954–55 Fort Wayne 72 39.7 .378 .708 9.2 3.4 12.0
1955–56 Fort Wayne 66 33.9 .425 .643 7.5 2.7 12.0
1956–57 Fort Wayne 72 36.8 .387 .738 7.9 2.9 12.4
1957–58 New York 18 21.3 .389 .558 4.8 1.9 7.0
Career 437 37.9 .389 .673 9.6 3.0 11.1
All-Star 4 28.5 .282 .500 5.3 1.8 6.5

Playoffs

Year Team GP MPG FG% FT% RPG APG PPG
1954 Fort Wayne 4 40.5 .326 .706 9.3 1.5 10.5
1955 Fort Wayne 11 37.9 .417 .679 8.1 2.8 14.4
1956 Fort Wayne 10 37.7 .304 .610 8.8 2.3 9.3
1957 Fort Wayne 2 34.0 .300 .714 11.5 5.0 11.5
Career 27 37.9 .355 .661 8.8 2.6 11.7

Personal

Hutchins is the brother of 1952 Miss America winner Colleen Kay Hutchins and the uncle of former two-time NBA All Star Kiki Vandeweghe.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Harmon, Dick (February 16, 2013). "Dick Harmon: BYU retires jerseys of two storied basketball players, Minnie and Hutch". Deseret News. Retrieved July 19, 2015.
  2. ↑ Friedman, David (March 2, 2009). "Bill Tosheff: NBA Co-Rookie of the Year and Tireless Advocate for the "Pre-1965ers". 20 Second Timeout. Retrieved September 1, 2011.
  3. ↑ Goldstein, Allan (October 30, 1994). "NBA forgot it honored Hoffman". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved September 1, 2011.
  4. ↑ Bradley, Robert. "All-Time Most Valuable Player Voting". The Association for Professional Basketball Research. Retrieved July 19, 2015.
  5. ↑ Ramsey, David (April 9, 2010). "When the Dust Settled". NBA Playoff Encyclopedia. Retrieved July 19, 2015.
  6. ↑ Blakely, A. Sherrod (August 13, 2011). "Satch's induction honors contributions on, off the court". Celtics Insider. Retrieved July 19, 2015.
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