Alas, Terry Hutchens! You Knew Me Well

Alas, Terry Hutchens! You Knew Me Well

A man of 60 years passed away this week. I never met him. Yet, he knew me, and I believe he knew me pretty well. With his passing, part of me and another group of devotees and fans have lost part of ourselves. However, he left a lot. He was a writer. The love for those passions that he espoused will continue.

Terry Hutchens wrote about Indiana University basketball, and football, and Indiana athletics. He wrote about more than the Xs and the Os of the sports. He wrote about people; he wrote about ourselves. He was a pro's pro, probably the best.

That may not register as significant for many people, but it does for me. And, as us native Hoosiers like to say, "Every where else it is college basketball. This is Indiana." Terry Hutchens was at the forefront of what we loved and lived for.

Terry Hutchens, or "Hutch", as he was known, was a formidable part of being a Hoosier.

Identity is hard to qualify and quantify; I know I have many identities: I am a father. I am a husband. I am a church goer. I hold the priesthood of God. I am a professional in the work place. I am part time soldier for my country and state. I am an American. I am a Spanish speaker. I am an aficionado of languages and foreign cultures. I am guy who likes sports, from baseball to the Olympics. I am an active participant in some sports. I am a reader. I am a watcher. I am a conversationalist. I am a writer.

In my core DNA, I am a Hoosier fan. It seems to keep my blood flowing. It is not that I do not want to spend time with my wife or kids or buddies or church members, colleagues or neighbors -- but when the Hoosiers are on the court or field, there is another pump pumping. It's just that that is where my heart is when the game is on.

I hope you understand. This is who I became. I cannot always explain it myself. But in Indiana, this love makes us all the same: black, white, rich, poor, no matter what religion or background or philosophy. Democrats and Republicans and Communists, we all bleed Hoosier red. We are one through this sport and school. This is our faith and practice. A unifying force, hard to measure but real. Only Purdue Boilermakers or Notre Dame Irish make us question our home state loyalties. OK, Butler has been a recent thing, too. But Indiana at Bloomington is still the standard of the state.

Near or far, Indiana sports resonate with me. When I have gone far away to other countries and far off climes, Indiana sports beckons to me and connects me back to my home. Sometimes I would go months or years without the direct contact or observance of the teams. I long for those lost times when I did not see the Hoosiers fight, compete. It is tricky to explain. People like Hutchens were able to re-connect me to it.

Indiana basketball and football, and even other IU sports, bring me back home.

Thanks, Terry, for sharing. Thank you for building part of that identity for me and others. For keeping me a Hoosier. We feel passionate about the basketball and football and other sports. They are parts of who we are. It is our identity, and certainly figures like Bob Knight made it so. Or made the passion stronger. The quest for the beauty of the fight.

Hemingway had bull fighting and fishing. Steinbeck had sharecropping and vagabondery. Jack London had dog mushing and animal fights. Rowling had quiddage. Tolstoy had ballet. Great for the Russians!

Texas has football, the gridiron variety. Brazil and Argentina have futbol,  the world variety. South Asia has crickett. California has surfing and volleyball.

Natively raised Indiana folk have basketball. It is pure agony, ecstasy, and elation.

It ain't much, but it is poetry in special moments. Which could happen the next time the ball is in-bounded. 

I once wrote an online comment to Terry around 2005, back when the successor to the legendary Hall of Famer Robert Montgomery Knight Mike Davis was battling to keep the team good and stay at the job. I questioned if Terry was "really a Hoosier fan"? I am not sure if he replied to me, but I feel like in the last thirteen years he changed in his tone towards the Hoosiers. He did become a homer for the Hurry'n Hoosiers, which is the only way to be if you are within the bounds of southern Indiana. 

I know Hoosier fans across the country and the world, from Utah and California, to New England and Florida and the Bahamas. Basketball, at its best, is supposed to be played there. It is the Aristotelean "good". The ideal. That is what we cheer to see. A slice of perfection. Embodied in a leather ball and its purveyors.

The end of 2018 brought some interesting things culminating around Indiana basketball, perhaps apropos to the life of Terry and his meaning to Indiana basketball.

• ESPN TV released a very interesting (they all are) 30 for 30 special called "The Last Days of Knight". If you watch that show, you will learn a bit about the General's legacy and meaning in Bloomington. You might learn something about yourself, and you likely will learn a few things about me. At age 14 my Massachusetts cousin asked me if I liked Coach Knight. My answer was mixed, and so are the feelings we share about Coach ever since.
• Eric Anderson, former IU star and one of the last players to reach the Final Four, died at the precocious age of 48. I am his age; he was there on campus with me. Or I with him, even two years spent in South America. He handled the court for me. Hutchens wrote poignantly about him. Of course he would, but 5 other former ball players who have died too young.
• The current IU basketball team beat four decent teams by a combined 8 points, never having been done before in the history of the program. The hopes are that the current Hoosiers are clutch. The squad, with second year coach Archie Miller, a savvy all-conference senior Juwan Morgan, and two special freshmen ballers (Langford and Phinesee), has made the top 25. Where they belong.

By the time I was 5 years old Knight made himself an icon in Indiana. He reached perfection in 1976. It was never entirely perfect thereafter, as life never is.

But IU basketball has been enough.

A banner in the rafters of Assembly Hall means all the perfection you need. Knight did it three times in 11 years. We thought he would achieve a fourth, but his own protégé from Army and later Bloomington years before, Mike Krzyzewsky at Duke, would impede those efforts.

Knight made us hungry for it, because we knew what it feels like to win March Madness; we grew to expect it.

As a writer, Terry Hutchens was the consummate professional of writing: telling stories, explaining the identity of the teams and their leaders, their triumphs and miscues.

Terry showed us the drama, the struggle, the life of our on-the-court and on-the-field heroes. 

They were us. Ourselves. Winners, losers, competitors, strivers, men and women of victory and defeat. Effort, dedication, focus, and determination and discipline led to glory and joy.

Terry went out a winner. He succeeded on and off the court.

The car accident that led to his death was a mistake we have all made. He failed to stop in time exiting a ramp that would connect to the interstate that led to no other place than Bloomington, Indiana.

I have done it, you have done it. There for the grace of God we all have survived those mistakes to live another day. Terry succumbed to the wounds of that crash this week. Like a powerful man among peers, he left a legacy of success and achievement regarding the craft of writing and sports. Living life, giving and caring. He was certainly a driven person who gave and taught and mentored.

Sports writing is an art. The passion for the sports is a sublime gift-- at times taken to the extreme, yes.

But you have to know where your heart is, and for many of us, that vital tender organ is found when the lights spring on and the clock and ball are put in play.

Live on Terry Hutchens and Hoosier fans. 

The games will continue, even without its best heralded voices.

Because life is about competing and striving, and Terry did this and more.

Never daunted, we cannot falter
In the battle, we're tried and true
Indiana, our Indiana,
Indiana we're all for you! I-U!

Bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, buuuuuuuummmmm!

I-U !!!

Yes, Terry, you are a true Hoosier. We celebrate life, with you, and our collective identity forever.

Thanks for knowing me that well.