Green Bay Great Hutson Dies at 84

Don Hutson, whose football prowess took on national stature with his play in the 1935 Rose Bowl and whose role in NFL lore continues, 52 years after he retired, died Thursday at 84 in Rancho Mirage of an undisclosed illness.

Hutson, who was among 17 inducted in the first class of the pro football Hall of Fame in 1963, was hospitalized June 17 and discharged to a convalescent home, where he died.

He had come from Arkansas to play end at Alabama, where the other end was Paul “Bear” Bryant, later renowned as Alabama’s coach. The two of them and quarterback Dixie Howell were the consolation-prize entry against Stanford’s “Vow Boys” in the Rose Bowl after Minnesota’s 1934 national champions were denied the bid by the Big Ten Conference.

Hutson caught eight passes and scored twice for the Crimson Tide, which scored 22 points in the second quarter and beat Stanford, 29-13.

The game, and Hutson’s other exploits in an All-American career at Alabama, made him highly sought after by a highly speculative operation, the NFL. So taken was Hutson by the idea of playing football for money, he signed with both the Green Bay Packers and Brooklyn Football Dodgers in the last year before the NFL began drafting collegians.

Hutson ended up with Green Bay for $300 a week.

He caught an 83-yard touchdown pass on his first play as a pro and added 98 more touchdown catches in an 11-year career.

Hutson remains the most fabled Packer.

“I speak for the entire Green Bay Packers’ organization when I say that we are extremely saddened to hear of Don Hutson’s passing,” Packer General Manager Ron Wolf told the Associated Press on Thursday night. “He most certainly was the greatest player in the history of this franchise.

“In the era he played in, he was the dominant player in the game--not just as a receiver, but as a kicker and with his ability to play defense.”

He might have dominated in any era.

Hutson was 6 feet 1, 190 pounds and ran the 100-yard dash in 9.7 seconds at a time when the world record was 9.5.

He led the NFL in touchdowns in eight seasons, four in a row, and no one else has done it more than three times. He also led the league in receiving eight seasons, five in a row, and no one has done that more than four times.

Hutson had 99 touchdown receptions, a record that stood until Seattle’s Steve Largent broke it in 1989. (Jerry Rice later eclipsed Largent’s mark.)

It didn’t bother Hutson to be No. 2 in the record books, or even No. 3.

“I love to see my records broken, I really do,” he said. “You get a chance to relive [a part of] your life, the whole experience.”

And lest the idea be put forth that Hutson’s exploits came against watered-down defenses in the 60-minute-player era, Paul Hornung, a member of the ‘60s Lombardi Packers, offers another opinion.

“I’m a believer,” Hornung said after watching film of Hutson catching passes against triple coverage. “Am I a believer! You know what Hutson would do in this league today? The same things he did when he played.”

Others apparently agree. Hutson was named to the NFL’s All 50-Year Team in 1970 and then to the league’s 75th anniversary team in 1994.

After retirement from the NFL in 1945, Hutson became a car dealer in Racine, Wis., and later retired to Rancho Mirage.

No funeral arrangements had been made as of Thursday.