Longtime Indiana sports writer Terry Hutchens dead at 60

Published Dec. 21, 2018 7:45 p.m. ET

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Terry Hutchens, a longtime and award-winning sports writer who covered the NFL's Colts and the Indiana Hoosiers in the final days of coach Bob Knight's tenure, died Friday after being critically injured in an automobile collision. He was 60.

Scott Underwood, editor of The (Anderson) Herald Bulletin , said Hutchens' family notified the newspaper that he died at Community Hospital North in Indianapolis.

"Hutch" was a five-time recipient of the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association Indiana Sports Writer of the Year Award. He most recently was Indiana University beat writer for CNHI Sports Indiana, a conglomeration of 13 newspapers, including The Herald Bulletin, and websites throughout the state. Before CNHI, Hutchens worked for The Indianapolis Star, The Indianapolis News and the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel.

CNHI Sports Indiana Editor George Bremer said Hutchens was "one of the most respected and celebrated sports journalists in the state of Indiana. The professionalism he brings to CNHI Sports Indiana is unmatched."

Indiana men's basketball coach Archie Miller, his predecessor, Tom Crean, Colts owner Jim Irsay and athletic director Fred Glass were among those mourning the loss.

"He was a great chronicler of IU athletics history for over 20 years, but far more importantly, a devoted father and husband and a treasured friend to so many," Glass said.

Huchens had a quirky and endearing way of getting material from his sources, Don Fischer, the longtime radio voice of IU basketball and football, told the Star .

"He might make a smart aleck comment or make a dig or say something outlandish just to see if you'll bite on it," Fischer said. "Then he starts laughing and he tells you what he is after. Now, you're caught."

Hutchens grew up in Southern California and lived there until he was 28.

"For a Californian, he was amazingly immersed in IU sports culture," said David Woods, a Star sports writer who worked with Hutchens from 1994 to 2013. "He studied it, he learned it, he lived it. He understood it."

Hutchens wrote nine books on Indiana sports, three children's books and "Never, Ever Quit," a Christian inspirational book co-authored with Jane Hoeppner, wife of IU football coach Terry Hoeppner, who died in 2007 of rain cancer.

The collision occurred earlier this week in suburban Fishers. Survivors include his wife, Susan; his mother, Dena; and sons Bryan and Kevin.