The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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ing H. Yost would be all smiles over that sort of opponent decimation. Hutchins' crew is likely headed for another Women's College World Series, and perhaps another show- down between last year's cham- pionship contestants — Michigan and Florida. She's the living legend of Alumni Field, but merely cal- culating her wins on the softball diamond seems akin to crediting Thomas Edison only for inventing the phonograph. The victories Hutchins generates extend well beyond the chalk lines, dugouts and spruced-up confines of the Wilpon Complex. Just ask those fighting a much scarier opponent than the Gators. The seventh annual Michigan Soft- ball Academy produced more than $150,000 to combat breast cancer. Over the past seven years, the event has generated more than half a mil- lion dollars. Those funds allow women to hug their sons and daughters, feel the sunshine or sing "The Victors" years after their lives might have ended. That's why Sarah Harbaugh stepped up as honorary chair this year. That's why her husband, Jim, and another former U-M quarter- back, Rick Leach, were willing to square off in a home run derby to drive up the dollars. Leach won that contest, 1-0. But everybody won, and Michigan's head football coach heaped praise on a U-M coaching icon he can only hope to match. "Hutch is amazing," Harbaugh said. "Any organization runs on en- thusiasm. It's like the gas in the tank and nobody has more enthusiasm than Hutch does in everything she does. It's infectious and it rubs off on everybody. How else do you say it? "She's done it at the highest level for about the longest time. It's an at- titude of gratitude that she's at our school doing what she does." Hutchins constantly finds reason for gratitude herself. She played her college ball at Michigan State and arrived at Michigan as an assistant coach in 1982, earning a whopping $3,000. She's doing a little better these days — for herself and others. Along the way, she fought through barriers seen and unseen, gaining some high-powered fans. U-M professor and author John Bacon introduced Hutchins at the Bob Ufer Quarterback Club ban- quet as the winner of the Ooster- baan Award, named for three-time Michigan All-American receiver and coach Bennie Oosterbaan. Bacon, who wrote Bo's Lasting Lessons, spoke of another Michigan icon won over to Hutchins' fan club. "Great coaches know great coaches," Bacon said. "Bo [Schem- bechler] was a frequent visitor to her field to watch her team play. When they made that title run in 2005, Bo would watch those games at night, every night, often late at night, and talk about them the next day. She made Bo a huge convert to women's softball, as well as thousands, really millions, of others." Hutchins occasionally delivers