Upper Iowa University Athletics Hall of Fame
Kenneth Hutzel, class of 1949, is being inducted into the UIU Athletic Hall of Fame posthumously. He passed away May 15, 1997 – one week after his selection into the Hall of Fame.
A veteran of World War II, where he was wounded while in France, Hutzel enrolled at Upper Iowa University under the G.I. Bill in 1946 and graduated in three years in 1949. He was a three-year letter winner and starter for the Peacock football team, where he played for the legendary Doc Dorman. Dorman named two football plays after his starting defensive tackle and offensive lineman, and made Hutzel the designated receiver for the “Hutzel Pass” play. A native of Burt, Iowa, Hutzel played basketball, but not football at his high school.
He carried that basketball career into Upper Iowa, where he was a three-year letter winner and starter as a guard, forward and center on the UIU basketball team. He was a co-captain his senior year.
Following graduation with a bachelor’s degree in education, he began his coaching and teaching career in Lineville, Iowa (1949-54), where his basketball team won the Wayne County Tournament for the first time in school history. He was a teacher and a coach in Melcher, Iowa, for one year, where his football team tied for the conference championship. He taught and coached football and basketball at Allerton, Iowa (1995-62), where he compiled a basketball record of 97-6 between 1958 and 1962. In 1961 and 1962, his football teams were conference champions. In 1962, he moved to Arizona to become the head football coach at Holbrook High School. He retired in 1981.
His wife, Pat, lives in Mesa, Arizona. They have four children: Bill, Bob Jeanne and Paul, eight grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
