Former Illinois State coach and womens basketball pioneer Jill Hutchison is the 2002 winner of the Jostens-Berenson Service Award presented by the Womens Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA).
Hutchison, who led Illinois State to 461 victories in 28 years as head basketball coach before retiring in 1999, continues to influence the game she helped develop over three decades. She serves as an analyst for basketball telecasts on Fox Sports Network as well as for Illinois State broadcasts on WJBC AM 1230 and on the Redbird Radio Network. In addition, Hutchison is an administrator on the Illinois State athletics staff, focusing on services to alumni student-athletes.
Sponsored by Jostens, the award is for lifelong service to womens basketball and named in honor of Senda Berenson, who introduced basket ball to her female gym class students in 1892 at Smith College--just one year after basketballs invention by Dr. James Naismith in nearby Springfield, Mass. Hutchison will be formally recognized at the WBCAs National Convention at an awards brunch at 11 a.m., March 29 at the Marriott Rivercenter Grand Ballroom in San Antonio, Texas. The convention will be held in conjuction with the NCAA Division I Womens Final Four.
One of the first women elected to the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame, she served three separate terms as WBCA national president during her coaching days at Illinois State and wrote one of the definitive books of its kind Coaching Womens Basketball Successfully while at Illinois State. With the Redbirds, she led her teams to national tournaments 16 times while developing two USA Olympic players and 13 first-team all-conference players. Over her 28 years as head coach, every one of her senior players earned a degree from Illinois State.
Current WBCA Chief Executive Officer Beth Bass believes Hutchison is an ideal choice for the award for several reasons.
Jill has committed her life to womens athletics and has been a true ally of our association, said Bass. Her tireless dedication, not only to womens basketball, but also to womens athletics, is second to none. On behalf of the more than 5,000 members of the WBCA, I would like to thank and congratulate Jill Hutchison on being named this years recipient of the Jostens-Berenson Service Award.
Early in her career, Hutchison served as tournament director for the first Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) national tournament, held on the Illinois State campus in 1972. She was part of rules committees which made ground-breaking changes in the game including going from the six-player to five-player game in the 1970s and, in the 1980s, introducing the smaller womens basketball now still in use. Later in her tenure, Hutchison helped attract the 1999 NCAA Midwest Regional womens basketball tournament to Illinois States Redbird Arena.
A 1967 graduate of the University of New Mexico who has a masters degree from Illinois State and a doctorate from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, Hutchison is flattered by the recognition of her peers and sees the WBCAs work as vital to the growth of womens basketball.
Its some very elite company, and thats probably the most flattering thing about the award, said Hutchison. Since women joined the NCAA, the WBCA has been the primary vehicle for womens input into intercollegiate athletics. I feel very fortunate for the opportunities I had through the WBCA and AIAW to be part of the growth of womens basketball.
And Hutchison is enthusiastic about the future of womens basketball as well.
The game is played at a significantly higher level than 20 years ago when we started the WBCA, said Hutchison. I think the continuing growth and development of coaches is responsible for a large measure of that progress. I hope current coaches stay involved to continue making it a better game.
Hutchison is the 19th Jostens-Berenson Award winner. Others honored include current Tennessee coach Pat Summitt, former UCLA coach Billie Moore and former Drake coach Carole Baumgarten.
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