Jim Dutcher Memorial Replaces Doane Relays

The Doane track and field program has announced their tentative schedule for the 2015 season. The Tigers will host three indoor meets and two outdoor meets during the spring semester.

One of the Tiger meets has been renamed for the upcoming season. The Doane Relays, which were held for the 66th time this past year, will be renamed after its' founder. The Jim Dutcher Memorial will take place on April 17-18, 2015. As the years have passed, meet structures for the Doane Relays as well as other relay meets that are no longer in existence have changed from the traditional relay meet to an all-events meet we see today.

"By renaming the Doane Relays after Jim Dutcher, it gives us an opportunity to recognize a man who did a lot for Doane athletics," former Doane track and field coach Fred Beile commented. "He was a man with an extremely strong vision for athletics and the role they played for student-athletes both at the college and high school levels."

Dutcher played an important role in the Doane College Athletic Department, both as an athlete and as a coach. As an athlete, he came to Doane in 1938 after attending his hometown junior college in Hebron and competed for two years for the Tiger football, basketball and track teams. He was named all-conference in football and basketball. As a coach, he rejoined the Tiger athletic department in 1942 as the head football coach. He replaced his college coach, Gene Haylett, just before the season began in September when Haylett enlisted with the US Navy.

A knee injury that Dutcher suffered during his playing days at Doane would not allow him to complete his military service time and he was discharged. However, that did not prevent him from playing an important role for future servicemen. As part of his duties, he was in charge of the physical training program to CPT students who were assigned to Doane and the V-12 program. Doane was one of four colleges in the state of Nebraska to have a V-12 program.

Dutcher would coach basketball and track as well as serve as athletic director during his tenure at Doane in addition to football. In 1948, he started the Doane Relays and it is currently the longest continuous meet in the state of the Nebraska. In 1951, Dutcher was the first recipient of the Omaha World Herald State College Coach of the Year honor.

In 1952, Dutcher left Doane and completed his master's degree in South Dakota before taking over as athletic director and coach at Cornell College in Iowa. In 1959, he moved to Billings, Montana, and would serve as athletic director in the public school system until 1980. While in Montana, he was behind a lot of the innovated ideas especially in track. Among the ideas, he helped put together the first meet that featured both male and female athletes competing together and he helped organize the first computerized in-meet results for a Montana high school state track meet.

"Jim had the ability to look ahead with innovative ideas," Beile said. "He was able to create a meet in the Doane Relays with a vision of a small-college meet similar to the Drake Relays and it would pack the grand stands. His work in Billings was miles ahead in thinking compared to so many other places as well."

Dutcher was named to the NAIA Hall of Fame in 1972, the National High School Federation Hall of Fame in 1988 and the Nebraska Football Hall of Fame in 1992. He was named to the inaugural class of the Doane Hall of Fame in 1996 and in 1998, Doane named their new weight room in Fuhrer Field House the Dutcher Fitness Center.