He had been treated for Alzheimer’s disease, his son, Matthew, said.
At 6 feet 5 inches, Hutchins was hardly a big man, but he was an outstanding rebounder, both at Brigham Young and as a professional. He also gained acclaim for his defensive skills, and he had a nifty jump shot when that was first becoming an offensive weapon.
Hutchins joined with the 6-foot forward Roland Minson in taking Brigham Young to the championship of the 1951 National Invitation Tournament at Madison Square Garden, at a time when it rivaled the NCAA championship tournament in prestige. A few days later, the Cougars reached the second round of the West regionals in the NCAA Tournament before they were eliminated.
The NIT crown was the first national championship in any sport for Brigham Young, which is best known for its affiliation with the Mormons, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Hutchins was selected by the Tri-Cities Blackhawks as the No. 2 overall pick in the 1951 NBA draft, shortly before they became the Milwaukee Hawks. He shared rookie of the year honors for the 1951-52 season with Bill Tosheff of the Indianapolis Olympians and was the co-leader in rebounds (13.3 per game) with 6-foot-9 Larry Foust of the Fort Wayne Pistons.
Hutchins was obtained by the Pistons after two seasons in Milwaukee and was a key figure in their reaching the finals of the NBA playoffs in 1955 and 1956.
Hutchins’ sister, Colleen Kay Hutchins, who was Miss America of 1952 and also a Brigham Young graduate, married New York Knicks guard Ernie Vandeweghe in 1953, when he was combining pro basketball with the beginning of his career as a physician.
They had two sons and two daughters, all of them elite athletes.
Mel Hutchins was the uncle of Kiki Vandeweghe, the high-scoring NBA forward and later general manager and coach of the Nets; Bruk (pronounced Brook) Vandeweghe, who won a bronze medal in beach volleyball at the 1994 Goodwill Games in St. Petersburg, Russia; Heather Vandeweghe, a captain of the national women’s water polo team; and Tauna Vandeweghe, who competed in the women’s 100-meter backstroke at the 1976 Montreal Olympics. Hutchins was also the great-uncle of Tauna’s daughter CoCo, a prominent tennis pro.
Melvin Ray Hutchins was born Nov. 22, 1928, in Sacramento and grew up in Arcadia, California, outside Los Angeles. He was an outstanding high school football and basketball player but competed only in basketball at BYU.
Hutchins’ Cougars defeated Dayton, 62-43, for the 1951 NIT championship behind his strong defensive effort against the Flyers’ high-scoring center, Don Meineke. Minson was the offensive star with 26 points.
Hutchins averaged 12.7 rebounds in his senior season, a preview of his pro career, during which he was a dominant figure on the boards with his spring, his long arms and his sense of timing.
He played in four All-Star Games during his seven years in the NBA.
George Yardley, one of the league’s finest jump shooters of the 1950s and Hutchins’ teammate with the Pistons, marveled at his play on both ends of the court.
“I could move my body well to either side while in the air and still control my shot,” Yardley was quoted by Charles Salzberg in the oral history “From Set Shot to Slam Dunk” (1987). “Mel Hutchins could do it, too, but we were oddities at the time.”
“As an individual defensive player Hutchins was the best,” Yardley said. “If you could score on Hutchins you could score on anybody.”
Johnny Payak, a guard who played with Hutchins on the Hawks, told how he had often stymied George Mikan, the 6-foot-10 center for the Minneapolis Lakers who became the NBA’s first superstar.
“Mel Hutchins used to drive Mikan nuts,” Payak recalled to Neil Isaacs for his oral history “Vintage NBA” (1996). “He would watch Mikan, would wait, and time his jump. Mikan didn’t have that good of a hook shot. He would kind of turn and shoot but not high in the air. Mel would time it and just knock the ball away.”
Hutchins’ playing days ended after a knee injury limited him to 18 games with the Knicks in the 1957-58 season. He averaged 11.1 points and 9.6 rebounds for his two seasons with Milwaukee, four with Fort Wayne and a final season with the Knicks.
He later worked in real estate.
In addition to his son, Hutchins’ immediate survivors include his daughters, Laura Green, Dana Dalton, Melanie Holmes and Shauna Hutchins; 14 grandchildren; and 24 great-grandchildren. His wife, Lorene (Hardy) Hutchins, died in 2011. Colleen Hutchins Vandeweghe died in 2010, and Ernie Vandeweghe died in 2014.
Hutchins and Wilt Chamberlain are the only NBA players to have led the league in rebounding in their rookie seasons.
Hutchins, at 6 feet 5, was also among the smallest (or least tall) players to be a single-season leader in rebounds. Harry Gallatin (with the Knicks in 1954) and Charles Barkley (with the Philadelphia 76ers in 1987) also led the NBA in rebounding, and all three are listed by basketball-reference.com as 6 feet 6 inches, although the NBA website states that Barkley was “probably actually closer to 6-4,” which would make him the shortest rebounding champion.
In the late spring of 1987, Hutchins received an unexpected phone call.
“The caller identified himself as Charles,” Hutchins recalled in “Forgotten Champions” (2011), a remembrance of Brigham Young’s 1951 NIT victors by Rocky Steele. “I told him that I knew a Charles that lived in Sacramento, but it didn’t sound like him. He sounded a little frustrated, and said, ‘This is Sir Charles.’ I told him I’d never heard of that. He raised his voice and said, ‘This is Sir Charles Barkley, and I just broke your record.'”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.