Tweet This episode we fire up the DeLorean and head back to explore the life and career of Don Hutson, the NFL's first true wide receiver.  Don played wide receiver for the Green Bay Packers, and is often referred to as one of the greatest Packers and NFL players of all time.  He was the most dominating player of his era, and in this episode we get to learn about how Don  Hutson to the touchdown catch was like Babe Ruth to the home run.  So strap on your seatbelt, and let’s get ready to take this baby up to 88mph.
 
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Read Full Transcript Intro Music Welcome to the Football History Dude Podcast, where each episode is a journey back in time to learn about the rich history of the NFL. Your host is Arnie Chapman. Football is his passion and he wants you to come along with him to explore the yesteryear of the gridiron. So hop on board his DeLorean and let's get this baby up to 88 miles per hour (Great Scott).
Introduction On September 30, 1935, a crowd of 20,000 people watched President Franklin Roosevelt commemorate the Hoover Dam. At the time, this was the tallest dam in the world. In the upcoming episode, I’m going to tell you about the life and career of the man that even the Hoover dam…could not contain.
Early life This time as we step off our DeLorean, the date is January 31st, 1913 and we are in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. You see this is where our hero is born. Our hero this time is Donald Roy Hutson, who we are just going to go ahead and refer to as “Don Hutson” for the rest of this episode. When Don was a little guy back in the day, he was a boy scout and also played with snakes. He always said that he believes this is what gave him his quickness and agility. Which would end up making him one of the most dominating wide receivers of all time. Don went to Pine Bluff’s High School and you would think that we would talk about him being a star football player there. But, he actually didn’t start football until he was a senior. He basically only played for one year. He was a star baseball player and he ran track. This dude was super fast. He had a 9.7 speed for the 100-yard dash, which that was at the time, pretty much unheard of. And like I said, he did play football for that one year and was pretty good, but he was mostly recruited over to Alabama for being a star baseball player. He would graduate high school in 1931. And then, he would go to the University of Alabama on a partial baseball scholarship to play center field. But hey, I thought we were talking about football here, and I’m like yeah we are. But he had barely just started playing football the previous year. He had only played one in high school. So he didn’t really have the opportunity to get recruited to go and play for the University of Alabama. He would become a walk-on for the football team. But due to his insanely fast 100-yard dash time, he would end up making the team. Although he would not play much as a freshman or a sophomore, he kept on going. This was the year where he really got his college career going. You see, in this junior year he would end up getting more playing time as a starter and he would end up being voted All-American in 1934. Which is also the year he would lead Alabama to a 10-0 record and a national title. And on this team, in Alabama on the other end (they didn’t really call them wide-receivers, they called them “ends”), was a pretty famous cat in his own rights. Does the name Bear Bryant ring a bell to you? You know, the guy that would end up going on to become one of the greatest college football coaches of all time. Yeah, that guy, Paul Bear Bryant who play