Paul D. "Tony" Hinkle (December 19, 1899 – September 22, 1992) was an

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

, and

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

player, coach, and college athletic administrator. He attended the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

, where he won varsity letters in three sports. Hinkle captained the Chicago Maroons basketball team for two seasons and was twice selected as an

All-American The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed on outstanding athletes in the United States who are considered to be among the best athletes in their respective sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an Al ...

, in 1919 and 1920. After graduating from the University of Chicago, Hinkle moved on to

Butler University Butler University is a private university in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. Founded in 1855 and named after founder Ovid Butler, the university has over 60 major academic fields of study within six colleges in the arts, business, communic ...

as a coach. There, over the course of nearly 50 years, he served as the head football coach (1926, 1935–1941, 1946–1969), head basketball coach (1926–1942, 1945–1970), and head baseball coach (1921–1928, 1933–1941, 1946–1970). Hinkle was inducted into the

Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is an American history museum and hall of fame, located at 1000 Hall of Fame Avenue in Springfield, Massachusetts. It serves as basketball's most complete library, in addition to promoting and pre ...

as a contributor in 1965. Butler's home basketball arena was renamed as Hinkle Fieldhouse in the coach's honor in 1966.

Early life and playing career

Hinkle was born in

Logansport, Indiana Logansport is a city in and the county seat of Cass County, Indiana, United States. The population was 18,366 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. Logansport is located in northern Indiana at the junction of the Wabash River, Wabash an ...

, to Edgar Clayton and Winnie (Ray) Hinkle. He graduated in 1917 from Calumet High School in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, Illinois, and attended the

from 1917 to 1921. As a player at Chicago, he lettered three times in basketball, was twice All-Big Ten, twice team captain, named to the Helms All-America team in

1919 Events January * January 1 ** The Czechoslovak Legions occupy much of the self-proclaimed "free city" of Pressburg (later Bratislava), enforcing its incorporation into the new republic of Czechoslovakia. ** HMY ''Iolaire'' sinks off th ...

and

1920 Events January * January 1 ** Polish–Soviet War: The Russian Red Army increases its troops along the Polish border from 4 divisions to 20. ** Kauniainen in Finland, completely surrounded by the city of Espoo, secedes from Espoo as its ow ...

, and was a member of the

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference, among others) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Fa ...

championship team in 1919–20 that lost the national championship to Penn.

Coaching career

Hinkle joined

in 1921 when it was still at the Irvington campus; the university bought Fairview Park in 1922 and moved the campus there in 1928. At Butler, Hinkle served as a teacher, coach and athletic administrator for nearly half a century. Although he coached football, basketball, and baseball, he was primarily known as a basketball coach. His teams were fearless, gaining a reputation as "

Big Ten The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference, among others) is a collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives in 1 ...

killers". In 1929, the Butler Bulldogs basketball team he led to a 17–2 record was crowned national champion; in

1924 Events January * January 12 – Gopinath Saha shoots Ernest Day, whom he has mistaken for Sir Charles Tegart, the police commissioner of Calcutta, and is arrested soon after. * January 20–January 30, 30 – Kuomintang in Ch ...

. He had been the assistant coach when they won the National AAU Tournament and received similar honors. Overall, his basketball teams scored 560 victories versus 392 defeats, and he tallied more than 1,000 victories in all sports. Hinkle was instrumental in ending the rule providing for a jump ball after every basket and in the introduction of the three-second rule. Basketballs were generally brown until Hinkle introduced the orange basketball in the late 1950s. He also came up with the "Hinkle System" offense strategy, based on a complex system of motion, passes, picks and screens; it was adopted by many of the over 200 high school and college coaches trained by Hinkle. Hinkle was president of the

National Association of Basketball Coaches The National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC), headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri, is an American organization of men's college basketball coaches. It was founded in 1927 by Phog Allen, the men's basketball head coach for the Univ ...

from 1954 to 1955, and served on their board. He won the NABC's top award in 1962 for contributions to the betterment of the game of basketball. He was named chairman of the Rules Committee of the National Basketball Committee of the U.S. and Canada. Hinkle was inducted into the

in 1965, the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in 1964, and the Indiana Football Hall of Fame in 1974. Hinkle's legacy is remembered on the Butler campus with Hinkle Fieldhouse, longtime site of Indiana's state high school championships and featured in the film '' Hoosiers''. The fieldhouse, originally named Butler Fieldhouse, was the largest basketball arena in the United States for decades. It was renamed as Hinkle Fieldhouse in 1966. Hinkle coached 41 seasons of basketball at Butler, ending in 1970, and remained with Butler University until his death in 1992. Hinkle is buried alongside his wife, Jane Murdock Stewart Hinkle (1907–1959) at

Crown Hill Cemetery Crown Hill Cemetery is a historic rural cemetery located at 700 West 38th Street in Indianapolis, Marion County, Indiana. The privately owned cemetery was established in 1863 at Strawberry Hill, whose summit was renamed "The Crown", a high poi ...

Indianapolis Indianapolis ( ), colloquially known as Indy, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Indiana, most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana, Marion ...

Head coaching record

Football

Basketball

References

External links

*
Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hinkle, Tony 1899 births 1992 deaths American football ends American men's basketball coaches American men's basketball players American male middle-distance runners Guards (basketball) Butler Bulldogs athletic directors Butler Bulldogs baseball coaches Butler Bulldogs football coaches Butler Bulldogs men's basketball coaches Chicago Maroons baseball players Chicago Maroons football players Chicago Maroons men's basketball players Chicago Maroons men's track and field athletes Great Lakes Navy Bluejackets football coaches College men's basketball head coaches in the United States All-American college men's basketball players Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductees National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame inductees People from Logansport, Indiana Coaches of American football from Illinois Players of American football from Chicago Baseball coaches from Illinois Baseball players from Chicago Basketball coaches from Illinois Basketball players from Chicago Burials at Crown Hill Cemetery 20th-century American sportsmen