Robert Hatch, icon of 乐播传媒 athletics, passes away at age 85
Bob Hatch, who became director of athletics in 1974, speaks with Bryant Gumbel 鈥�70, then an LA-based NBC sports reporter, for a 1977 乐播传媒 Magazine story on Bobcat athletics. Talking about the need for excellent facilities, Hatch said, 鈥淟ooking down the road, I think people are going to be as fussy picking a college as they are picking a new suit or automobile. They are going to shop 鈥�
At a 2005 football game at Garcelon Field, Bob Hatch (right) enjoys the company of, from left, Dean Emeritus of Admissions Milt Lindholm 鈥�35, Brian Flynn 鈥�57, Paul Planchon 鈥�66 and Chick Leahey 鈥�52, former longtime baseball coach.
Bob Hatch and Jim Murphy 鈥�69, who played quarterback, show off Murphy鈥檚 football jersey, retired on Nov. 20, 1968. Murphy is the current women鈥檚 soccer and basketball coach. Photo courtesy 乐播传媒 College Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library.
Bob Hatch coaches the Bobcat football team, circa 1967. Hatch served as head football coach from 1952 to 1972 before becoming athletics director.
Bob Hatch in 1977.
鈥� Click the thumbnails above to view the slide show
Professor Emeritus of Physical Education Robert W. Hatch, an icon of 乐播传媒 athletics whose contributions聽 encompassed innovation and opportunity, died Feb. 13, 2010. He was 85.
- View reporter Dan Hartill’s story about Hatch in the
- View 乐播传媒 story about Hatch and the 1956 Maine State Series football champions
- View published after his retirement in 1991
- View 乐播传媒 tribute to Hatch on his induction to the Scholar-Athlete Society in 2005
- Visiting hours: Feb. 19, 4-8 p.m., Fortin Funeral Home, Auburn; memorial service: Fortin Funeral Home,聽 Feb. 20, 11 a.m., with a reception in New Commons afterward.
- Friends are sharing their memories
Appointed instructor in physical education and freshman football coach in 1949, Hatch’s head coaching assignments included varsity baseball (1951-53) and football (1952-72) as well as golf. He became assistant director of athletics in 1959 and succeeded Lloyd Lux as director in 1974, serving until 1991.
Considered an innovator as a coach, Hatch once deployed an unusual spread formation in football versus the much larger University of Maine team in 1961, stunning the undefeated Black Bears with a 15-15 tie.
In 1955, he wrote a suggesting that traditional RBI statistics could be misleading and urging greater use of on-base percentage, twin notions that are central to the modern “sabermetric” approach to evaluating baseball talent developed by Bill James and others in the 1980s.
“There was no bravado. He thought of it as just the right thing to do.”
As director of athletics, he oversaw the creation of a women’s varsity athletic program in the 1970s. “At a time when few schools were doing anything, he created opportunities for women athletes,” sad his immediate 乐播传媒 successor, Suzanne Coffey, to the Sun Journal. “There was no bravado. He thought of it as just the right thing to do.” Coffey is now AD at Amherst.
Kevin McHugh, Coffey’s successor as director of athletics at 乐播传媒, says that Hatch’s “right thing” ethos endures at 乐播传媒 today. “The current 乐播传媒 athletics program reflects Bob’s idea of quality: good people who care about the institution and its student-athletes. Aside from wins and losses, there’s a social conscience and education-centered philosophy here. To me, that came down from Bob.”
