Frank Dutton: A Life Remembered

By FRED KRONER

fred@mahometnews.com

Frank Dutton, who passed away on Monday (April 8), will be remembered for more than what he accomplished.

And, he accomplished so much:

–He was the longest-tenured head football coach in Mahomet-Seymour history (21 years);

–He is the all-time winningest football coach in school history (128);

–He coached the school’s first team state championship team in any sport, as well as the only Bulldog football team to win an IHSA state title (1977);

–He was inducted into the Illinois Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 1994, two years after he relinquished his coaching duties;

–By the turn of the century, the high school football field was named in his honor, Frank Dutton Field;

–In 2018, he was chosen for the Mahomet-Seymour Education Foundation Hall of Fame in its second year of existence.

That’s what he did, but his impact can’t truly be measured in statistics and achievements.

“He was not just a coach, but a mentor and a father figure,” said Bobby Slade, who quarterbacked the 1977 state championship team. “He taught you how to be a better person off the football field.”

Chuck Rippy played on the first team that Dutton coached at Mahomet-Seymour, as a senior in the fall of 1971.

“He was the first person to ask me, ‘What are your goals? What do you want in life?’” Rippy said.

Other former Bulldog athletes, such as Brad Stipp and Tom Shallenberger, had such respect for their former coach that they later returned to work with the M-S football program as assistant coaches.

“If it wasn’t for him,” Shallenberger said, “I probably wouldn’t have been a coach or gone to college.

“He was a special man, like my second father. He instilled in a lot of us to do our best, never give up whether on the football field or in life. He helped a lot of us grow as young men.”

Shallenberger was a captain on the state championship squad.

Cliff Dyer was an assistant coach during Dutton’s final decade on staff. Dyer still lives in Mahomet.

“Whether I’m at the golf course or around town, more people have asked, ‘How’s Frank doing?’ than how I’m doing,” Dyer said. “He was a huge personality. That’s why he is so asked about.”

***

Dutton passed away at home about two months before his 80^th birthday.

Before he became a beloved coach in two sports – he also guided the 1980 M-S boys’ track and field team to a third-place state finish and the 1987 team to a second-place state finish – he had to endure some tumultuous times at the outset of his tenure in the district.

In 1970, 12 juniors were part of the football program during Randy Bowman’s last season as coach.

A year later, as first-year head coach Dutton implemented his philosophies, there were six seniors on the team.

One of them who stuck it out was Tom Williamson.

“In the first couple of practices, he made a lot of people not come out,” Williamson said, “mandatory hair cuts, morning practices in pads before school.

“I hated him at first. By the end of the year, I loved him. He was a disciplinarian and was improving the program, and we needed it. We got so much better from the beginning of the year to the end. That’s when I knew he was going to do something for the school.

“I remember one time I was giving Tim Lindsey (then a freshman) a ride home after practice and I told him, ‘it’s hard now, but it will pay off with him as your coach.’”

Dutton took over a floundering football program that had won five total games in the three years before his arrival. His first team won three games and, in Year 2, M-S was 7-2.

Stipp, a junior on the three-win 1971 team, remembers the change in attitude.

“It was a whole different level,” Stipp said. “He made sure we worked hard. His practices were tough.”

Stipp recalls a team meeting he sat in on with other seniors in the fall of 1972.

“He told us that he had worked us hard the last year and wanted to know how good we wanted to be,” Stipp related. “He said if we didn’t want to be good, he wouldn’t work us as hard.”

Stipp stepped forward with a question.

“I said, ‘Can we go outside and talk about it?’” he related.

After a brief group meeting, the seniors returned to the room.

“We came back and said we wanted to be winners,” Stipp said. “He was intense, and it carried over into the team, but he made playing football fun, too.”

That team ended the year with the 7-2 record.

One emphasis of Dutton’s was that talent alone was not always the determining factor in the outcome of games.

“In our Class of ’78, we didn’t have the standout athlete who was over the top,” Slade said. “He taught us to be accountable and to be a team player.

“We were a band of brothers who played together.”

Slade said it is difficult to talk about Dutton singularly without mentioning his friend and long-time assistant Handlin.

“Him and Moose (Handlin) were motivators,” Slade said. “They fired us up and always pushed us harder.

“Their friendship was so impressive. They were two leaders and they had each other’s backs.”

There was no mistaking, however, that Dutton was calling the shots.

“We believed in him,” Slade said, “and he believed in us. There was a mutual respect. We all admired him. There was nothing we wouldn’t do for Coach.”

That remained true for decades after his graduation.

“Our friendship never wavered,” Slade said. “He and Diane (his wife since 1967) always have been in all of our hearts.”

Dutton was more than a coach who would tell his players what they should do and how they should do it.

“One night at practice, things weren’t going well in the line and Frank put on a helmet and played against (seniors) Morris Maxwell and Tom Williamson,” Rippy said. “That opened everyone’s eyes.

“He was very in-tune with the way he wanted things done.”

Dutton had a unique trait of not letting the past influence future decisions.

“He had expectations,” Shallenberger said. “If you followed them, there were no issues. If you didn’t, you’d get disciplined, but he was a fair person.

“He never held grudges.”

That philosophy was applied to staff members as well.

Dyer, then 30, learned after the fact that he wasn’t Dutton’s first choice to join the team as an assistant in 1981.

Dyer’s background was not only in football, but basketball and baseball as well.

“He was totally devoted to football,” Dyer said. “It was an interesting start. He wanted someone who had been a head coach.”

After Dyer proved himself, he subsequently learned about Dutton’s previous thoughts.

“He didn’t really want me, but later in the season he said, ‘I knew the first day you were a coach and that’s what’s important,’” Dyer said.

Their friendship flourished over the years.

“We spent the rest of his career together, but then spent as much, if not more, time together when we weren’t coaching,” Dyer said. “We (the two families) have vacationed together in Hilton Head.

“He was the most enjoyable person I’ve ever met.”

Dutton’s attention to detail was – usually – a strong point.

He once sent Stipp and assistant John Weimer on a Friday night scouting trip to Alton Marquette to get a first-hand look at an upcoming Decatur St. Teresa opponent.

“I asked him if he was sure the game wasn’t in Decatur,” said Stipp, before embarking on the nearly three-hour journey, “and he said he had checked it.”

The two M-S staff members arrived at the field on that Friday night during warmups. When they told the clerk at the gate what they were doing, they were greeted by a laugh.

“They told us that game was tomorrow (Saturday) night,” Stipp said.

“He didn’t ask me to go again,” Stipp said. “He and another coach went the next night.”

Shallenberger had the honor of following Dutton as head coach when he resigned after the 1991 football season.

“Some of the happiest times of my life were coaching with him,” Shallenberger said. “His attitude was we might be out-manned, but we won’t be out-worked.

“I used a lot of his philosophies when I became head coach.”

To this day, Shallenberger can remember the last line that Dutton used to end the majority of his pre-game speeches.

“His biggest line was, ‘Never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever give up,’” Shallenberger said, “and he said it loud and clear.

“There are a lot of kids who have used that in their work life.”

***

In addition to the state championship squad, Dutton guided the 1986 team into the semifinals. Two of his other football teams advanced to the quarterfinals.

He directed teams into the postseason playoffs in three different decades.

In track, he coached four teams that won sectional titles in a five-year span.

The prowess of the Homer native and former all-conference offensive tackle at Illinois State University as a coach and educator have been well-documented.

What is lesser known, however, is a penchant Dutton had for humor, quips and puns.

For years, he regularly submitted jokes to late-night talk show hosts, such as Jay Leno and David Letterman, that occasionally made the televised monologues.

He also was a cartoonist – many of which were political in nature – and were published weekly by the Mahomet Citizen through 2017.

“He always had a sense of humor,” Stipp said. “He would try jokes out on us (assistant coaches).”

Though he was serious about football, Dutton was skilled in other areas.

“He was a very good cartoonist and very talented,” Shallenberger said. “He enjoyed doing that.”

Slade said he appreciated his former coach’s sense of humor.

“He loved comedy and that connected us in a lot of ways,” Slade said. “I’ll never forget his laugh, but I will miss it.”

Dyer doesn’t recall ever giving Dutton a thumbs-down reaction when he heard a joke.

“I was a place for him to sound off on,” Dyer said. “He’d ask my opinion.

“His laugh was infectious, and he could make you laugh.”

Monday, however, was more reserved for tears.

“There are a lot of former players who loved him and a lot of sad players right now,” Shallenberger said, “me being one of them.

“He was a great coach and an even better person.”