About Inductee

Scott Crutcher, one of the finest student-athletes ever produced at J. O. Johnson High School, is a native of Madison County and has lived in Huntsville most his life. Born Nov. 30, 1959, he grew up in the northwest section of the city and attended Davis Hills before graduating in 1978 at Johnson High, where he played football and baseball for Coach Max Burleson in the early era of the schools history. Crutcher was a second team All-City running back in 1977, but his real forte in athletics was always baseball. Even as a 10-year-old, he could throw harder and faster and hit further than other players his age. At 13, he threw his first no-hitter in the 1973 Babe Ruth district tournament and two years later he led the Northwest Babe Ruth All-Star team all the way to the Babe Ruth World Series. One of his highlights was pitching 10 straight shutout innings and then hitting a home run in the bottom of the 10th to beat Jefferson City, Mo., 1-0 in the national semifinal game. A three-time All-City baseball player as a pitcher/infielder, Crutcher was named Johnsons Athlete of the Year in 1978 and was voted the citys Most Valuable Player the same year. After high school, he signed a baseball scholarship with Columbia (Tenn.) Junior College, where he started at third base for two seasons (1979-80). He then signed with the University of Mississippi. In his first year at Ole Miss, Crutcher played left field and hit .324, with 34 RBI, seven home runs, four triples and 11 doubles. Crutcher returned to third base as a senior and helped lead Ole Miss to the 1982 SEC Western Division title and a third place finish in the SEC Tournament. The Rebels also beat arch-rival Mississippi State five times out of seven games that season. If youre at Ole Miss, five out of seven is big, Crutcher said. After his college career, Crutcher returned to Huntsville in 1983 and played independent baseball and softball for several years throughout the Madison County area. As his playing days wound down, he began donating much of his time to coaching T-ball, coach pitch and kid pitch baseball in the New Market, Riverton and Central areas. In 2000, he organized the Riverton Braves youth baseball team and became a widely known teacher in the fundamentals of hitting, pitching and fielding for various youth teams throughout the county. And he still finds time to play golf and go fishing. Crutcher is the supervisor of the Shipping and Receiving Department at Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Huntsville. He and his wife Marietta, a childhood sweetheart, have a son, Colby, born in 1994.