Biography
Experienced Scottish forward Duncan Hutchison joined City in July 1934 from Derby County for a £1,000 fee. He played for the Tigers throughout the 1934/35 season – the first of his eight goals for the club came against Bradford Park Avenue in October 1934 and he continued to sprinkle goals across the rest of the season as the Tigers finished in the middle reaches of the Division Two table. He left the club in June 1935 to return to his native Scotland in a deal that saw Bob Yorke join the Tigers as makeweight.
Duncan Hutchison, known during his footballing career as ‘Hurricane Hutch’, was born in the Fife town of Kelty. He began his football career as a youngster while working as a coal miner, playing for local Fife league team Lethans Heatherbell who played their games at Steelend, a village located five miles north of Dunfermline. In August 1925 he was signed by a second bucolic sounding club, Rosewell Rosedale, based in the Midlothian town of Rosewell – the club that later became Scottish junior side Whitehill Welfare. Within three months at Rosewell he had impressed enough to attract the attention of Scottish League teams and in November 1925 he joined Scottish Division Two side Dunfermline Athletic after a successful three match trial. He assisted the Pars to the league title at the end of the 1925/26 season although a leg fracture hampered further game time.
In July 1927 Duncan was handed a free transfer and switched to recently relegated Division Two side Dundee United where he made an immediate and lasting impression playing in the centre forward role. After scoring on his August 1927 debut against Bathgate, Hutchison was a prolific marksman whose goals helped United win the Division Two title at the end of the 1928/29 season. During these two seasons he netted hattricks against Arthurlie (January 1928), Third Lanark (March 1928), Arbroath (November 1928), Albion Rovers (four goals, March 1929) and Stenhousemuir (ten days later in March 1929). When he left Dundee United at the end of August 1929 he had scored a remarkable 70 goals in just 83 appearances, a fine return for a player that had been discarded by his previous club.
Despite being elevated to Scottish Division One, and having rebuffed many previous approaches for their star striker from Arsenal and Liverpool amongst many English sides, Dundee United were unable to resist a £4,000 transfer fee offered in August 1929 and Hutchison moved to English Division One side Newcastle United. He made his Magpies debut three days later against Manchester United but it took until Boxing Day 1929 for him to notch his first English goal against Middlesbrough. He netted five more times in the 1929/30 season, having moved primarily to the outside right position, but returned to the centre forward shirt in December 1930 and embarked on another goalscoring spree that yielded fourteen goals in 16 appearances including a January 1931 FA Cup hattrick against Nottingham Forest. An injury meant that Hutchison was not part of the Newcastle United first team for the first half of the 1931/32 season, when he returned for one start against Liverpool in January 1932, which became his final Newcastle appearance, he had taken his tally to 21 goals in 46 appearances.
In March 1932 Duncan switched to Division One rivals Derby County, he made his debut against Grimsby Town in April 1932 and scored his first goal for the club a week later against Liverpool. Hutchison was part of the Rams’ first team squad during the 1932/33 season but had lost his potency in front of goal and scored just once. He was rarely used during the 1933/34 season, netting a brace in December 1933 against Middlesbrough and making his final appearance in January 1934 in an FA Cup tie against Bristol City, which took his Derby County tally to four goals in 30 appearances. He left Derby in July 1934 to join Hull City.
In June 1935 Hutchison rejoined Scottish Division Two side Dundee United amid a considerable fanfare and over the next four seasons he once again found a regular first team start and scored regularly, though not quite at the thirty goals per season rate of his previous spell in Dundee United six years earlier. He netted 52 goals in 132 appearances during these four years before leaving the club during the 1939 close season – during this spell he scored two further hattricks against East Stirling in April 1936 and King’s Park in October 1937.
Hutchison briefly returned to Dundee United for a couple of friendly matches during the later months of 1939, having hung up his boots when World War Two put a stop to league football in September 1939. After retiring Hutchison was briefly an air raid warden and in 1940 became a publican at the United Bar on Castle Street in the heart of Dundee city centre. He temporarily handed the license to his wife between 1941 and 1945 so he could serve in the RAF and retired from his publican role in 1969 after twenty nine years of service.
In March 1953 Duncan joined the board of directors at Dundee United, he was briefly caretaker manager of the first team in September 1954 and was elevated to club chairman in November 1963, a role he relinquished in September 1965 after his proscribed two year term. Hutchison remained a board member at Dundee United until his death in his home town of Broughty Ferry in January 1973.
Details
Nationality: Scotland
Date/Place of Birth: 3 March 1904, Kelty
Hull City First Game: 29 August 1934, Plymouth Argyle A (Division Two), 30 years, 179 days old
Hull City Final Game: 27 April 1935, Bradford City A (Division Two), 31 years, 55 days old
Clubs
Lethans Heatherbell, Rosewell Rosedale (1925), Dunfermline Athletic (1925-1927), Dundee United (1927-1929), Newcastle United (1929-1932), Derby County (1932-1934), Hull City (1934-1935), Dundee United (1935-1939)
Hull City Record
Career: 39 apps, 8 goals
Duncan Hutchison| Season | LGE App | LGE Gls | FAC App | FAC Gls | FLC App | FLC Gls | EUR App | EUR Gls | OTH App | OTH Gls |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1934/35 | 38 | 8 | 1 | 0 | – | – | – | – | – | – |
I’m from Newcastle Upon Tyne and at the age of 12 was lucky enough to meet this man and learn his history first hand. I can not, of course comment on his playing days, as I was too young. However, as a person he was a wonderful guy and his wife a lovely woman too. We met on holiday at Glenluce in Scotland staying in a caravan. Our family spent many days sitting with them both and sharing stories. It was lovely and by the end of our time there, I’d found I had great affection for Duncan and his wife. At the end of the holiday my mum and dad swapped addresses with them to stay in touch and we said our sorrowful goodbyes, sad to be leaving these lovely new friends. On our return I constantly asked if they’d written and how they were. I had really taken them into my heart. When I was 13, my mum received a letter to say Duncan had passed away. It was not my first experience of grief, but I cried my eyes out and felt bereft for the lovely man who had treat me, not like a child, but like an equal. All my life he has popped into my thoughts at times and when I read this, I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes. Even at 64 I feel the sorrow of this great man’s loss.
I’m sure Duncan was a brilliant footballer, but I know for a fact he was a wonderful man. I will remember him until the day I die. RIP Duncan, you are missed.
Nice tribute, Lyndsey! I’m also from Newcastle (born in ’54) and was just sharing memories of same-named football players with a friend when I thought I’d see if I could find a photo of my namesake and found this site. Suffice to say, I’m glad you found Duncan to be a good man. Clearly he made a lasting impression on a young lad he took seriously.
Best regards to you and yours … and HTL, of course!
Lad or lass! Apologies for my mistake!