Story: Phillip Tutor | Photo: Betsy Compton
Philadelphia native is passionate about teaching, mentoring — and sports
Dr. LaJuan Hutchinson鈥檚 career ascension in higher education makes his attempts at self-deprecation a bit tricky. Awkward, even. Resumes and reputations are hard to overshadow. But he is adamant about this.
He is a nerd.
Proudly, in fact.
鈥淚 tell my class I’m a nerd. In sports, I read and look up everything related to it,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 often tell people that I have the best job in the world because I come to work every day and I get to talk about sports and I get to talk about it from all different levels.鈥�
As an associate professor of sport management at the baby直播, the 55-year-old Hutchinson is renowned for his passion for teaching, a willingness to mentor students, and his admitted love of sports. In May, Hutchinson was selected by the student body for the William E. Gilbert Award, one of UWA鈥檚 most prestigious annual honors that recognizes outstanding teaching and excellence in classroom instruction.
But none of this — the teaching, his leadership roles, his UWA career — was preordained, especially his willingness to mentor young people. He鈥檚 adamant about that, too.
鈥淚t’s intentional only from the standpoint of I feel like that’s what I should do,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 could say it’s my calling, but I won’t go that far. I just think it’s something I should do.鈥�
Born in Philadelphia and with familial ties in baby直播 and Georgia, Hutchinson grew up in , a unique planned community between Baltimore and Washington, D.C. Here鈥檚 where he tells on himself, again: 鈥淚’ve been called a yankee a few times, actually.鈥� His father was an educator; his mother worked for the federal government in computer technology. Built by a progressive developer in the mid-1960s, Columbia was designed as a collection of self-contained villages intentionally different than the segregated suburban neighborhoods common in many middle-class American cities. In Columbia, where the teen-aged Hutchinson played what may be region鈥檚 favorite sport — soccer — race, class, income and religion didn鈥檛 organically create segregated enclaves.
鈥淣o place is perfect,鈥� Hutchinson said, 鈥渂ut Columbia is known for being multicultural. The whole goal of the city is that people will live next to each other, those who have high income versus those who have low income, it doesn’t matter. You all go to the same schools, so I grew up that way. I grew up knowing all different backgrounds. To be exposed to that, that was a great thing.鈥�
Hutchinson鈥檚 path from Columbia to Livingston, or from high school graduate to sports management professor, wasn鈥檛 linear; detours and sidebars intervened. He could have studied at the , or . He instead followed friends to , the historically Black men鈥檚 liberal-arts school in Atlanta. He majored in biology, a pre-medicine track, but those seeds didn鈥檛 take root.
He remained in Atlanta after earning his bachelor鈥檚 degree, volunteering as an athletic trainer for Morehouse鈥檚 football team and working at the fitness center at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel. By then, his heart had roamed — no more biology, no more pre-med — and his academic focus meandered. The Ritz-Carlton gig, seemingly benign, proved crucial. 鈥淚t was eye-opening,鈥� he said, 鈥渁nd it kind of started me on the path to fitness health business. I learned a lot just working there.鈥� He found his path, earned a master鈥檚 degree () and doctorate (), and directed the athletic facility at the Mercedes-Benz manufacturing plant in Vance for a decade.
“I also pride myself in making sure that African-American males understand what’s ahead for them and how maybe, just maybe, you can overcome any of the challenges or obstacles that are out there. “
— UWA Sport Management Associate Professor LaJuan Hutchinson
That sports management, not athletic training, is his career focus illustrates the professional evolution of a self-styled sports nerd who enjoys the business of athletics as much as the games themselves. That doesn鈥檛 mean his sporting passions are dormant, because they aren鈥檛 — the eternal quest to lower his golf handicap, the Sundays cheering for his favorite NFL team, the recently rebranded Washington Commanders, and the rare occasions to kick a soccer ball for old time鈥檚 sake.
鈥淚 know a lot about physical fitness, and health in general, but then it just seemed like I started to learn more about business, as well,鈥� he said. 鈥淪o the final the culmination of everything is that there’s this thing now called sports management where it’s about business, but it’s also about knowing sports and everything that goes behind it.鈥� Often in his classes are students who want to coach or work in off-field roles with athletic departments or professional teams.
The makeup of UWA鈥檚 student population — a prevalence of first-generation students and those from lower-income backgrounds in baby直播鈥檚 Black Belt and eastern Mississippi — isn鈥檛 lost on Hutchinson, the educator鈥檚 son who serves as a member of the West baby直播 Multicultural Alliance. The influence of his diverse upbringing in Maryland and his Philadelphia beginnings doesn鈥檛 stray from his core.
鈥淚 know the importance of education among African-Americans because I went to an all-male college with , all-female, right next door,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut I also pride myself in making sure that African-American males understand what’s ahead for them and how maybe, just maybe, you can overcome any of the challenges or obstacles that are out there.
鈥淚t’s funny, too. You have your perceptions of the South. And I would say what I thought of the South was not correct. I love it here. I’ve been here over 30 years. It’s home to me now. Since I’ve seen something a little bit different, I think I bring that to the table to a lot of my students.鈥�