| Wins against Kentucky - 4 | Losses against Kentucky - 16 |
Alma Mater: Georgetown College [1899]
Date Born: July 11, 1878
Date Died: January 24, 1948
Biography - Georgetown College Athletic Hall of Fame
In many ways, Robert T. Hinton is responsible for the success of Georgetown College Athletics. The gifted athlete won athletic fame as a football and baseball player and served as team captain of both sports during his collegiate career as a Tiger. Upon graduation, he continued his education at Yale University and, once again, excelled in athletics, this time winning the Intercollegiate Gymnastic Individual Championship in Philadelphia in 1902.
His extended experience in athletics prepared him as the perfect choice for the position of associate professor and director of athletics in 1906. Upon his return to campus, he coached every varsity team. Throughout his 28 years as coach and athletic director, the baseball/football field was enlarged and refurbished and was renamed Hinton Field in his honor. He also led the campaign to raise money for Alumni Gymnasium to be built, which under his direction was completed in just two and a half years. Along his career, he also served as head of the Biology Department and was named Dean of the College.
He was an original member of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association and served as secretary and president, where he traveled to represent the school and state in the athletic governing body. He was known and respected nationally as a proponent of fair play and good sportsmanship.
A tribute to him in an old yearbook reads: "Throughout the years, Dean Hinton remained faithful to the college, its ideals, its scholastic standing, and its relationship to educational organizations and the denomination...Through him we learned the purposes, the plans and the ideals upon which the college was founded, for the Dean was Georgetown. He was a genuine friend upon whom we all could depend.
"While the original Hinton Field, is no longer used as an athletics facility, the "rock," known as the heart of the former field was moved to Toyota Stadium upon its completion in 1997 and is honored by the current football players before each game.
Obituary - Lexington Herald-Leader (January 25, 1948)
Illness Is Fatal to College Dean
Robert T. Hinton of Georgetown Dies
GEORGETOWN, Ky., Jan. 24 (AP) - Robert Taylor Hinton, 68, dean of Georgetown College and a prominent figure in the history of Southern athletic competition whose spirit of fair play has been recorded in scores on anecdotes, died at 1:15 p.m. today in the Good Samaritan hospital, Lexington.
A complication of illnesses brought death to the veteran educator and athletic leader. His condition had been critical since he entered the hospital Oct. 31.
Dean Hinton began making a mark for himself as a schoolboy participant in track, baseball and football, and sports continued to be his first love after he became equally prominent in educational fields.
He was a leader in the movement o form the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association, forerunner of the Southern and Southeastern Conferences, and was the association's first secretary, a position he held until he was elected president last year.
While attending Yale in 1902, he won the world championship in tumbling and in acrobatics on the horizontal bar. He was also outstanding as a pole-vaulter.
Among educators, his intellectual attainments shadowed even his accomplishments in promoting organized athletic competition in the South. He occupied himself in an intensive program of research and private study.
He was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the Kentucky Academy of Science. In the latter, he served as vice president and chairman of the Department of Biology Membership Committee.
He was born at Paris, Ky., July 11, 1878.
His reputation for fairness in all dealings, especially on the field of sport, probably is best exemplified by an incident that occurred when he was coaching all Georgetown College teams.
When the Georgetown football team went to Danville to play Centre College, the referee failed to appear for his assignment. The Centre players unhesitatingly asked Coach Hinton to referee, but he declined.
He entered Georgetown College as a student in 1894 and won his Master's degree in 1899. He played four years of varsity football and baseball, and captained, managed and coached both teams the last two years of his participation. His baseball team won the state championship in 1899 and was a claimant to Southern championship honors.
After receiving his Bachelor and Master's degrees from the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale, he returned to Georgetown in 1906 to become coach of all athletic teams through 1918, guiding the Georgetown athletes through a period when they won Kentucky championships regularly. His track team won the state title five years in a row.
He went overseas with the American Expeditionary Forces in 1918 in the YMCA service, resuming his duties as Georgetown athletic director in 1919 for one year. In 1920, he was made faculty chairman of athletics and he served on committees of the Southern Association of Colleges and the Association of American Colleges.
He was made head of the Department of Biology at Georgetown in 1920 and in June 1934, he was made dean of the college.
He was the son of he late William H. Hinton, whose grandfather was one of the early settlers in Bourbon County. He received his early education in private schools at Paris, one of which was taught by John W. Fox Sr., father of the novelist.
Survivors include his wife, Mrs. Ina Woolford Hinton; one son, Robert T. Hinton Jr., Louisville; one sister, Mrs. J.J. Taylor, Lexington, and several nieces and nephews.
Dr. S.S. Hill, president of Georgetown College, recalled today that Dean Hinton in 1943 was offered the position of head dean at Baylor University, Waco, Texas, but he declined because of his long term of service at Georgetown.
He was relieved of his teaching duties in 1945 but he continued to serve as dean and conduct his work connected with the SIAA. He was active until stricken Oct. 29, two days before he entered the hospital.
Dr. Hill explained that Dean Hinton was twice recipient of the MA degree, once from Georgetown College and once from Yale, because it was possible at that time to obtain the same degree from two different schools, the second one ranking a little higher. Actually, Dean Hinton received his BA degree from Yale after his MA from Georgetown.
Hinton Field, Georgetown College's football field, was named for the colorful educator and sports enthusiast.
Funeral services will be held at 1:30 p.m. Monday at the Georgetown Baptist Church, conducted by Dr. S.S. Hill, president of Georgetown College, and Dr. E.L. Skiles, pastor of the Georgetown Baptist Church. Burial will be in the Paris cemetery.
The body is at the Ashurst funeral home, where it will remain until time for services.
Biography - Lexington Herald (January 25, 1948)
Robert Hinton Was One of the Best Loved Sports Figures in State
by Billy Thompson
GEORGETOWN, Ky., Jan 24 (Special) - Robert Taylor Hinton, dead of Georgetown College and president of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association, who died today at a Lexington hospital, was one of Kentucky's best loved sports figures.
Dean Hinton believed in but one thing: Play fair and square or don't play. He enrolled at Georgetown College in 1894.
While at the local college, he starred in football and baseball, being elected captain of the football team three years and captained the baseball team two seasons.
Upon graduation from Georgetown in 1898, Hinton attended Yale University and returned to his alma mater as coach in 1906.
While at Yale he was champion gymnast of the United States and held the pole vault record of the world for a short time. He was the first athlete to pole vault 11 feet.
In 1902 he won international acclaim by copping the world's championship in tumbling and performing on the horizontal bar.
His first year as had basketball coach here proved highly successful - as did the majority of his years. His cage club toppled the University of Kentucky Wildcats, 54 to 4 (sic), to register one of worst lickings a Kentucky basketball team ever suffered. [JPS Note: I have been unable to locate such a game.)
He continued coaching at Georgetown until the war interrupted his career, served with the YMCA as business manager with the armed forces during World War I and coached basketball in Europe. One of his prize performers in England was Ed Diddle, currently one of the nation's top coaches at Western Kentucky.
Hinton still is regarded as one of the best track coaches the nation has ever known. He won the SIAA championship with regularity and his harriers won the Kentucky championship five years in a row.
His popularity was not limited to the Georgetown College campus. His Georgetown team was playing Centre for the state basketball championship about 1913 and the score was tied 29-29 with just a few seconds remaining. A Georgetown player fouled one of the Centre cagers and as the opponent shot and missed his foul the stands screamed. Coach Hinton walked onto the floor, hand upraised and told the referee to permit the Centre player to shoot another foul "because the crowd was unsportsmanlike." The Centre player shot another and it cost Georgetown the ball game and the state title, 30 to 29.
Georgetown was schedule to play Centre again tonight, but the game was postponed because of Dean Hinton's death.
Hinton was elected secretary of the SIAA in 1920, a position he held for 25 years until he was elected to succeed Dr. J.A. Provine, former president of Mississippi College, as head of the association.
In December 1940, Dean Hinton was awarded the largest "G" ever given by Georgetown College by the Monogram Club. The "G" was placed on a blanket surrounded by 17 stars, symbolic of the 17 years he served as coach at the school.
Hinton Field on the Georgetown College campus was named in his honor. Kentucky will miss Robert T. Hinton.
