Berry Hinton

Frank Berry Hinton, known as Berry Hinton (February 6, 1910 – January 22, 2000), was from 1943 to 1967 a champion baseball coach at Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, Louisiana.

Background

Hinton was born in the rural area of Vernon and Clay in Jackson Parish in north Louisiana to Frank A. Hinton (1884–1976) and the former Leila Berry (1886–1985). In 1925, Hinton enrolled at Louisiana Tech and became an outstanding athlete in baseball, basketball, and football through 1930, when he began coaching in public schools in Arkansas. His two sons were born in Camden.^[1] In 1943, he returned to Louisiana Tech in 1943 to teach in a U.S. Navy program. He held a master's degree and was an assistant professor of physical education and the assistant dean of men.^[2]

Career

Hinton reestablished the baseball team, which had been interrupted by World War II. In time, Hinton joined the ranks of the most successful collegiate baseball coaches in Louisiana history. With seasons then much shorter than today, Hinton's teams through 1967 won 316 games and lost 206. The Bulldogs won eight conference championships and had just three losing seasons during his quarter century as head coach. On six occasions, Hinton was named Gulf States Conference "Coach of the Year". He also taught at Tech and was director of men's housing and dean of men.^[1]

Hinton's record was 211-125 against conference opponents. Three of his Bulldogs teams won twenty or more games. His 1965 and 1966 teams won twenty-three games. The 1961 team had a 21-6 record and recorded its best-ever conference mark of 15-4. Of the 23 squads that Hinton directed at Tech, only three had losing seasons.^[3]

O. K. "Buddy" Davis, executive sports editor of the Ruston Daily Leader, referred to Hinton as "highly personable and renowned for his quick wit and anecdotes." After World War II, Hinton began building the Bulldogs' diamond program into a consistently successful team.^[4]

Davis continued, "He was one of the best athletes ever to play at Tech. . . . In three years he earned eight varsity letters. His 300-plus victory total featured eight conference championships."^[4]

From 1964-1967, in his last three years as a baseball coach, Hinton was also the director of Louisiana Tech Alumni Affairs. From 1968 until his retirement in 1975, he was the alumni secretary.^[2] In 1986, Hinton was inducted into the Louisiana Tech University Athletic Hall of Fame.

Hinton's successor as baseball coach was James E. Patterson. During Patterson's tenure from 1968–1990, the Bulldogs compiled a 741-462-2 record. Patterson produced eighteen winning seasons in twenty-three years, and his teams won forty or more games in five of those years. Patterson was Conference Coach of the Year seven times.^[5]

Hinton's coaching years at Louisiana Tech corresponded with those of Joe Aillet as head football coach at the university.

Family and death

Hinton and his wife, the former Mary Agnes Hammond (July 5, 1914–August 19, 1999), a native of Stephens in Ouachita County in southern Arkansas, whom he married in 1934, had three children: Richard Berry "Dickie" Hinton (born 1935), Bobby Brown Hinton (born 1938), and Betty Carolyn Hinton Martensen (born 1948).^[3]

Hinton, who was Methodist, had aneurysm in 1997 and after a successful surgery, suffered a stroke. He died in Arcadia, Louisiana, a few days prior to his ninetieth birthday in 2000. He and his wife are interred at Wesley Chapel Cemetery near Ruston.^[3]

One of Hinton's brothers, Roy Donald "Don" Hinton (1912–2011), also a Louisiana Tech graduate and Methodist layman, was a prominent landowner and dairy and beef farmer in Minden in Webster Parish.^[6]

References