Claude Hutcherson
• A successful businessman from Plainview, Texas, who made a lasting and unique impression in women’s basketball annals
• The owner of his own flying service (Hutcherson Air Service), who began sponsoring the women’s basketball team at Wayland Baptist College in 1950
• Not only furnished four Beechcraft Bonanza airplanes to transport the team and coaches to out-of-town games but piloted one of the aircraft as well
• Wayland’s women’s basketball team appropriately acquired the moniker “the Hutcherson Flying Queens” as a result
• First provided air transportation for the Wayland team to games in Mexico in 1948
• During his 25-plus year association with the Queens, Wayland compiled a 712-106 worksheet, a mark which included a collegiate record of 131 consecutive victories, as well as 10 AAU national championships and 10 runner-up finishes
• Physical education center on the Wayland campus, which serves as the home for both men’s and women’s basketball teams as well as athletic department offices, is named in his honor
• Family legacy endures as his son, Mike, continues to provide transportation for the Wayland Baptist women’s basketball team for road games
