What’s in a Name?
By: Stephen McCollum
Russell Sutton has made his mark. Through a lifetime and career of giving back to the community, Sutton has not just one but two “marks”—the Russ Sutton Field at the Blackford Babe Ruth baseball park, and most recently the Sutton Center, the new practice basketball courts, state-of-the-art weight room and renovated locker rooms at Blackford Senior and Junior High School.
Between his years as a student and his 41-year teaching and coaching career, Sutton didn’t just spend, he invested more than half a century doing and being what the dedicatory sign at the baseball park attests: Friend, Teacher, Coach, Fan.
Sutton’s mark is still on the move.
“He had a huge impact on my life and was a main reason I became a social studies teacher and coach,” says Blackford Athletics Director Tony Uggen, who played football, basketball and baseball for Coach Sutton. “I appreciated the discipline he instilled and how he challenged us to work hard and succeed. No other person has devoted more of his life to junior high aged kids in Blackford County.”
Before the days of teaching to a standardized test, Sutton used to make up his own social studies tests—which he initially had to revise because the other teachers who took it as proxies couldn’t ace it.
His most infamous lesson seems to be the ‘hoop over the body’ demonstration he gave on the first day of basketball practice. Although he consistently carried about 200 pounds, Sutton could pass a basketball hoop over his body from head to toe. The message? If his sizable body could fit through the ring, then it shouldn’t be so hard to shoot a ball through it!
“I believed anyone who came to my class and wanted to learn U.S. history could,” says Sutton. He discovered that instructive audio-visual material was a big plus. He studied his colleagues for additional teaching tips.
The bottom line in any Sutton lesson, it seems, whether the subject is history or hoops, is that if you stay focused and work hard it’s possible to make your goal.
And not all of the teachable moments happened in the classroom, says former student Aaron Castelo.
“Someone stole my homework once in seventh grade and put their name on it,” Castelo says. “Before I was even aware that it happened, Mr. Sutton came to me and asked if I could show him my work. When I couldn’t find it, he showed it to me with my name erased and another student’s inserted. He knew my work and my character well enough that he wasn’t going to punish me for not completing the assignment.”
Those marks, the baseball field and the gymnasium bearing his name, don’t come solely on the basis of games won. Sutton was a teacher and a coach, but he was something more also.
He started taking videos of his middle school students when they were in his classes and then would present them at high school graduation. To this history teacher, history is analogous to the maxim ‘all politics is local.’
When it comes to the history of Blackford County, Russ Sutton’s mark will stand the test of time.
Russ was one of the easiest guys I ever met! Always looked for positive ways to handle the boys he coached. There was times we didn’t see eye to eye but that was coaching. To this day I still think of Russ as one of the most giving people I know. Thanks Russ for putting up with me for alot of years.