Mike Steele was in his first year coaching basketball at DePauw University when he was playing a pickup game with some other coaches and students.
One of the students was giving Steele’s team fits, and the coach had to find out who it was.
“I asked, ‘Who’s that guy with the headband and basically no hair,’” Steele said. “Somebody said, ‘That’s Ted Rutan. He’s a baseball player.’ I called him in to talk to him and I said, ‘You may not know it, but you’re going to be a baseball/basketball player.’”
Rutan ended up being Steele’s first recruit. Although he was a senior and nearing the end of his baseball eligibility, Rutan was able to play two years of basketball for Steele.
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Saturday morning, the 58-year-old Columbus native and resident will be honored for his exploits in both sports. He will be among six former athletes inducted into the DePauw Hall of Fame.
“I was a little stunned,” Rutan said about learning of his selection. “I was humbled. I still am. I had never thought about it. I was lucky enough to be around other really good players.”
That included Jennings County native Scott Earl, who went on to play in baseball’s major leagues with the Detroit Tigers. He roomed with Dave Finzer, who spent time in the NFL as a punter and kicker for the Chicago Bears and Seattle Seahawks.
But while his size (5-foot-9) may have kept him from a shot at the pros, Rutan had a standout college career.
Rutan earned four varsity letters in baseball and two in basketball at DePauw. He led the baseball team in runs scored in 1980 and 1982 and was its Rookie of the Year in 1979 and co-captain in 1982. His 101 career runs scored were a program record at the time, and his 97 career walks still rank third in school history.
In basketball, Rutan led DePauw in assists for the 1981-82 and 1982-83 seasons, and his 171 assists in 1982-83 still and the 170 the previous season rank fourth and fifth in school history. His 341 career assists rank sixth in school history, while his 6.8 per game in each season are the two best seasons by a Tiger player.
Rutan’s high of 13 assists in a game were a school record until 2002, and his 53 steals in 1982-83 rank fourth in school history. He also ranks second in school history with a career .859 free-throw percentage. Rutan’s career averages of 6.8 assists and 1.9 steals per game are both school records.
All of that followed a sparkling three-sports career at Columbus East. As a senior in 1977-78, he was second-team All-State in tennis, Academic All-State in basketball and first-team All-State in baseball.
Rutan helped the Olympians reach the state basketball final four in as a junior and a semistate appearance as a senior in 1978. He led East to the semistate finals in both tennis and baseball.
But despite all of his success, Rutan wasn’t highly recruited by big-time college programs.
“I was 5-9,” Rutan said. “I had all kinds of offers to go play junior college baseball, but baseball wasn’t sought after in Indiana that much at that time.”
At DePauw, Rutan was a center fielder and leadoff hitter on the baseball team. At the time, the Tigers were in the process of transitioning from Division I to Division III and played a predominantly Division I schedule. They beat D-I schools Indiana University, Purdue, Butler and Indiana State while Rutan was there.
After his two years of playing basketball, Rutan stayed on as an assistant coach for basketball and baseball in the 1983-84 school year.
“He was really important to our program,” Steele said. “He set a nice bar for being tough and being competitive and wanting to win. He was fun to be around. He was a great competitor. He has a special place in my heart because he set the bar for how competitive we were going to be.”
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Name: Ted Rutan
Age: 58
High school: Columbus East
College: DePauw
Occupation: works for Newsom Industries and broadcasts high school events for Coaches Aid, mostly in Columbus, but also has broadcast an international 3-on-3 event in Washington, D.C., the Norceca international women’s volleyball tournament (North American, Central America and Carribean) and is the voice of Big Ten rugby
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