Oliver Cutts

{{Short description|American football player, coach, and administrator (1873–1939)}}

{{Infobox college coach

| name = Oliver Cutts

| image = Oliver Frost Cutts.jpg

| alt =

| caption = Cutts pictured in Debris 1917, Purdue yearbook

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1873|8|6}}

| birth_place = North Anson, Maine, U.S.

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1939|8|4|1873|8|6}}

| death_place = Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.

| alma_mater =

| player_years1 = 1893–1895

| player_team1 = Bates

| player_years2 = 1901

| player_team2 = Harvard

| player_positions = Guard, tackle

| coach_years1 = 1902

| coach_team1 = Bates (assistant)

| coach_years2 = 1903–1904

| coach_team2 = Purdue

| coach_years3 = 1905

| coach_team3 = Washington

| coach_years4 = 1906–1907

| coach_team4 = Harvard (assistant)

| coach_years5 = 1922–1924

| coach_team5 = Bates

| admin_years1 = 1904–1905

| admin_team1 = Purdue

| admin_years2 = 1915–1918

| admin_team2 = Purdue

| admin_years3 = 1922–1938

| admin_team3 = Bates

| overall_record = 26–23–3

| bowl_record =

| tournament_record =

| championships =

| awards = Consensus All-American (1901)

| coaching_records =

}}

Oliver Frost Cutts (August 6, 1873 – August 4, 1939) was an American college football player, coach, and college athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at Purdue University (1903–1904), the University of Washington (1905), and Bates College (1922–1924), compiling a career head coaching record of 23–18–3. Cutts was also the athletic director at Purdue (1904–1905 and 1915–1918) and Bates (1922–1938).

Playing career

Cutts attended Bates College and played for the school's football team in 1893. He was a member of the track and baseball teams the following spring, but a leg injury forced him to miss the 1894 football season. He played both baseball and football in 1895. He attended Harvard Summer School at the end of his sophomore year and was Bates' gymnasium leader during his junior and season years. From 1896 to 1900, he was a mathematics teacher and athletic coach at the Haverford School. In 1901, Cutts enrolled in Harvard Law School. He had one year of college athletic eligibility remaining and played tackle for the 1901 Harvard Crimson football team.

Coaching career

In 1902, Cutts assisted Bates football coach Royce Purinton when it didn't interfere with his studies.{{cite news |title=Football At Bates |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VL0gAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA2&dq |access-date=19 January 2025 |work=The Lewiston Daily Sun |date=September 19, 1902}} From 1903 to 1904, he was the head coach at Purdue University. His 1903 football team was involved in a train wreck that killed 14 of its players. Cutts suffered crushed bones in both of his ankles but spent a day tending to his fellow injured passengers before going to the hospital.{{cite news |title=Death List Is 16 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yqpFAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA1&dq |access-date=18 January 2025 |work=Dubuque Telegraph-Herald |date=November 2, 1903}} The following season, the Boilermakers 9–3 and outscored opponents 176–66. In 1905, he moved to Seattle to practice law. That year, he coached at the University of Washington football team, where he compiled a 4–2–2 record.

Administration

From 1911 to 1914, Cutts did recruiting for the YMCA in New York City. In 1915, he returned to Purdue as director of athletics. From 1919 to 1922, Cutts was out of athletics, instead working for Dungan, Hood & Company, a Philadelphia-based manufacturer of glazed kid leather. In 1922, Cutts returned to Bates as athletic director.{{cite news |title=Oliver Cutts To Direct Bates College Sports |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hSEgAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA6&dq |access-date=18 January 2025 |work=The Lewiston Daily Sun |date=August 19, 1922}} Cutts took over as head football coach shortly before the 1922 season due to the resignation of Raymond A. Watkins.{{cite news |title=Bates Best Athlete of Recent Years to Join the Coaching Staff: Carl Wiggin to Coach at Bates |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wGUgAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA10&dq |access-date=18 January 2025 |work=Lewiston Evening Journal |date=August 30, 1922}} He stepped down as football coach after the 1924 season but continued to serve as athletic director until his retirement in 1938.{{cite news |title=Wildcats Are To Have New Master Next Fall: Carl Wiggin to Head Coach for Bates Grid Men |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HZMgAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA6&dq |access-date=18 January 2025 |work=Lewiston Evening Journal |date=December 24, 1924}}{{cite web |title=Ernest M. Moore To Succeed Cutts |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/evening-express-ernest-m-moore-to-succe/159437334/ |publisher=Evening Express |access-date=20 November 2024 |page=20 |date=22 Apr 1938}}

Personal life

In 1909, Cutts married Eugenia Ayer of Dorchester, Massachusetts. They had two daughters.

Cutts died on August 4, 1939, at his home in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts.{{cite news |title=Oliver Frost Cutts, Ex-Star At Harvard; Also Was on the Coaching Staff—Athletic Instructor at Bates |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1939/08/08/94708494.pdf |newspaper=The New York Times |date=August 8, 1939 |access-date=August 11, 2011}}