Schoolboy football icon Dennis “Den Den” Hutchinson has passed.

The 63-year-old national footballer and basketball coach was declared dead 10:30 pm on Tuesday night at the Kingston Public Hospital.

Hutchinson’s common-law wife of 40 years Sharon Reid told the Jamaica Observer that he became ill after his left leg was amputated.

“Yes, he lost the leg about three weeks ago, and from him lose it, him just take sick. I had to bring him to the hospital twice and him take back sick again and I bring him to the hospital Sunday and he died yesterday (Tuesday),” said Reid.

Reid, who has a 20-year-old daughter for Hutchinson, remembered him as “a very nice person, loving, caring and know how to talk to me and we could reason good”.

She continued: “He was very kind and never made me hungry. He was a very nice person and I will miss him so much.”

“He was a lover of sports, watching his football and watching pure sports on his cable. Him love him sports bad,” she added.

Hutchinson made a name for himself being a part of the famous Clarendon College 1977 all-island champion team, dubbed one of the best schoolboy teams ever.

He is one of a few players to have won both the Manning and DaCosta cups, having done so with Tivoli Gardens Comprehensive High in 1976 and Clarendon College in 1977.

Lenworth Hyde, who played alongside Hutchinson for most of his career from Clarendon College to Tivoli Gardens and toured with him in 1978 on Jamaica’s senior team, was still in tears when the Observer contacted him.

“I will miss him a lot, although me still a cry. From him cut off him foot, him nah eat anything,” said a grief-stricken Hyde.

“To me, he was one of the best forwards. In a one-on-one, you can’t mark Den Den. He will mash you up. Him full a tricks and always wanted to win,” Hyde pointed out.

“As a youth, you wanted to spar with him because he was full of jokes, intelligent and very concerned about you. Even up to now he would be giving me advice and he never forget my birthday,” Hyde noted.

Andrew Price, a rival and teammate of Hutchinson, failed in trying to measure the deceased’s boundless sporting ability.

“Well, we all know that Den Den was the consumate sportsman who coached Tivoli All-Stars to many national basketball titles. He also worked with SDC (Sports Development Commission) for years giving support to many inner-city communities through the vehicle of sports,” he said.

Only recently, Hutchinson completed his book named Politics and Football, in which he outlined his exciting journey in football and how during the violent years of Jamaica’s polarising politics he nearly lost his life while living in Maxfield Park.

He had just won the Manning Cup for Tivoli Gardens, which is in a Jamaica Labour Party stronghold, and he lived in Maxfield Park, a People’s National Party constituency, hence he was attacked and shot.

That incident was what forced Hutchinson to move to represent Clarendon College for his own safety.

Hutchinson, along with legendary Coach Winston Chung-Fah, pulled a stunt that became folklore in Jamaica’s schoolboy football space.

It was the 1977 daCosta Cup final between Clarendon College and St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS) being played over two legs.

Clarendon College had won the first leg 2-0 in Santa Cruz and returned to complete the job at home in Chapelton.

Hutchinson, the leading goalscorer with 26 goals, was said to be injured with his left foot heavily bandaged as he rested on the bench. The STETHS fans were happy because the most lethal winger in schoolboy football was unavailable; or so they were led to believe.

Trailing 0-2 from the first leg, STETHS were leading 1-0 courtesy of a beautiful free kick from one of rural Jamaica’s best talents, Noel “Sweetie” Smith, in the deciding leg. Then the genius of a coach he was, Chung-Fah went into his bag of tricks and inserted Hutchinson from the bench.

As the star striker unwrapped his bandages, the Clarendon College fans erupted in cheers.

With Hutchinson’s introduction to the game, Clarendon College quickly overturned the one-goal deficit and went on to win 3-1 for a 5-1 aggregate victory, giving the school their first hold on the daCosta Cup title.

“It was pandemonium,” Hutchinson told the Jamaica Observer in a 2017 interview when he entered the pitch. “When I came on, that changed the whole game.”

Some 40 years on, Hutchinson struggled with a really mysterious illness on that same left foot.

Hutchinson has been battling this illness for years, having done at least four surgeries since 1986. He was also diabetic.

“You know that saying, ‘be careful what you wish for,” joked Hutchinson, about feigning the injury back then.

“It’s the same leg; maybe it has some bearing, maybe not. But let’s hope it is just something different and unrelated,” Hutchinson, who walked with a slight limp, reflected in that interview.

Hutchinson, who also coached Tivoli Gardens to four national basketball titles, never believed in the amputation of the leg, saying once there is life in the leg there is hope.

“I can’t think of that because once there is life in the leg, I find it difficult to just amputate. I am not certain medical science can help. I have been to hospital so many times,” said a frustrated Hutchinson.

But three weeks ago, he conceded and the leg was amputated and he fell ill and was in and out of hospital until he died.