Steve Hutchinson was on a beach in Phuket, Thailand, with his family a year ago when he found out he would be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

Hutchinson, a Michigan offensive lineman from 1997 through 2000, will be formally inducted Wednesday night at the National Football Foundation 66th Annual Awards Dinner at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas.

He was a two-time captain and four-time All-Big Ten first-team offensive guard at Michigan and was a member of three Big Ten championship teams and a starter as a redshirt freshman on the 1997 team that won the AP national championship. Hutchinson had a 12-year NFL career and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame as part of the 2020 enshrinement class.

“It was great sitting on the beach and couldn’t make it an any better day than it already was and got a call I was going in the College Football Hall of Fame,” Hutchinson said in an interview with the NFF on Tuesday.

Hutchinson is the 40th Wolverine to be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

“That’s the thing about the college Hall of Fame that’s a little different than the Pro Football Hall of Fame … the general pool of guys,” Hutchinson said. “So many more guys have played the college game, and to be selected out of that group of historical numbers of college players and to be selected into this fraternity is an honor.”

His head coach at Michigan, Lloyd Carr, was inducted into the college Hall in 2011. Hutchinson reminisced about being part of the 1996 recruiting class, Carr’s first.

“To this day, still he’s like that father figure,” Hutchinson said. “You think as an 18-year-old kid you get to move to the other side of the country and think you’re going to get away with stuff. Not so with Lloyd. He demanded excellence. He was firm, he was rigid, but he also listened to you and wanted the best for you.”

Hutchinson and Jeff Backus were redshirt freshmen when they became starters on the left side of Michigan’s 1997 offensive line. The Wolverines would go undefeated that season and were awarded the Associated Press national championship.

“That was the great thing about that team — it was a very selfless team,” Hutchinson said. “Nobody cared who got the credit. As a young player, that was my first real deep dive into what Michigan football is about, playing for each other. You’re not only playing for the guys on that team but for the decades and century of players who came before you.”

He is the 11th Michigan offensive lineman to be enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame.

“It’s an honor,” Hutchinson said of representing Michigan. “It seems like every couple years we have somebody coming in, and I speak to the guys that have made it. For me, being in the Pro Football Hall of Fame was truly an honor, but to represent the school and all the guys I played with is huge.”