A 1976 graduate of West Harrison (Mondamin), he went on the earn his degree at Morningside College in 1980. He played football at both the prep and collegiate level.
Hinkel began his coaching career as head coach at Lohrville in 1980 and stayed for seven years, compiling a 52-24 record and taking his team to the 1982 and 1984 playoffs.
He came to Madrid in 1987 and had just completed his 29th season as head grid coach of the Tigers. Hinkel was 264-58 at Madrid and led teams to the playoffs 25 times, including 25 of the last 26 seasons. He led the Tigers to a State Championship in 1991 and finished as state runner-up seven times (1990, ’93, ’95, ’98, ’99, 2003 and 2010).
Hinkel is one of only 12 Iowa coaches to surpass the 300 career win plateau, finishing at 316-82 overall in 36 total seasons, of which 27 saw him guide his gridders to the postseason.
A member of the Iowa Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame, Hinkel teamed with fellow Hall of Famer coaches Ken Winkler of West Marshall and Tom Stone of Pekin, along with the IHSAA, to produce videos for high schools detailing proper blocking, tackling and running techniques to minimize the risk of injury and to focus on taking the head out of football.
While football may have brought Hinkel much fame, he was also one of the all-time most successful boys track coaches in Iowa history.
At Madrid he led the 2001, 2002, 2009, 2010 and 2011 Tiger thinclad teams to State Championships and five times led his squad to second place, finishing as runner-up.
Along the way he coached 27 State Meet event champions; eight were in running events and seven in field events, with 12 relay teams also taking state titles back to Madrid.
ThePerryNews.com will update this story as additional information becomes available.
