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Robert Hughes (basketball)

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Robert Hughes
Personal information
Born(1928-05-15)May 15, 1928
Bristow, Oklahoma, U.S.
DiedJune 11, 2024(2024-06-11) (aged 96)
Fort Worth, Texas, U.S.
Coaching career1958–2005
Career history
As coach:
1958–1973I.M. Terrell HS
1973–2005Dunbar HS
Career highlights and awards
  • 5× Texas State champion (1963, 1965, 1967, 1993, 2003[1][2])
  • Texas Basketball Hall of Fame inductee (2003)
  • High School Basketball Hall of Fame inductee (2003)
  • NHSCA National High School Coach of the Year (2003)
  • Morgan Wootten Lifetime Achievement Award (2010)[3]
  • Texas Black Sports Hall of Fame (2010)[4]
Career coaching record
PVIL373–84 (.816)
UIL960–163 (.855)
Basketball Hall of Fame

Robert Hughes Sr. (May 15, 1928 – June 11, 2024) was an American high school basketball coach. Hughes was the United States' all-time winningest high school basketball coach from February 11, 2003,[5] to December 7, 2010,[6] and as of June 2024, is the most successful boys' high school basketball coach in the United States with 1,333 wins.[7] He was passed in wins by Leta Andrews of Granbury High School in Granbury, Texas, who compiled a national record 1,416 career victories in girls' high school basketball before retiring in 2014.[8]

Early life

[edit]

Hughes joined the Army after high school. At 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m), he was recruited for a special unit that just played basketball; it was the first integrated team Hughes ever played on.[7] When he left the Army, Texas Southern University offered him a basketball scholarship. Playing for coach Edward H. Adams, Hughes was an All-American at Southern.[9][10] He started playing for the barnstorming Harlem Magicians in 1954,[11] and was selected by the Boston Celtics as a supplemental draft pick in the 1955 NBA draft,[12] but he did not make the team. Hughes returned to the Magicians in 1955, and met his wife, Jacquelyne Johnson, while playing in a tournament in Memphis, but a ruptured Achilles tendon later that season forced him to give up playing basketball.[7] He returned home to Oklahoma and attended the University of Tulsa, graduating in 1957.[7]

Coaching career

[edit]

Hughes was hired by Douglas Aircraft as a mechanic after graduating from Tulsa, and worked there until his former coach at Texas Southern called to ask if Hughes had ever considered coaching. Hughes was not initially interested, but Adams persisted and Hughes was hired at I. M. Terrell High School, in Fort Worth, Texas (an all-black high school) during segregation.[7] Hughes led Terrell to three PVIL state championships and one runner up in the five years from 1963 to 1967.[1]

After segregation ended and I. M. Terrell was shut down in 1973, Hughes began coaching at Dunbar High School in the Fort Worth Independent School District. At Dunbar, Hughes won two state titles, finished as state runner-up three times, and took the team to the final four 12 times between 1977 and 2003, including ten final fours in the 17-year run between 1977 and 1993.[2] In 32 seasons at Dunbar, Hughes had only one assistant coach, Leondas Rambo, who retired with Hughes in 2005.[13]

Between Terrell and Dunbar combined, Hughes won five state basketball titles, and retired in 2005 as the then all-time winningest high school basketball coach, passing Morgan Wootten in 2003.[5] "If you can't work hard and put out the best, you probably need to go home to your mama," Hughes was known for telling his players.[14]

Personal life

[edit]

Hughes's wife of 57 years, Jacquelyne Sue Johnson Hughes, died on July 1, 2014.[15]

Hughes's son, Robert Hughes Jr., took over head coaching duties at Dunbar after Hughes Sr. retired in 2005, and as of June 2024, is the coach at Dunbar High School.[16] He has two daughters. One, Carlye J. Hughes, was ordained the 11th Episcopal Bishop of Newark in September 2018.[17] Another daughter, Robin L. Hughes, was named dean of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville School of Education, Health and Human Behavior in July 2019.[18]

Hughes resided in the Stop Six neighborhood of southeast Fort Worth.[9] He died in Fort Worth on June 11, 2024, at the age of 96.[19]

Halls of fame and awards

[edit]

Hughes was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on March 31, 2017.[14][20][21] Additional halls of fame include: Texas Basketball Hall of Fame (1993),[22] High School Basketball Hall of Fame (2003),[22] Texas Sports Hall of Fame (2003) and the Texas Black Sports Hall of Fame (2013).[4]

Hughes was selected as the NHSCA National High School Coach of the Year in 2003,[22] and received the Morgan Wootten Lifetime Achievement Award by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010.[3]

[edit]

In anticipation of Hughes's induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, filmmaker and former Dunbar basketball player, Mike Byars, created a feature length documentary 5700 Ramey Ave: The Story of Robert Hughes to chronicle Hughes's career.[23]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b "PVIL State Championship Results: Basketball". pvilca.org. Archived from the original on October 22, 2020. Retrieved May 27, 2020.
  2. ^ a b "Boys Basketball State Archives School Search: Fort Worth Dunbar". uiltexas.org. Archived from the original on October 22, 2020. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
  3. ^ a b "The Morgan Wootten Lifetime Achievement Award: Previous Winners". Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on June 6, 2020. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
  4. ^ a b Townsend, Brad (February 14, 2014). "Texas Black Sports Hall of Fame: FW Dunbar legend Robert Hughes among inductees". Archived from the original on October 22, 2020. Retrieved May 31, 2020.
  5. ^ a b "Dunbar's Hughes becomes winningest HS coach". ESPN.com via the Associated Press. February 11, 2003. Archived from the original on June 13, 2024. Retrieved June 13, 2024.
  6. ^ "Leta Andrews". Texas Sports Hall of Fame Inductees: Lets Andrews. Archived from the original on June 13, 2024. Retrieved September 26, 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  7. ^ a b c d e Hall, Michael (January 1, 2004). "Duke of Dunbar". Texas Monthly. Archived from the original on October 25, 2020. Retrieved May 20, 2020.
  8. ^ "Leta Andrews retires with 1,416 wins". ESPN.com via the Associated Press. March 1, 2014. Archived from the original on June 13, 2024. Retrieved May 21, 2020.
  9. ^ a b Melton, Marcia (2016). "Stop Six: A Brief History of a Fort Worth Community". TCU Magazine. Archived from the original on September 23, 2020. Retrieved May 31, 2020.
  10. ^ HBCU Sports (December 17, 2009). "Classic Named for Former TSU Basketball Standout, Robert Hughes". hbcusports.com. Archived from the original on January 20, 2021. Retrieved May 20, 2020.
  11. ^ "Texas Southern Hall of Fame: Robert Hughes". tsusports.com. Archived from the original on April 23, 2022. Retrieved September 13, 2020.
  12. ^ "Robert Hughes". thedraftreview.com. June 5, 2019. Archived from the original on June 29, 2017. Retrieved September 13, 2020.
  13. ^ Engel, Mac (December 16, 2020). "Leondas Rambo, a silent Fort Worth legend to Hall of Fame coach Robert Hughes, has died". Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Archived from the original on January 3, 2021. Retrieved January 3, 2021.
  14. ^ a b Humphrey, David (April 1, 2017). "Dunbar's Robert Hughes voted to Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame". Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Archived from the original on May 17, 2020. Retrieved May 17, 2020.
  15. ^ "Jacquelyne Sue Johnson Hughes, 1936–2014". Fort Worth Star-Telegram. July 4, 2014. Archived from the original on May 21, 2017. Retrieved May 17, 2020.
  16. ^ Zarate, Eric (March 22, 2018). "Watch this Dunbar basketball flashback from 1977 state tournament". Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Archived from the original on June 13, 2024. Retrieved May 20, 2020.
  17. ^ "Carlye J. Hughes ordained 11th bishop of Newark". Episcopal News Service. September 24, 2018. Archived from the original on September 24, 2020. Retrieved May 20, 2020.
  18. ^ "Robin Hughes named dean of SIUE School of Education, Health and Human Behavior". advantagenews.com. June 11, 2019. Archived from the original on June 13, 2019. Retrieved May 20, 2020.
  19. ^ Engel, Mac (June 12, 2024). "Legendary Fort Worth basketball coach Robert Hughes, known as Mayor of Stop Six, dies". Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Archived from the original on June 13, 2024. Retrieved June 12, 2024.
  20. ^ "Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Announces 2017 Enshrinement Ceremony". Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. August 24, 2017. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
  21. ^ Engel, Mac (April 1, 2017). "The fighter can rest — Robert Hughes is a Hall of Famer". Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Archived from the original on May 17, 2020. Retrieved May 17, 2020.
  22. ^ a b c FWBP Staff (April 1, 2017). "Fort Worth ISD's Robert Hughes Sr. named to Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame". Archived from the original on November 1, 2020. Retrieved October 30, 2020.
  23. ^ "Documentary chronicles rise, achievements of Fort Worth basketball coach Robert Hughes". FOX 4 News Dallas-Fort Worth. April 5, 2019. Archived from the original on August 6, 2019. Retrieved May 20, 2020.
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