Robert Hughes, the all-time winningest coach in the history of high school boys basketball, has passed away at the age of 96.
The Naismith Basketball Hall-of-Famer was a five-time Texas state champion as a coach and was the 2003 National High School Coach of the Year. Hughes spent 32 years as the head boys basketball coach at Dunbar High School in Fort Worth, where he won two state titles and made 30 consecutive playoff appearances before retiring in 2005.
His head coaching career began in 1958 at I.M. Terrell High School in Fort Worth, where he led the boys basketball program to three state championships before the school closed in 1973. The legendary coach finished his career with 35 district titles and a 1,333-264 record. He is also a member of the Texas Sports Hall of Fame and the National High School Hall of Fame.
Hughes was an important figure in his players’ lives, often spending hours driving them home across the Dallas-Fort Worth area. In 1958, I.M. Terrell was the only campus for miles that allowed Black students, from as far away as Weatherford, to attend. Despite the barriers that came with segregation, Hughes often placed overlooked players in junior colleges.
Wildy beloved in the basketball community, Hughes was known for an exuberant style of basketball, but also what he did for many kids off the court.
“He was the type of man that as a young coach, you just sat and watched and almost tried to emulate because you knew he was the epitome of success,” North Crowley boys basketball coach Tommy Brakel said. “Being a young coach in Fort Worth, I knew that if North Crowley basketball was ever going to be mentioned as the school to be at in Fort Worth, that there was only one way. And that was going through the Flying Wildcats.”
He added: “I just idolized him as a man and on the professional level as well.”
Brakel said he’d heard about Hughes’ declining health before receiving message of his passing on Wednesday morning.
“I had to kind of take a step back,” Brakel said. “And take a breath because he really was both a direct, but just as much an indirect mentor to me.”
Hughes had a similar indirect impact on Duncanville boys basketball coach David Peavy.
“If you’re a basketball person or one who loves basketball, you have to know of Coach Hughes,” Peavy said. “He did so much for his community in Fort Worth, but really for the entire state. He put Texas on the map as far as high school basketball goes.”
Peavy said he’s heard numerous stories about the special man that Hughes was and felt a heaviness when he learned of his passing.
“The basketball community around the country has been taking hits these last two weeks with Bill Walton and Jerry West,” Peavy said. “And now, Robert Hughes. That’s a lot of really important people in basketball.”
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