Memorial service for Robert Hughes should be a warning to give teachers, coaches power

There are multiple levels of grief in the passing of Robert Hughes, among them that a man like him would likely never be allowed to coach or teach in our present era.

On Friday night at Wilkerson-Greines Activities Center, on Robert Hughes Court, a few hundred people gathered to pay tribute to Coach Hughes, who died on June 12 at the age of 96.

“A great man has fallen. And when a great man falls there is always a void left behind,” Tarrant County commissioner Roy Brooks said during the service. “He has left a void because of his vocation.”

A vocation that now more than ever needs another Robert Hughes.

Watching and listening to the men and women he coached and taught talk about Coach Hughes on Friday and it is apparent one of the elements that made him such a significant figure is the empowerment he earned. The type of empowerment that used to be granted to the people we say we appreciate, but too often neuter.

You know them as “Teacher.” Or, “Coach.” One of the reasons the noble profession that is teaching continues to struggle is that our society has subtracted some of the power that made a man like Robert Hughes possible.

Hughes’ resume of basketball achievements can be stretched from Fort Worth, Texas to Fort Wayne, Indiana. As impressive as his basketball coaching credentials will forever remain, his greatest achievement will forever be not the wins, or state championships, but the people he molded.

He molded them because he cared, and because he could. That tree of people is an now a giant oak. Many of those people made it to the memorial service. Many could not. Some are no longer with us.

Hughes was born in a different era, and many of the characteristics of that time were shameful, and a disgrace not to just America but humanity. Legalized segregation. Unwritten and written civil rights violations that America still feels the effects of daily.

There are other details of that previous generation that it would be nice to think we could bring back. Namely, the role of a teacher or coach in a community.

“Without (Hughes), I’m not sure who I would be. I’m not sure what this community would be. I’m not sure what this place (Wilkerson Greines & Robert Hughes Court) would be,” one of his best former players, Jeremis Smith, said during the service.

Jeremis went to Georgia Tech where he was a dominant power forward for four years. He graduated after his senior year, and played a long career overseas before he came back to start a business specifically in Fort Worth’s Stop Six neighborhood.

All of it would still be here, but it wouldn’t be what it is today.

The same for the people. They’d be here. But what would their lives be without a man they so revered?

The stories they told sounded more like a tribute to a family member. Although he did not share their last name, for so many, he was family.

Not sure a coach or teacher today could dare do what he did in his career without the fear of human resources, administrators, or parents. His methods, and language, could be blunt. The words “hell” and “damn” were frequent visitors to his sentences, and admonishments, to his students and players.

He was not one to suffer fools pleasantly. He was also not one to be threatened.

He was the teacher. He was the coach. Thus, he was the law. No one messed with him.

It’s the safest of bets few to zero parent ever told the kid of a Robert Hughes player, “He’s doing you wrong.”

Listening to the many stories and anecdotes from the many people who spoke on Friday night, and it’s doubtful any mom or dad was going to challenge Coach Hughes about playing time. Or the time of day.

He was a figure not only of authority and respect, but love. All of those kids who played for him, or sat in his class, knew he loved them. No one could question whether Robert Hughes cared about those kids. And their parents. About his school. About his community.

He could have left Dunbar 500 times. He never did.

“A great man has fallen and we may never see his like again. Coach Hughes’ work here is done,” Roy Brooks said. “But I am persuaded that the Lord will raise up for us another champion. Another man who believes in investing his life’s work in building up others.”

Lord, if you are listening, we need more people like Robert Hughes.

America, if you are listening, we need to make sure that when they arrive, we give them the power and support to be Coach Hughes.