Hall of Fame
Dominick Patrick Hughes – Class of 1990
Transcending competence…
Knowledge of rules, techniques and tactics define competence in the coaches’ profession. A deep understanding, perhaps an instinct, that perceives the subtle ebb and flow of emotions, allowing one to choose that strategy which, applied at precisely the right moment, earns victory, defines greatness.
The memoir of an athlete’s transition into a competitor defines a quality which makes competence pale and greatness itself seem trivial:
“It was on a Friday afternoon that I was baptized a runner. D.P. Hughes arranged to have me run the anchor leg of a distance medley around a 40 lap-per-mile gym track. He saw to it that I took the hand-off from the third man – far behind the leader.
“There was a sly motive to his madness in this. As I started to close the distance to the leader, the kids went wild. They were hanging from the ceiling screaming their heads off, and Hughes stood poised with the pistol held high in the air long before the gun lap.
“This was competition at its best, the type a young body and mind can handle and actually thrive on….”
The cold winters of Syracuse would seem to offer dim prospects for a man who sought to make competitive runners out of boys. But here was a teacher of science and sport with the simple knowledge that, if his pupils knew he believed in them, then miracles could happen.
From his belief in them sprang their respect for him:
“From that day in the gym, I saw the world through the eyes of D.P. Hughes. He would often find some reason for me to accompany him, riding around the hills of Central New York following his 1939 National Championship Cross Country Team. The excursion always seemed to end up at a place called O’Donnell’s Lunch, where a nickel cup of coffee would buy you hours of listening pleasure.
“Pat was at his best with an audience. He always played to a full house because everyone knew where they could find him on a given day at 4:30. He was a brilliant guy, with a knack for making the listener feel as though they were part of the conversation – whether it was a geometry discussion or a discourse on New York cab drivers.”
When the first Dolphin track and field team straggled to their initial practice, this was the man who was to be their mentor. Already a Syracuse legend, Pat Hughes added another distinction. Few other coaches could boast of building a college tradition from nothing.
The ride was rocky at times; the memory of moments outside competition marks the final transition: the once-coach, once-mentor is now friend.
“I will never forget our ride back from New York City after the Collegiate Track Conference Championships. The meet was run during the 1950 hurricane, and the ride back found us on the Taconic Parkway’s divider grass. At one point we were even going north in the southbound lane. Still, we made steady, but slow progress.”
Such are the memories of a runner who became a competitor, a student who became a friend, a boy who became a man. They are memories that illuminate the qualities of a coach who moved beyond competence, beyond greatness. They are memories that require that the first Dolphin track and field coach,
Dominick Patrick Hughes be inducted as an honorary member of the
Le Moyne College Athletic Hall of Fame
April 20, 1990
