Turkey Hughes

Charles “Turkey” Hughes was a coach and administrator at Eastern Kentucky University (EKU) from 1922-1972. Hughes coached over five different teams which included baseball, tennis, basketball and football. As an administrator he served as the Chairman of the Department of Health and Physical Education. Hughes served as the Athletic Director as well. He did all of this when there were only seven buildings on campus. The Athletic Department had the same number of coaches. Early in his career at EKU, Hughes was coaching football, baseball and basketball and only had one assistant. He did this until 1936, he stuck with football until 1941 and he became the Chairman of the Health and Physical Education Department. In 1941 he became the Athletic Director and he head coached the baseball team. He did this until his retirement in 1971. He however went part time in 1965 because the demand for two jobs became too great. Hughes described that he never knew that there could be such tall buildings on campus and said old buildings could tell a lot of stories.