Ed Hughes Tribute Page

This League is named for former Houston Oiler head coach Ed Hughes. Coach Hughes had a long and accomplished career in football. In the Getty Images* pic above that's him in the cap during his time with the Bears as OC. He helped them to the Super Bowl XX title in January, 1986. Coach Hughes passed on June 23, 2000 at the age of 72. His Chicago Tribune obituary is at the bottom of this page.

I've created this page as a place to give Coach Hughes his props. I have gathered some photos and assorted other memorabilia through the years and I'll display them here. Except as noted (4 photos marked with an asterisk), all the items here are from my collection.

Coach Hughes is an inductee into the Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame. He was part of the Class of 2019. Click this link to check out his page. He has two pages on the Pro Football Reference site. One that lists his extensive career as a coach, and one for his NFL playing days.

Among those he worked with over his three decades in coaching were Hall Of Famers Mike Ditka, Otto Graham, Tom Landry, Hank Stram, Mac Speedie, Ernie Stautner, and Dick Vermeil.

This index card, signed by Coach Hughes, is one of the two examples I have in my collection.

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Playing Days

Ed Hughes was drafted by the LA Rams in the 10th round of the 1954 NFL Draft. Here is an Rams team-issued card from 1954 or 1955, scanned front and back (the cards in the two Rams sets are identical and I don't know which this one is). It's about 4x6 on glossy stock. A great item.

One of my favorite Ed Hughes pieces is below. It's a photo produced by Jay Publishing in 1957 and printed on thin paper. It's part of a set of New York Giants photos that were sold at stadiums (Yankee Stadium in this case), through the mail via advertisements in sports magazines, and at some shops such as Manny's Baseball Land which was across Jerome Avenue from Yankee Stadium. I am familiar with the much more common baseball photos. These 5x7 black and white pics came in sets comprised of 12 to 20+ members of a specific team, packaged in manila envelopes or cello bags, and are known as 'picture packs'. I have lots of Orioles and some assorted others. This is the first football photo from Jay's that I've owned. Jay also published team yearbooks which were sold in direct competition with the 'official' yearbooks at newsstands.

Here is the reverse of the Jay Publishing photo card.

This is a shot of Hughes playing for the Giants. This was an eBay item* I decided not to purchase since it was a home printed copy of a newswire shot and not an original photo. And the seller was located in Australia so the import fees turned a $8 item suddenly cost prohibitive.

It is a cool pic anyway. Ed Hughes is #48 playing DB for Big Blue and breaking up a pass in Yankee Stadium. Some internet sleuthing led me to the conclusion that this is from the Giants' 30-0 drubbing of Washington on November 23, 1958. The #81 that Hughes is battling is receiver Joe Walton. Walton came to the Giants in a 1961 trade, then went on to a long coaching career including a stint as HC of the Jets. Over the years these two football 'lifers' undoubtedly tangled many times!

Getty Images* has this shot of Ed Hughes with the Rams from their December 4, 1955 game against the Baltimore Colts in Los Angeles. EH is wearing #49 (the leftmost of the two Rams defenders) and he is up against Ray Berry. The Rams won 20-14 while holding the future Hall of Famer Berry to one catch.

Finally, this is the centerpiece of my Hughes collection. It's the 1956 NY Giants team-issued 4x6 that was created by the same company that did the Rams versions. But this one was signed by Ed Hughes. The photocard shows up terribly here. It is in a hard plastic case as it was examined and verified by one of the sports card authenticating companies. It's hard to photograph in the case but I obtained a very similar, ungraded example and the front and back are below. The ungraded one has his printed signature below the photograph. The photo is likely to have been taken during the same session that produced the shot used on the Jay picture pack photo near the top of this page.

Here are the front and back of the ungraded example.

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As an Assistant Coach

This picture with Football Hall of Famer Otto Graham dates from 1966 when he served on Graham's staff in Washington. He also coached at his alma mater Tulsa, for the Dallas Texans/KC Chiefs and Denver Broncos of the AFL as well as the SF 49ers before he took the job in Houston.

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1971 With the Oilers

This is one of my favorite additions. It's an image of Coach Hughes that I scanned from a color slide I nabbed off eBay for $2. The slide is labeled as "Coach Ed Hughes Houston Oilers" so we can assume it's from 1971. I love coming across oddball items like this of Coach.

This is a team-issued photo of Coach Hughes' 1971 Oilers. Coach is in the second row on the far right. Ken Burroughs, UH alum Dickie Post, and Dan Pastorini are upfront on the left. Right behind them is shitbag Bud Adams.

Next up are several original 8x10 and wire-service photos of Coach Hughes from his season with the Oilers, which I obtained from different places on the web including eBay. Most originated from the Houston Post and Chronicle photo libraries.

These three are 'seperate but (nearly) equal' pics from the press conference that the Oilers held to indroduce CEH.

This is an original Associated Press wire-service photo from the news conference.

Most of the rest are of CEH on the job as head coach of the Oilers. In the photo below Coach is talking to rookie Oiler QB Lynn Dickey with QB Charley Johnson in the background. Those two, along with another rookie (and future Oiler icon) Dan Pastorini, split the starts during the 1971 season.

Another sideline shot of Coach in the Astrodome. The player is RB Joe Dawkins. Knowing that I can narrow the game down since Dawkins was traded to the Broncos in late October of '71. Unless these are from a preseason game the opponent is either the Chiefs, Saints or Lions. These are fun 'rabbit holes' to dive into. Dawkins was dealt to the Broncos for former UH star Dickie Post. Neither player did much with their new clubs over the last half of the '71 season. In fact, Dawkins had no carries and only touched the ball on two kick returns. Post played in five of the last six Oilers games, had little impact, and was gone from the NFL. Dawkins played with the Giants and then returned to the Oilers before retiring after the '76 season. He best year was 1973 the he had over a thousand combined yards for Denver.

In this next photo the blackboard list is my doing...(IFKYK)

Ed Hughes' first time on the sideline as an NFL head coach was the 1971 Hall of Fame game in Canton against the Rams. Here is a full ticket and the game program. Other than including the rosters, the program barely mentions the teams as it contains mostly HoF info and feature stories. Take a look at the '71 Hall induction class listed on the back of the ticket!

A few weeks later in the preseason schedule the Oilers played the Bears in the Astrodome. Coach appeared on the cover of the program. Inside was a bio of CEH and photos of his staff. The Oilers' beat writer at the Houson Post, wrote a feature on him and the team.

The Oilers opened the 1971 season in Cleveland against the Browns. Here's a program from Ed Hughes' first offical game as an NFL Head Coach. One of the he Browns' beat writers (the Plain Dealer's Chuck Heaton) did the visiting team feature and focused on Hughes' debut.

The Oilers' 1971 Media Guide contains the same bio of Coach Hughes that appears in the game program. The back cover on my copy is scyffed pretty badly which detracts from the photo.

Some recent additions to my horde of Hughes 'stuff' include this article that ran in the NY Times in November of 1971 as the situation surrounding the Oilers and Coach Hughes deteriorated.

This New York Times story dated December 22, 1971...

How's this for a picture? That's Coach Hughes working as a fabricator at a trailer shop in North Houston in 1972, the year after his Oilers season.

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With the Bears

Here are the '85 Chicago Bears. Coach Hughes is in the top row, third from the left.

The Bears re-issued this photo in 2005 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Super Bowl win. Note the tributes to Coach and Walter Payton.

This Getty Images* pic shows Coach Hughes directing his guys as the Bears' OC during Super Bowl XX. Chicago backups, Calvin Thomas (#33) and Steve Fuller (#4), are behind CEH.

Here is the text of his obituary as it appeared in the Chicago Tribune in 2000.

As I add more items to my collection this is where you'll find them. RIP Coach!