By JASON KETZ
Sports Editor
(WARRENSBURG, Mo., digitalBURG) — If you’ve never heard of UCM’s Athletic Director Jerry Hughes, all you need to do is look him up on Twitter @HeadMule. When you type the name in, if a profile picture of Darth Vader is first on the screen, you’ve found his page.

“The Darth Vader nickname comes from an article the St. Joseph News-Press did about hiring (current Jennie’s head basketball coach) Dave Slifer from Missouri Western,” Hughes said. “The article called me the Darth Vader running the evil empire known as Central Missouri.”

For the past 33 years, the UCM athletic department, under the direction of Hughes, has won 151 MIAA conference championships, which is the most of any school in the conference since that time. For his long-standing tradition of excellence, Hughes was recently honored as a Legend of the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame.

Born and raised in Versailles, Missouri, Hughes was a member of the UCM golf team where he was a three-year letter winner for head coach Earl Keth and was named to the All-MIAA team as a senior. After getting his bachelor’s degree in physical education, Hughes took teaching and coaching positions at Morgan County R-II High School. During the next seven years, Hughes became the athletic director and assistant principal before receiving his master’s degree in secondary school administration from Central Missouri in 1979.

“I got a call from Terry Wolf (then the director of placement at UCM) and asked me if I wanted to come back to Warrensburg,” Hughes said. “(Wolf) told me that there was an opening in the placement office, and I took a pay cut from the high school ranks, but it gave me a chance to break into college.”

Hughes was hired as the business placement director after being awarded his graduate degree. He quickly moved up the ranks, becoming the first director of student recruitment while working as assistant head coach for the Mules basketball team.

“Our former head football coach and athletic director Al Molde had taken the head coaching job at Eastern Illinois University, and as the associate athletic director at the time I was able to a lot of good things,” Hughes said. “Dr. Horner called me over to his office and said, ‘I want you to be the interim athletic director.’”

Hughes went on to tell Horner to name him the outright athletic director because if it didn’t work out, then he could just fire him.

Hughes has been able to keep that outright title and has been heavily involved not only at UCM but also his involvement with the NCAA. During his time, Hughes has served as the NCAA Vice President for Division II, member of the Executive Committee, a chairman for the Championships Committee and a member of the NCAA Council. Which makes Hughes the only person to twice serve the highest-ranking office available to athletics administrators in Division II.

“His wealth of knowledge and experience within the NCAA, UCM, the Warrensburg community and even the state of Missouri is something that is tremendous,” said Kathy Anderson, senior associate athletic director.

“We are all very competitive, especially Jerry, but (Hughes) has taught me the perspective of the total picture of athletics and how it fits into the community, campus and the value to the student-athletes and what it can serve in their lives.”

Not only did Anderson have a lot of nice things to say about Hughes, but so did Jennies head volleyball coach Flip Piontek. Piontek has been a volleyball coach at UCM for 31 seasons, all of which was under the direction of Hughes.

“Once he decided that I was going to be the volleyball coach, he has given me all of the resources that we need to do our job the best that we see fit,” Piontek said.

Piontek has lead the Jennies to five MIAA titles in his seven seasons as head coach, was very complimentary of the honor that Hughes received from the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame.

“Allowing a person who has had contributions with building facilities on campus, being in charge of the sports programs with the amount of success we’ve had here and the longevity of that commitment to athletics is what really makes it quite appropriate for (Hughes) to be recognized,” Piontek said.

Not only has Hughes been able to produce countless championships both conference and nationally, he has also been instrumental in upgrading countless athletic facilities here on campus.

“I’ve had a vision for a lot of the facilities here at UCM,” Hughes said. “Facilities can do so much for you from a recruiting standpoint that it’s not only for the athletes but the student body as well.”

During Hughes tenure, multiple facilities have seen upgrades, including the South Recreation Complex, which is home to the Jennies softball and soccer teams, the Student Recreation and Wellness Center, Walton Stadium-Kennedy Field, Mule National and most recent the renovations to Crane Stadium-Tompkins Field.

Hughes has been awarded with several distinguished honors, including Central Regional Athletic Director of the Year, three times, which is the most of any level in collegiate athletics. Hughes was then inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2005, but received the legendary status this past month.

“It was a tremendous honor,” Hughes said. “This award isn’t about me. This award is about the success of Central Missouri’s sports program, all of the coaches and athletes who have been here and what they have done. I’m the one who gets the award, but it wouldn’t have happened without all of those people doing what they could on their field of play.”

Being the longest tenured athletic director in school history, Hughes hopes that his legacy is one of giving student athletes good experiences with their sport while at UCM, to perform to their highest level, but most importantly, to walk across the stage with a degree from the University of Central Missouri.