UMass Boston

Paul Hughes' legend has grown as possibly the greatest baseballplayer to swing a bat at Boston State College. Whether it was hismajestic home runs, such as the 480-foot blast at Bowen Field,which was the longest homer hit there, or the fact that majorleague scouts would routinely attend Warriors' games to see himplay. Hughes was a stellar center fielder, covering enough groundto play all three outfield spots during a game, but could alsoswing the lumber with a .323 (71-220) career batting average torank among Boston State's all-time greats. He was the catalyst ofthe 1960 team that won the New England Teachers College ConferenceChampionship and advanced to the NAIA National Tournament, leadingthe squad with a .383 batting mark and a school-record 20 runsscored as a sophomore. He helped the Warriors to a 35-18-1 (.657)record over his four-year career from 1959-62 and batted .300 orbetter in each season, while being named a Captain for his seniorcampaign. Hughes graduated in 1962 and is Boston State's careerleader in run scored (49), triples (nine), runs batted in (51),slugging percentage (.588) and games played (54). Hughes spentsummers among the league leaders in various semi-pro leagues insuch places as Nova Scotia and South Dakota and after hisgraduation played in the legendary Boston Park League. He earnedhis masters degree from Boston State, while teaching and coachingbaseball at Oliver Ames High School for 20 years and has spent thelast 20 years as a Training Manager for Stone & Webster, theTennessee Valley Authority and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.He is also a recipient of the laboratory's legendary MilestoneAward for establishing the first college degree program for nuclearreactor operators.