Cecil Hughson: A Legacy in Major League Baseball (1916–1993)

Cecil Carlton “Tex” Hughson, Jr., Major League Baseball pitcher, was born in Buda, Texas, on February 9, 1916. His parents, Cecil Carlton, Sr., and Ada (Rowland) Hughson, were ranchers. After graduating from Kyle High School, Hughson played college baseball at the University of Texas at Austin for longtime coach William “Uncle Billy” Disch. Hughson graduated in 1937 and married Roena Moore on May 29 in Kyle. That year he lettered in baseball, was named to the First Team All-Southwest Conference, and signed with the Boston Red Sox. He played several seasons in minor league farm clubs for the Red Sox. In 1937 Hughson made his professional debut with the Class D Moultrie (Georgia) Packers of the Georgia-Florida League. The following year he was promoted to the Class C Canton Terriers of the Middle Atlantic League and logged a 22–7 pitching record, which got him bumped up to the Class A Scranton Red Sox of the Eastern League. After a 12–6 record at Scranton, he spent the 1940 season with the Double-A (the highest minor league classification at the time) Louisville Colonels of the American Association.

Hughson started the 1941 season with the Red Sox and made his major league debut as a reliever on April 16, 1941, against the Washington Senators at Boston’s Fenway Park. After two more appearances he was sent back to Louisville for more seasoning but returned to the Red Sox on July 6 when he made his first major league start, again facing the Senators at Fenway. He came away with his first major league win (4–3) and his first complete game. At 6’3” and 198 pounds, Hughson was a power pitcher, but he complemented his fastball with good control and an assortment of other pitches. For the Red Sox in 1941, he had a record of 5–3 with a 4.13 earned run average (ERA) in sixty-one innings. It was a decent but not outstanding rookie record. That year Hughson and his wife Roena welcomed their first child, a daughter named Dixie. A son, Stanley, followed in 1944, and another daughter, Jane, in 1954.

In 1942, his sophomore season, Hughson led the American League in wins (22), complete games (22), strikeouts (113), and innings pitched (281). It was the first of three consecutive All-Star seasons. Collectively, Hughson was 52–26 from 1942 through 1944. During these years many major league players were commencing military service (the draft for World War II started in 1940). After Hughson spent part of the 1944 season and all of the 1945 season in the military, he returned to the Red Sox in 1946 at the age of thirty. He went 20–11 with a 2.75 ERA in 278 innings. Hughson supplemented his regular season record with two starts and a relief appearance in the World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals (who won in seven games). He lost one game, but his 3.14 ERA against the hard-hitting Cardinals (they led the National League with 1,426 hits and 712 runs scored) was a creditable performance.

In May 1947 Hughson developed numbness in the middle finger of his right hand. He continued pitching until he was removed from the first game of a September 3 doubleheader against the New York Yankees due to circulatory problems. He was done for the season. Two other members of the starting rotation, Dave Ferriss and Mickey Harris, were also down with injuries, so the Red Sox disappointed, finishing fourteen games behind the first-place Yankees. After off-season surgeries on his arm, Hughson returned in 1948 but not as a starter, as new manager Joe McCarthy chose to limit his appearances while he recovered. Hughson was optioned to the Class B Austin Pioneers of the Big State League. The warm weather aided his rehabilitation. He returned to the Red Sox as a relief pitcher after the All-Star break, but he was not as effective a pitcher as he had been before his injury.

In 1949 Hughson was again a relief specialist, save for two starts in the early days of the season. His record was middling, and he did not get along with McCarthy. After the season he was traded to the New York Giants but chose to retire instead. Hughson’s record with the Red Sox was 96–54 with a 2.94 ERA and 693 strikeouts. He might have had good cause to wonder what might have been had he not been injured. The Red Sox finished second in 1948 and 1949, just one game behind the Cleveland Indians and the Yankees, respectively. The 1948 season was particularly disappointing as Boston fans were denied the opportunity to host an all-Boston World Series— the Boston Braves had won the National League pennant. Sportswriter Ed Linn characterized the Red Sox in the late 1940s as the “Always One Pitcher Short” era.

Hughson could afford to walk away from baseball as he could avail himself of business opportunities in San Marcos. His foray into real estate development with some family ranchland resulted in the Hughson Heights neighborhood of San Marcos. The neighborhood layout includes not just a Hughson Drive and a Hughson Court but a Fenway Loop. He also was involved in the family business, the Hughson Meat Company, which was founded in 1946 and owned by the Hughson family into the 1970s. Hughson acquired the Charolais breed of cattle, which originated in France, for his family’s business. Hughson’s civic involvement included the founding of the San Marcos Little League in 1952. As vice president of the San Marcos School Board, he moved to quickly integrate local schools after the U. S. Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education (1954) decision.

Hughson died of kidney failure at Central Texas Medical Center in San Marcos on August 6, 1993, and was buried in San Marcos Cemetery. His first wife had preceded him in death in 1968. His second wife, Gladys Parker Watson Hughson (whom he married on June 5, 1982) survived him, along with his three children. Hughson was enshrined in the University of Texas Hall of Honor in 1970, the Texas Sports Hall of Fame in 1987, and the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame in 2002.