MOULTRIE – Jim Hughes went to Veterans Memorial Stadium for last Friday’s Worth County-Thomasville High football game and the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Thomasville High Bulldogs’ 1974 national and state championship team.

But there was a surprise awaiting for the man who had led the program to two state championships during his 13-year tenure.

It was announced during the halftime ceremony that the stadium field was being named in his honor.

Opponents will now go to Thomasville to meet the Bulldogs on Coach Jim Hughes Football Field at Veterans Memorial Stadium.

“It was very unexpected and very gratifying,” Hughes said. “I spent my career putting teams together. It almost seems counter-intuitive to receive individual attention.”

When he left Thomasville after the 1982 season to become the head coach at Colquitt County, he had led the Bulldogs to a 107-34-3 record.

The 107 wins are still the most in Thomasville High School football history.

Hughes had been assistant to Lee Forehand for four years before being named head coach in 1970.

Among his former Thomasville High players are current U.S. Secretary of Defense Gen. Lloyd Austin and former Georgia High School Association Executive Director Robin Hines.

The resolution approved by the Thomasville City Board of Education to name the field in honor of Hughes states, “Beyond his success on the field, Coach Hughes has had a profound and positive impact on the lives of countless students, serving as a mentor, role model and advocate for the personal growth and development of young athletes.”

Hughes was named the 1974 Thomasville-Thomas County Man of the Year and has been inducted into the Thomas County Sports Hall of Fame in 1999, the Colquitt County Sports Hall of Fame in 2000, the Georgia Athletic Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2009 and Georgia Sports Hall of Fame in 2014.

The 1973 Thomasville team went 13-0 and won Hughes’s first state title, allowing just 55 points all season and posting nine shutouts. The championship game was held on a neutral site.

In 1974, the Bulldogs won their second-straight state championship in front of the home fans at Veterans Memorial Stadium, defeating Coach Waymon Creel’s Lakeside High of Atlanta team 26-20.

The 1974 team was declared the national champion by the National Sports News Service.

The Bulldogs went 12-1 in 1974, with their only loss coming by a 27-20 score on the road against Dougherty.

A more offense-oriented team than the 1973 state champions, the 1974 Bulldogs scored 423 points and gave up 153, while posting four shutouts.

The 1974 team was led by prep high school All-America running back William Andrews, who went on to an outstanding career at Auburn and in the NFL with the Atlanta Falcons.

“And we did not have a 200-pound player on that team,” Hughes said.

Andrews was among the 25 former players, five cheerleaders and two coaches from the 1974 team who attended the reunion and field dedication.  

Hughes also owns the most wins in Colquitt County football history. He went 140-68-2 while coaching in Moultrie from 1983-1999, winning the program’s first championship in 1994 and taking the Packers to the 1991 state championship game.

Between his time at Thomasville and at Colquitt County, Hughes was a head coach for 30 seasons, posting an overall record of 247-102-5.

In addition to the one national and three state championships, his teams won six region titles.

Hughes and wife Lillian were joined at the ceremony by son Parks, a former Colquitt County quarterback, and daughters Randall Hughes and Julia Hughes Tatum.