JACKSON, MS – Former Jackson State football coach, Robert “Judge” Hughes passed away last week following complications of diabetes. Hughes, who has been in and out of the hospital over the last several months, will be remembered by JSU fans as one of the great football players and coaches in the history of Tigers football.

In 1999, Hughes was named as JSU’s 15th head football coach. In his first season, he led the team to a 9-3 record. That season JSU won the Southwestern Athletic Conference Eastern Division title and played Southern in the Inaugural SWAC Championship game in Birmingham, Alabama. The game was played on December 10 in front of a crowd of 47,621 fans (the largest crowd ever to watch a SWAC championship football game) at Legion Field. The Tigers fell 31-30 in a heartbreaker to the Jaguars.
The following season, Hughes’ Tigers finished with a 7-4 record and matched that 7-4 mark in 2001. 2002 was the final year that Hughes led the Tigers and the team finished with a 7-4 record. During his four year coaching career at JSU, Hughes finished with a 30-15 record (.667 winning percentage).
During his tenure at JSU his teams won a SWAC Eastern Division title, set the NCAA D-IAA (now FCS) record for highest passing efficiency rating in a game (389.9 rating by Mark Washington vs. Alcorn St. in 1999), was named NCAA Rushing Defense Champions (allowing only 67.8 rushing yards per game in 1999), was named NCAA Passing Champions (averaged 344.4 passing yds per game in 2001), set single game passing yards mark (Robert Kent passed for 668 yards against Alabama St.) and was named the NCAA Total Offense Champion (the team averaged 485.5 yards per game in 2002).
As a player, Hughes was named to the JSU All-Century team in 2011 as a defensive lineman. Information regarding funeral services for coach Hughes will be made available upon receipt.

Tiger Wins #79
Dr. Gregory D. Jones
AKRON, Ohio – Each golf season there are four major championships, the Masters, the United States Open, the British Open and the PGA Championship.  Additionally, there has always been discussions on whether or not to include the Players Championship as the fifth major, primarily because it has one of the deepest fields of the year and the tract is so brutally challenging.
With that said, I submit the World Golf Championships should be included in those discussions primarily because of the same arguments espoused concerning the Players. This quad group of annual events for professional golfers was created by the International Federation of PGA Tours with three of the four events considered tour events with prize monies exceeding the majors. The Bridgestone Invitational invites only 75 players, 50 of them sit atop the world rankings. Combine this incredibly deep field with the major championship-like venue of a Firestone Country Club and something truly spectacular awaits the golfing fans.
Both, Keegan Bradley and Henrik Stenson, each finished the tournament tied at -8 under par.  Zac Johnson, Miguel Angel Jimenez and Auburn University Golfer, Jason Dufner all tied at -6 under par.  The entire weekend, all five fought tooth and nail trying to best the others so that they could claim second place. That’s right, they fought for second, because the world’s number one player, Tiger Woods shot a record tying 61 on Friday and put the tournament out of reach. He followed that up Saturday by shooting a 68 and shot even par Sunday to beat the field by seven strokes. He finished the tournament at -15 under par. It was like a walk in the park for Tiger who never felt the slightest bit of pressure from his competitors. It was the field who were hard pressed to force shots, take risks and try and make up ground.
This gave Tiger his fifth win this season, his eighth WGC Bridgestone victory, his 79th win overall and $1.5 million to boot. If he remotely duplicates this form at Oak Hill, in Rochester, N.Y. site of the PGA Championship, number 15 will be on the mantle.