1919–1920 Virginia Union 1941–1943 Virginia Union 1924–1925 Prairie View A&M Name Henry Hucles | 1926–1942 Virginia Union Died September 11, 1979 1938–1940 Virginia Union | |
Sport(s) Football, basketball, baseball Born November 11, 1897Petersburg, Virginia ( 1897-11-11 ) | ||
Henry Boyd Hucles, Jr. was an American football, basketball, and baseball coach and college athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at Virginia Union University from 1919 to 1920 and again from 1926 to 1942 and at Prairie View A&M University from 1925 to 1926, compiling a career college football record of 101–53–19. Hucles was also the athletic director at Virginia Union from 1926 to 1950. His son, Henry B. Hucles III, became a suffragan bishop in the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island.
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He was inducted into the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame in 1997.
Early life and education
Hucles was born in Petersburg, Virginia on November 11, 1897. In 1917, he studied at Wayland Academy in Washington D.C. before attending studying physics at Virginia Union University from 1919 to 1920. While at Virginia Union he founded the Zeta chapter of Omega Psi Phi and earned All-American honors as a quarterback for the Virginia Union Panthers. As a senior, he was player-coach for the team. He graduated with a BSc from Springfield College in 1933. He was instrumental in the establishment of the Richmond Coliseum.
Coaching career
Hucles became the first Virginia Union University student athlete to then become a coach at the school, serving as the player football coach from 1919 to 1920 and then as the head football coach from 1926 to 1942 as well as athletic director and a professor of health and physical education. From 1938 to 1943, he also served as Virginia Union's basketball coach, leading the team to a Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) title in the 1938–39 season. From 1942 to 1943, future Baseball Hall of Famer Larry Doby, played on the Virginia Union basketball team under Hucles.
In 1921, he spent a year coaching at Shaw University.
Hucles was the first head football coach at Prairie View A&M University in Prairie View, Texas and he held that position for two seasons, from 1924 until 1925. His career coaching record at Prairie View was 11–4–1.
Death
Hucles died in Brooklyn, New York in 1979.