Cecil Carlton “Tex” Hughson was born and raised in the Kyle, Texas area. He graduated from Kyle High School, and attended the University of Texas at Austin where he was a star pitcher for the UT Baseball Team. He was offered a contract with the Boston Red Sox in 1937, played in the minor leagues for three years, and joined the Major League team in 1940, where he spent his entire career. He was named to three All-Star teams and pitched in the 1946 World Series. He had a good career, even though it was interrupted by his military service in World War II.
He is in the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame, Texas Sports Hall of Fame and the University of Texas Longhorn Hall of Honor.
Tex Hughson was much more than a talented ball player. He was a leader in his community while raising his family. His business interests included farming, ranching, the family meat company business, and real estate developer of the Hughson Heights residential area. He was a trustworthy man throughout his life, in sports, business, and civic life. Those who knew Tex knew “His word was his bond.” He learned this from his father, Cecil “Pop” Hughson, and it is not unusual for Texans, those raised on farms and ranches as he was, to do business with a handshake when you know the handshake is good.
In 1954 the United States Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka that states could not deny African-American students admittance to all-white schools, and that separate but equal facilities were not acceptable.
In August of 1955, Tex was serving as vice-president of the San Marcos School Board when the San Marcos Board of Trustees considered the topic of integrating the public schools. Ernest Morgan made the motion and Tex seconded it. Tex noted that the Dunbar school did not include a gymnasium, nor science labs, not even indoor restrooms and that was not acceptable. Education is very important and he felt that everyone should have the same opportunities. He also felt that the change had to be made right away, when the school year started the following month. The motion passed 4-3.
Interviewed in 1975, 20 years after the historic motion and vote, Tex would say, “I still feel I was 100 percent right. The more I go to church and the more I study the Bible, the more I know I did the right thing.” Forget the hate mail and the obscene telephone calls that came in the night, a person must do the right thing. That is all there is to it.