It was mid-October of 1987 and the Bayonne High School football team was playing Memorial in a crucial game held in West New York’s Miller Stadium that would eventually help decide the Hudson County Interscholastic Athletic Association National Division championship.
It was also a game that forever changed the life of Danan Hughes.
“I attribute that game to changing my career,” Hughes now says. “That’s the night I became a football player. Up to that point, I was just an athlete who happened to play football. From that moment on, I became real.”
In that game, Hughes started at wide receiver, like he always did. Tommy Lynch, now a proud member of the Bayonne Fire Department, was the quarterback. On one play, Lynch rolled out and headed toward the sidelines. Lynch, not the biggest guy in the world, endured a hit that resonated all the way from West New York to the Peninsula City.
Lynch lowered his head to get an extra yard, but when he did, his neck snapped back in an awkward fashion, causing Lynch to fall to the ground, motionless. Burly Bayonne High School athletic trainer Bethany Chapple, who has since passed away, immediately ran to Lynch, placing his big legs and thighs around Lynch’s head and neck to act as an immobilizer. Everyone present believed that Lynch had suffered a broken neck and was paralyzed.
Lynch was transported to a hospital for evaluation; he indeed suffered a broken neck. Luckily it was not a paralyzing injury, but then Bayonne head football coach Don Ahern needed a quarterback.
“I was a quarterback for my first three years,” Hughes said. “When Tommy got hurt, I went right back to being a quarterback. My life changed right at that moment.”
Did it ever
Hughes went on to lead that team to the 1987 Hudson County championship, to a victory over rival Marist in the annual Thanksgiving Day game, to a victory over Fair Lawn in the opening round of the NJSIAA North Jersey Section 1, Group IV state playoffs (on the coldest day ever recorded in Bayonne football history) and then to a berth in the state championship game against Paterson Kennedy.
That team, which also featured players like Ernie Beler, Tico Baret and Charlie Rankin, is considered by most to be the best team in Bayonne football history, posting a 10-1 record.
Hughes would also go on to play basketball at Bayonne High School, earning All-County honors as he did in football. Hughes was also a standout baseball player for the Bees and in fact was the winning pitcher in a game against Memorial, a team that lost only once in the 1988 season en route to the mythical national championship.
Recently, the powers-that-be decided to honor Hughes by retiring his uniform No. 3 in a special presentation held at the Bees’ game against Bloomfield.
Not only did Hughes have his football jersey retired that evening, but he had his baseball jersey (also No. 3) retired as well.
From Bayonne to the big time
Hughes, who currently lives in the Kansas City, Missouri, area with his family, might live 1,000 miles away, but his heart has never left his beloved Bayonne.
“I’m just a kid from Bayonne, a kid from 19th Street,” Hughes said. “I was able to do some things after I left Bayonne, but I never really left Bayonne. I was just able to capitalize on playing sports.”
Hughes is unquestionably the best all-around athlete to ever come from Bayonne. He was named the Hudson Dispatch Athlete of the Year in 1988.
After he left BHS, Hughes received a scholarship offer from the University of Iowa that would allow him to play both football and baseball, which he accepted. As a football player, Hughes received All-Big 10 honors three times. He received All-Big 10 honors twice for baseball.
Hughes started all but one game during his grid career at Iowa, where he eventually became the all-time leading pass receiver until his record fell five years ago. He was a member of the Iowa Hawkeye All Decade team of the 1990s and was a preseason All-America honoree in 1992.
As a baseball player, Hughes was drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers in 1991 and spent two years in the Brewers’ organization.
He was drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs in 1992 and spent six years with the Chiefs and one with the New Orleans Saints. He was selected the Chiefs’ team captain, playing with Joe Montana and Marcus Allen. He became a special teams weapon, eventually becoming the captain of the special teams.
From play to play-by-play
After his retirement from pro football, Hughes turned to broadcasting.
He’s currently with ESPN and the Big 10 Network as well as the Kansas City Chiefs’ network.
But the Bayonne ceremony meant a lot to him.
“It was great to see everyone again, all my teammates and friends,” Hughes said. “It was awesome. It was a great honor. It’s a humbling sort of feeling, when you consider the great tradition of Bayonne football, and I’m only the second one to ever have my number retired.”
Former Bayonne great, coach and athletic director Paul Cancro’s No. 40 is the only other number ever retired. Cancro was one of the hundreds of former athletes on hand for Hughes’s presentation.
“I’ve been blessed to have received some solid accomplishments in my lifetime, but this is the greatest,” Hughes said.
Close friend and mentor Tom Murphy, who worked in the Board of Education after graduating from BHS, was the driving force behind Hughes’s number being retired.
“Danan took me under his wing when I was in high school, and he sort of straightened me out,” Murphy said. “He always had a good head on his shoulders. He was a good role model.”
He went on, “Danan has meant so much to the city of Bayonne. He’s everything an athlete should be and what a Bayonne athlete should represent. It was a terrific night, seeing all these guys come back, some I hadn’t seen in more than 20 years.”
How’s this for Hughes’ love for his hometown?
On Sept. 20, the day prior to his retirement ceremony, Hughes spoke to a group of youth football players at Don Ahern Memorial Stadium.
“He went down, posed for pictures, signed autographs. That’s who he is,” Murphy said.
“It’s all about giving back to the community,” Hughes said. “If I can do anything for the kids, I’ll do it in a blink of an eye. I was once just like them, just a kid from Bayonne.”
Hughes said he grew up watching the greats play for Bayonne like Grover Edwards, Dwayne Williams, Richie Dimler.
“I was able to play in the Rose Bowl, play for the Chiefs, play with some Hall of Famers,” he said. “It’s something I’ll hold on to forever.”
He will also hold on to his love for Bayonne. “To be able to celebrate my history with so many of my teammates who came from all over, Maryland, South Carolina, Massachusetts,” he said. “It will be forever etched in my memory.”
