Tommy Hughes

[scottyd]

I was trying to explain to a young work colleague how "in the old days" life was so different and used the example of Tommy Hughes - PE Teacher at the Academy for years.

We took our PE lessons wearing only a pair of white gym shorts - nothing else !
If you did something you shouldn't then Tommy wasn't shy with "the slipper" and for even worse trangressions then it was the belt. What would people say nowadays ?

Tommy was old school - not sure if that is a compliment or not.

He introduced me to rugby - never understood why we couldn't play football back then. Was it something to do with some misdeed in Tommy's history ???

[DONNBETTY]

I remember those days too. I think he received his discipline training from a Dickens book.
The rumor mill when I was there in the late 40.s, was that Tommy had some bad experience with football and would only permit rugby for that reason.- but of course we never found out the real story if there was one.
l also remember a boy in my class given "100 lines" from Mr Hughes for speaking during class. The boy wrote exactly what he heard him say...
" I must not talk in the gymanasium" You can imagine the reception he received with that spelling mistake,

[Meg]

If you did something you shouldn't then Tommy wasn't shy with "the slipper" and for even worse trangressions then it was the belt. What would people say nowadays ?

He introduced me to rugby - never understood why we couldn't play football back then. Was it something to do with some misdeed in Tommy's history ???

There's been quite a long discussion on belting here Scotty. As for rugby - most of the supposed "better" schools only had hockey for the ladies and rugby for the gentlemen in those days (my day too) - also it was a feeder into the Accies.

Meg

[morag]

At St. Mike's it was netball and hockey for the girls and basketball and footie for the boys as well as field sports, long jump, high jump etc., and running.

[Alexmac442]

I dont know why Tommy was keen on rugby and cricket but I cannot believe it was a problem with football. He played cricket with a passion which to me was an indication of his love for that sport and of course rugby. We discussed him in earlier topics and I can still remember standing at the wicket quaking at the sight of him charging down to fire a cannonball at me. He gave me my love of cricket and his enthusiasm was a great motivator when we went to play other schools, Marr college in particular. When I think of all the teachers at the academy I remember him best (with Jill Coombes close second!!!!)
Alex

[down south]

The Academy began having official football teams in the early seventies, when we went comprehensive; but there's no sign of Mr Hughes having been involved in coaching them, it's other teachers who are shown with the boys in the team pictures. But then at that stage the teams, and in some cases the teachers, were mostly ones inherited from Jacks Road and Stanley anyway.

He retired in 1974 , and here from the Academy archive is a picture and article from that occasion. Former pupils will recognise a few other familiar faces too:

http://www.ardacad.co.uk/arc/leavers/hu ... ghes.shtml" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Left to right: Mr J B Anderson; Mr A Bannatyne; Miss M Lyle; Mr A Allan; Mr T J Hughes; Mr A Partridge; Mrs Strachan ( I think ); Mr G Buchan; Mr A Strong.

Susan

[willstewart]

I well remember Tommy Hughes and his belting skills. My pal and I Sammy Ferguson had been wrongly accused of causing a fire in the Jannies Boiler room to which the Fire Brigade had to be called to. Rather than grass on who had flung the fag end into the big drum with the rubbish we took the blame. The Rector called in Tommy to administer the six of the belt we got. We were only 13 I remember thinking that Tommy H actually enjoyed it!

[stivis]

Personally I believe there was something not quite right with him....That's that said.take what you like out of it

[scottyd]

Stivis, I know what you mean but, for those days, he was probably quite normal.
Corporal punishment was allowed and child protection wasn't invented then.
However, nowadays he would have been sacked (or prosecuted) for what he did.
Different times, different standards and there are many who wish we still lived in those days (not me !)

[stivis]

I don't come here very often , and since I saw the reference to him, it brought back bad memories of AA,
I don't think I have any fond thought of the whole staff, they treated you like crap if you came from Stevenston.

I thought then, as now he was a (add what you like), and classmates were of the same opinion............

edited so no one can take offence

[scottyd]

I could never condone the actions of Tommy Hughes but he was a product of his time and acted in a way that was deemed acceptable then. He wasn't the only teacher who used corporal punishment to excess.
He had his good points - I just made sure I kept on his good side.

[Retsum]

I remember Tommy Hughes from 1951-57 and I don't recall him being more strap-happy than the other teachers. In fact his presence and his subject made the need to discipline less than for other teachers. I do recall one incident in the early years (1st or 2nd year). We must have had gym first period because we had just heard that one of our classmates had died suddenly of a brain haemorrhage. Tommy made some crass, black humour comment about the lad and one of his close friends shouted 'you have no right to say things like that' and then burst into tears. It was the only time I saw Tommy flustered and embarrassed. He took the lad aside and had a long chat with him. I don't know what he said but it calmed things down.

In the early years Tommy led us to believe (without ever being explicit) that during the war he was a fitness and unarmed combat instructor. He used to pair us off with lads our own size for wrestling matches. He told us if we broke our necks we should come to him becaue he was the only person who could fix a broken neck. We were suitably impressed. It did not occur to us then that if we had a broken neck the last thing we would be able to do was go looking for Tommy to fix it!

His main sport was hockey although he had given it up when I knew him. I believe he played for Ardeer Rec. He used to enjoy showing off his skills in the annual staff versus the girl's 1st XI match. His favourite trick was to scoop the ball up on the end of his stick and run bouncing it on his stick - almost impossible to get at him. He would then let it fall and smack it into the semi circle. Unfortunately none of the other staff had the skill to stop a fast ball and hit it into goal.

With regard to rugby, I think it was something he inherited. Edinburgh & district, Glasgow & district, Ayrshire and the Borders were and still are strongholds of Scottish rugby. Personally, I loved it - I had two left feet at football.