Wheeler Hughes

Dunbar High, Lynchburg (1966)

Basketball

Wheeler Hughes was a well-rounded student who was elected Vice President of the Student Council and was one of Virginia’s best high school basketball players. Dunbar’s 1966 team played with an aggressive style, averaged 92 points per game, and won the VIA’s Western District and VIA Group I Basketball Championships. Dunbar then entered the National Negro High School Tournament in Montgomery, Alabama. In the National tournament, Hughes averaged 20 points per game as Dunbar defeated defending National Champion Lanier High (Jackson, Mississippi) 79-78 in the semi-final and lost the National Championship game to Coleman High of Greenville, Virginia Sports Hall of Mississippi. In 1966 he was the Most Valuable Player in the VIA’s Western District and State Group I Basketball tournaments. He made history that same year when he and Jerry Venable (B. T. Washington, Staunton) were the first black basketball players selected to the Virginia Sportswriters and Sportscasters All-State Team. Hughes played collegiate basketball at Kansas State University where they won the 1970 Big Eight Conference Regular Season Championship. He returned to Lynchburg in February 2014 when his number 12 Dunbar jersey was retired.