Inductees

In a minor league baseball clubhouse in Helena, Montana, with the warm summer sun of 1993 waiting outside, he found himself at a career crossroads. Not that it was a negative. Not by a long shot.

There Danan Hughes was, in his second year in the Milwaukee Brewers farm system and just a year removed from being a third-round draft pick. Weeks earlier in 1993, the Kansas City Chiefs had made him their seventh-round draft pick.

“All my life, I played multiple sports – football, basketball, baseball,” said Hughes, a football-baseball player at the University of Iowa. “That was one of the toughest decisions I had to make in my life.”

Hughes pursued pro football, rising from practice squad member to team captain of the Kansas City Chiefs over a six-year career in the National Football League. And it’s why the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame proudly inducted Hughes with the Class of 2022.

Mainly, his arrival came as the Chiefs were in the midst of their Golden Era of the 1990s, as Hughes played from 1993 to 1998 as a wide receiver and punt returner, and was voted a team captain in his second through fifth seasons.

Overall, he played in 85 games in an era when the Chiefs were a combined 62-27 and won three AFC West Division championships. Although Hughes contributed solidly as a wide receiver, his strong special teams play is what set the foundation for his career.

Since retiring, he has gone into broadcasting. He has been a part of the Big Ten Network’s & ESPN’s baseball and football coverage since 2008. He also has been a mainstay on the Chiefs’ local pregame and postgame shows since 2014. In 2020, he was promoted to an in-game analyst for the Chiefs Radio Network.

This for a New Jersey native whose life changed in 1993. At the time, he had had 180 plate appearances in two seasons. And so off to Chiefs camp he went.

That August, Hughes made the practice squad, and then made his NFL debut in Week 10 on a Monday Night Football game against the Buffalo Bills. That came after a receiver broke his nose.

“Marty (Schottenheimer) came up to me and asked if I had ever handled punt returns,” Hughes said. “I said yes. But the truth was that I had never been a punt returner in my life. I had just been a kick returner in college.”

His time as a center fielder in college and the pros proved beneficial, as he handled high punts with tacklers threatening. Schottenheimer (MSHOF 2010) kept him around.

“I think Marty liked my toughness, and I consider myself a blue-collar guy,” Hughes said. “I just never allowed people to out-work me. I ran three times a day – running hills, running stairs, on the track. And I would go out and show my aggressiveness. That’s the kind of people Marty liked. … I just brought my lunch pail to work every day.”

Career highlights included catching a touchdown pass from Pro Football Hall of Famer Marcus Allen, and another against the New York Giants.

For Hughes, the Midwest has long been a great fit. He grew up in New Jersey just across the Hudson River from New York City and, sensing the allure of the big city might be distracting if he attended Rutgers University, he headed to the University of Iowa.

There, he ranks 11^th all-time in all-purpose yards (3,374), fourth in receiving yards (2,216) and No. 2 in career touchdowns (21).

Hughes took broadcasting classes at Iowa, and then in Kansas City in 1997 he hosted a Monday evening show, “The Chiefs Hour.” Two years later, his playing days over, Hughes revved up his career through a local sports TV network and called high school football and basketball games.

These days, he is a longtime mortgage banker, having joined Central Bank of the Midwest in 2022 as a home mortgage lender with the ability to lend across the country.

Which is why he thanks so many mentors: high school coaches Don Ahern, Bethany Chapple, Tom Bujnowski and Phil Baccarella, as well as college coaches Hayden Fry, Bill Snyder (MSHOF 2006), Duane Banks and of course his immediate & extended family in New Jersey.

He also thanks his wife, Tifanni, for all of her support over the years. They are parents to Jessicah, Joey, Taurin, Savana and Talyn, along with 3 awesome grandkids: Darrien, Daryn & Daxton.

“I’ve been extremely blessed,” Hughes said.