Frank Hughes - Inducted 2009
At the 1924 Olympics in Paris, the 43-year-old won a gold medal in the team clay pigeons competition and a bronze medal in the individual trap. The Sept. 2, 1924 Mobridge Tribune reported: "Never has a man gone out of Mobridge that has attracted as much attention throughout the world as Frank Hughes. His name has been featured on the sporting pages of all the great dailies of America as well as those of foreign countries. Out of all the trapshooters that participated in the Olympic contests, Frank Hughes was the only man that was invited to shoot before British royalty, including the king and queen of England, the Prince of Wales and others of royal birth. He accepted ... and highly pleased these people with his exceptional marksmanship."
Pat DeSart of Mobridge, who knew Frank, said he was never without a rifle in his hands. Frank and twin brother Jack were hunting guides in Mobridge. Mail to the brothers always came addressed to "Old Trigger, Mobridge, S.D." In 1918, while shooting in a driving rain in St. Paul, Hughes pulverized 496 clays out of 500. In 1921, he hit 199 out of 200 to beat 400 competitors in Des Moines. Following a shoot in South Bend, Ind., a newspaper account said "Frank Hughes is without a doubt the best shot in the country." In Dayton, Ohio, in 1924, he won the amateur trapshooting championship of America. He hit 199 out of 200, missing his first shot and hitting all the rest. At an Oklahoma shoot, he hit 410 targets in one string without a miss.
In 1920, he was the fifth-ranked amateur shooter in the nation, according to the American Trapshooting Association, hitting 6,522 out of 6,755 shots for 96.55 percent. In 1921, he was again No. 5, at 97.48 percent. In 1924 and '25, he was No. 1 with 98.30 and 97.57 percent, respectively.
Hughes won four South Dakota state trapshooting titles: 16-yard in 1919 and '21, doubles in 1923 and high all-around in 1923. In 1977, he was among six people in the first class inducted into the South Dakota Trapshooting Association Hall of Fame.
Hughes was born in Neligh, Neb. He lived in Mobridge about seven years, then moved to Chicago.
Most of this information courtesy of Mobridge Tribune
