Editor’s Note: This is the second of a two-part series on former El Reno educator and coach Hub Reed. Reed has been named to the Class of 2020 for the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame.

Ask people around El Reno if they have ever heard of Hubert Franklin Reed and you are more than likely to get the “who is that” response.

Yet, if you ask if they remember Hub Reed, the responses are endless. Tributes to a man who devoted nearly three decades to the school district as a coach, dean of boys and athletic director.

A man known for being a caring educator but also a firm disciplinarian when male students broke the school rules.

“He would let us out of class in the spring to help our farm buddies haul hay.

“Hub also had a reputation for knowing how to use the board of education. I know that firsthand,” said El Reno Tribune Co-Publisher Ray Dyer.

“He had our respect because he was tough but fair.”

Even Reed himself doesn't always relate to his full name.

“Even now when people say Hubert, I have to think about who they are talking about,” said Reed.

But how did Hubert become Hub? Well, it wasn’t by his own hand or even by his family.

“When I was a junior in high school at Capitol Hill, the Daily Oklahoman had a writer named Ray Soldan. He was a fair writer and cared about sports on all levels.

“Ray shortened my name to Hub and I was glad. It seemed like Hubert was not a ballplayer’s name but half of it fit. The name stuck and from then on he always wrote Hub when he wrote my name,” said Reed.

Sporting that new name, Reed became a star at Capitol Hill, then a two-time All-American at Oklahoma City University. Upon graduation, he was taken in the second round of the 1958 National Basketball Association draft with the 14th overall pick.

Reed played pro basketball from 1958 through the 1965 season with the St. Louis Hawks (Atlanta), Cincinnati Royals (Sacramento Kings) and the Los Angeles Lakers before retiring after one season with the Detroit Pistons.

During his NBA tenure, Reed logged 2,618 points (5.5 ppg), 2,449 rebounds (5.1 rpg) and 367 assists as a power forward and center. He played alongside and against NBA greats like Oscar Robertson, Jerry West, Wilt Chamberlain and Boston Celtics great Bill Russell.

When he left the NBA, Reed returned to Oklahoma and his wife, Rosa with a degree in education but no real job leads.

“I wasn't even looking for a job when I got back to Oklahoma. Ray was still the lead writer for the Oklahoman and he put me in the paper and Jenks Simmons called and said how about coming out our way,” said Reed.

Reed followed the advice of one of the people he calls a mentor and headed west to El Reno.

“I came out for a visit and ended up moving to El Reno. I knew I didn’t want to coach in college and deal with all that recruiting. I had friends here and I knew El Reno was a good basketball town and had good football over the years,” said Reed.

Reed replaced Jesse Urton as El Reno’s boys basketball coach and made an immediate impact on his players.

“He became the coach my sophomore year so he was the only high school coach I ever had. I had then and still have tremendous respect for the person he is. He was a positive influence on me as a young man and that carried over into adulthood,” said El Reno attorney Andy Bass.

Bass says the tributes and the horror stories of Reed's “board of education” are all true.

“I was fortunate enough to never get those (swats) and those stories were the reason why. He was fair but tough and that’s the best way to describe it,” said Bass.

Reed coached the Indians for five seasons, producing a 59-55 overall record for a .518 winning percentage. He had four 10-win seasons but the best campaign came in 1969 when El Reno went 19-8 and made the state tournament after a seven-year hiatus.

“He was used to playing with people that were a lot better than we were. He was a better coach than we were players,” said Bass.

Unlike many coaches today, Bass recalls Reed always lacing up the sneakers in practice and going up against the players he was coaching.

“He was always on the other team when we practiced against him and he was tough. He came straight out of the NBA and he could still play. It was impossible to try and take the ball to the goal.

“We would run a 3-on-1 break and we could not score against him. He still had it,” said Bass.

Reed handed over the reigns of the EHS basketball program to Carl Nick, but his reputation as an educator would follow him the rest of his career – even to those who never walked the halls at El Reno.

Local insurance agent Gary Baumwart, who went to high school in Clinton, recalls the time he encountered Reed while attending a basketball game as an adult.

“I was at a basketball game in 1980 when El Reno was playing at Carl Albert. The crowd was getting rowdy and chanting some bad stuff. When they got out of hand, Hub was standing in the doorway and he came over there and stood right in front of the student section and said I want to see every one of you in my office tomorrow.

“I was in the middle of the section about four rows up and I swear he was looking right at me. When I left I asked Reed if he wanted me to come to his office but it went right over his head. He was pretty livid. I was about 35 or 40 years old at the time and he got my attention as well,” said Baumwart.

Having to be a stern administrator or a caring friend, Reed says it was the kids that kept him going for decades.

“If you don’t love the kids, you are in the wrong business. I was there for 27 years and never missed a day for illness. I might have taken time off for a funeral but always came back to school.

“If you enjoy what you do, never miss a day, and I never thought about not going to school. It was the way I was raised, if you had a job you were supposed to be there,” said Reed.

Reed said the adults around him were key to his happiness in El Reno, starting with his boss, Leslie F. Roblyer.

“All stemmed back to our superintendent. Mr. Roblyer told us at orientation for each 27 years what he expected of everyone and your job. If you flubbed up it was your own fault because you didn’t listen. Only superintendent I ever had and living in El Reno. I felt like I had good rapport all over town,” said Reed.

Another key adult in his success as an administrator, said Reed, was Terry Smith.

“If I was ever in a street fight I would pick her first. She was the dean of girls and was the most fair woman I ever met and she was a very special person,” said Reed.

Reed said he and Smith both learned so many lessons from their boss, who loved every aspect of El Reno Public Schools – even sports.

“As a coach, sports kept you busy because we were also playing at Altus or Lawton. But Mr. Roblyer knew how busy we were and he was always willing to work with us as long as we did our job,” said Reed.

Reed helped mold the framework of many of the sporting venues EHS uses today like Memorial Stadium, and recalls his job as athletic director was a lot of hands-on work.

“Back then as athletic director, you took care of the fields and I’ve done a lot of work on those fields and it was tough. We only had a few irrigation hoses and we had to drag them back and forth between fields,” said Reed.

Reed said the labor of love for the field was both rewarding and frustrating, like the time he ruined the grass on the football field.

“The football field was flat and I asked Mr. Roblyer if we could put a crown on it. It took 100 loads of dirt from Lake El Reno when they drained it to dig it out. I didn’t know at the time that oil companies had been dumping salt from the oil fields in the lake.

“The first year after we planted the grass, it got 2 inches and died. We ran a test and the salt content was high. It’s the only time I really messed up in my job and that was not running a test on that soil. Next year we planted rye grass and it looked terrible. The following year we tore out plugs of Bermuda from the end zones and put it out on other places to make the field look good,” said Reed.

Then there were the lessons in finance from his boss who he always calls Mr. Roblyer.

“Mr Roblyer told me when I first started as athletic director, if you don’t have money in your pocket, don’t spend it.

“If we were in a pinch, like the time when we had our uniforms and equipment stolen from the football room, he said he would help us but he made very few exceptions when it came to taking money from the general budget,” said Reed.

When Reed retired he turned over the high school athletic director’s job to Richard Steanson, who had served for 12 years under Reed as athletic director and dean of boys at the junior high.

“Hub is such a tremendous person and his footprint and influence was on everything. I had the privilege to hear his stories and he is such a great storyteller. He has such a good memory and recalls the details from every step of his life.

“You just loved being around him and I was so privileged to have worked under him. We were so lucky here in El Reno to have had him,” said Steanson.

Steanson served eight more years before passing the AD torch to Rocky Carter, but both men agree Reed’s influence and direction never stopped.

“If there is anything good to say, that is what Hub meant to me. I met him between my fifth- and sixth-grade year at a summer basketball camp and he has been an influence on my life as a player, assistant coach and a person.

“It was a blessing to have had him as a boss and a friend. If you ever had an issue you could go talk with him about it and his stories you never got tired of hearing. He is still a legend in my life,” said Carter.