(SPRINGFIELD, Mo.) — University of Central Missouri Director of Athletics Jerry Hughes will be honored next month with the Missouri Sports Legend Award from the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame as part of the Enshrinement Class of 2016.

The announcement was made Wednesday by Jerald Andrews, president and executive director of the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame.

The ceremony will take place on Sunday, Jan. 31, 2016 in Springfield. A specially commissioned bust of Hughes, cast in bronze, will soon be on display at the Hall’s Legends Walkway, which also honors Stan Musial, Norm Stewart, George Brett, Len Dawson and others, according to a news release.

“We are proud to honor Jerry Hughes with the Hall’s highest honor, the Missouri Sports Legend award. His dedication to athletics at the University of Central Missouri the past 36 years is impressive,” Andrews said in a written statement.

Hughes has served as athletic director at UCM since 1983. His tenure has been highlighted by the dual NCAA Division II basketball championships in 1984 by the Mules and Jennies and the men’s basketball national title in 2014. UCM also won the 1994 and 2003 NCAA D-II baseball championships, the 2003 women’s Intercollegiate Bowling Association national title and the 2014 men’s basketball national crown and the 2015 indoor and outdoor national titles for Jennies track and field.

Entering the 2015 fall semester, the Mules and Jennies had won 151 Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association championships, eight national championships, had 45 other top-four NCAA finishes and made more than 260 NCAA postseason appearances during Hughes’ tenure. Hughes, who is the first three-time winner of the NACDA Central Region Athletics Director of the Year award at any NCAA level, has been a Division II member of the NCAA executive committee and chairman of the D-II championships committee. He also served a term as NCAA vice president for Division II and has been a member of the NCAA Council, making him the only person to twice hold the highest-ranking office available to athletics administrators in D-II. Hughes, who earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Central Missouri, was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2005.

“I’m appreciative and honored that the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame has selected me as a Missouri Sports Legend,” Hughes said. “It is a direct reflection on the quality of coaches and student-athletes and the reputation of Central Missouri athletics.”

The enshrinement ceremony is 5 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 31 at the University Plaza Hotel and Convention Center in Springfield. An 11 a.m. reception is scheduled at the Hall of Fame, 3861 E. Stan Musial Drive. Afternoon activities begin at 4 p.m. with a reception at University Plaza, and the program will follow immediately afterward. Individual tickets are $150, and a table of 10 is $1,500. For tickets, call the Hall of Fame at 417-889-3100.