Charles A. Hughes was a Detroit businessman and ice hockey executive. He was one of the founders of the Detroit Red Wings National Hockey League (NHL) in 1926. The team was then known as the Detroit Cougars. The team would later change its name to the Falcons, and later the Red Wings, one of the most successful teams in NHL history.
Hughes led a group of investors that got a NHL expansion franchise for Detroit in 1926. To stock the team with players, they purchased the Victoria Cougars of the Western Canada Hockey League in 1926. They transferred the team to Detroit, where they played in the National Hockey League as the Detroit Cougars.
In 1927, on the advice of NHL President Frank Calder, Hughes hired Jack Adams as coach and general manager of the team. Adams would stay on as GM of the Cougars, later Falcons and Red Wings, until 1963.