Coach Charles "Charlie" Rugg

Visitation will be held at Parkway Funeral Home, Ridgeland, Mississippi, Saturday, May 16, from 5-6 p.m.

A memorial service at Newellton Union Church, Newellton, Louisiana, will be held at 11 a.m. Sunday, May 17.

Coach Rugg, a Union parish native, graduated from Farmerville High School and signed a professional baseball contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers. He received both a B.S. and a Master’s Degree from Louisiana Tech in Ruston, Louisiana.

After graduating from Tech, Coach Rugg taught and coached all sports at Athens High School in Athens, Louisiana. In 1956 he began his teaching and coaching career at Murrah High School in Jackson, Mississippi, and in 1963 began coaching at Belhaven University. Over the next 23 years he guided Belhaven’s tennis and basketball teams to regional and national acclaim. Under his tutelage, Belhaven’s tennis teams won 15 conference and NAIA District Championships; they also finished seasons ranked in the NAIA National Top Ten for 12 years. In 1983 Belhaven’s tennis team captured the NAIA National Tennis Championship. Coach Rugg was named District and Conference Tennis Coach of the Year for 15 successive years. His basketball teams played in NAIA District playoffs 12 times and his 1972 team won the NAIA District Championship and advanced to the 2nd round of the NAIA tournament in Kansas City, Missouri. He was selected Coach of the Year in basketball on the NAIA district level and/or in the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference on six occasions. In 1986 he left athletics, but remained as professor of health and history through his retirement in 1998.

Coach Rugg was made a charter member of the Belhaven University Athletic Hall of Fame in 1993. He was inducted into the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics Hall of Fame in 1996 and into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame in 2005. On October 27, 2001, the basketball arena at Belhaven University was named in his honor and is now known as the Charles R. Rugg Arena. In the fall of 2006, he was honored along with 41 other Belhaven faculty members at the Legacy of Learning Celebration recognizing his 31 years of service to the university.

Mr. Rugg served as president of the Jackson Knife and Fork Club during the 1993-94 season. He was a member of First Presbyterian Church of Jackson, Mississippi for 59 years and joined the Newellton Union Church in Newellton, Louisiana in 2015.

Mr. Rugg enjoyed life whether he was teaching, coaching, growing roses and tomatoes, playing golf or fishing. He did all with such great passion.

He is survived by his wife of 71 years, Janie Drew Greer Rugg, Lake Bruin at St. Joseph, Louisiana; sister-in-law, Sylvia, of Sterling, Louisiana; and many nieces, nephews, and great-nieces and great-nephews.

Memorials may be made to Belhaven University, 1599 Peachtree Street, Jackson, Mississippi, 39202 or Newellton Union Church, PO Box 265, Newellton, Louisiana, 71357.