Charles Rugg, Belhaven coach and Mississippi Sports Hall of Famer, dies at 94

Charles Rugg, a Mississippi Sports Hall of Famer who built Belhaven University’s men’s basketball program and coached multiple sports, died Thursday at 94, sportswriter Rick Cleveland wrote.

Cleveland wrote that Rugg took the Belhaven job soon after the former women’s college began admitting men and coached in a 500-seat gym now named Charles Rugg Arena. Rugg’s teams won hundreds of games, Cleveland wrote, and he also served as a history professor, coached a national championship tennis team and played professional baseball until an arm injury ended his pitching career after a Brooklyn Dodgers spring training stint.

Mark Windham, who became like a son to Rugg and his wife, Janie, said Rugg transformed his confidence. Windham recalled a halftime speech and a moment when Rugg hurled a metal garbage can across the locker room. “I was terrified,” Windham said. “Everything I have, I owe to Charlie and Janie Rugg,” he added.

Richard Williams, the Hall of Fame coach who led Mississippi State to the Final Four, told Cleveland he often visited Belhaven practices as a young coach and learned Rugg’s match-up zone defense and offensive system. “I believe Charlie is one of the all-time great coaches who never received the respect due him,” Williams said.

John Brady, who later coached LSU to the Final Four, said Rugg pushed him as a player and inspired him to coach. Brady took Rugg to the 2006 Final Four in Indianapolis and presented him with a Final Four ring, a gesture Cleveland said Rugg treasured. Brady told Cleveland that while Rugg never coached at the highest levels of college basketball, he was a “big-time coach.”

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