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A seasoned athletic leader with more than 20 years of experience in higher education and college athletics, Reginald Ruffin has joined the President’s Cabinet as Vice President of Intercollegiate Athletics and Athletic Director. In this role, he will lead the comprehensive strategy to continue advancing Tuskegee University’s scholar-athlete model in men and women’s sports – including a new sport for the university, men’s and women’s soccer, which will debut next fall.
“I am truly honored for this opportunity to support Dr. Brown’s and this administration’s unwavering focus on developing well-rounded student leaders who compete – and win – with culture, class and civility,” said Ruffin whose role also includes operational oversight of the university’s marching band, the Marching Crimson Pipers, and cheerleading squad.
“As I tell our student-athletes and coaches, we’re here to educate, dominate and graduate – we are winning in the classroom, winning on the field and, ultimately, winning out there in the world. That’s my ‘why’.”
Known to call it as he sees it from the locker room to the board room, Ruffin’s passion for sports and the young people who pursue it is legendary.
“Reginald Ruffin is the rare combination of leader who can motivate the people around him not only because he knows the Xs and Os it takes to win but because he knows how to inspire others to find within themselves what it takes to win,” said Dr. Mark A. Brown, president and CEO. “I am so pleased that he will assume this expanded role to build on Tuskegee’s legacy of student-athlete excellence, motivate our students to develop as critical-thinkers and leaders on and off the field, and represent the university in our efforts to attract the best and the brightest to all of our auxiliary units to become Tuskegee University Golden Tigers.”
Ruffin spent several years as defensive coordinator and linebackers coach at Tuskegee University from 2006 until 2010 under head coach Willie Slater. In 2011, he took the helm at Miles College as head coach and athletic director. Over 10 seasons at Miles College, he guided the Golden Bears to seven SIAC Championship appearances, winning four titles and earning three SIAC Coach of the Year honors. His teams also advanced to the NCAA Division II playoffs twice, finishing with an impressive 59–39 overall record. Ruffin was recently named to the Miles College Sports Hall of Fame.
Ruffin returned to Tuskegee University as head coach and athletic director in 2022 and immediately revitalized the football program, leading the Golden Tigers to an 8-3 record, eclipsing the 700 all-time win mark for the program, and reaching the SIAC Championship Game.
Ruffin is a 1998 graduate of the University of North Alabama and holds a Master’s degree in Education Administration from Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. During his playing days at the UNA, he was one of the most accomplished student-athletes in the history of the school, a four-year-starter who became the Lions’ second three-time All-American and the only Lion to be named All-America at two different positions: a defensive end in 1995 and 1996 and a linebacker in 1997.
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