Minium: Murray Rudisill Has Coached ODU Men's Golf For 50 Years With Dignity and Class

By Harry Minium

NORFOLK, Va. – Murray Rudisill has always been a whiz with numbers, and was well on his way to becoming a tenured mathematics professor at Old Dominion 50 years ago when Dr. Jim Jarrett, then ODU’s director of athletics, reached out to him.

Rudisill had recently earned his doctorate at the University of Florida and was especially known for his skill as a math researcher. But he was also a pretty fair amateur golf player who might have gone pro had he not already had a family.

“I might have starved to death, and couldn’t take that risk,” Rudisill said.

Little did he know that golf would take him in a different direction, one that would allow him to have a positive impact on hundreds of student-athletes over five decades.

Jarrett told Rudisill that Pete Robinson, then ODU’s wrestling and golf coach, wanted to focus solely on wrestling. He asked Rudisill if he would consider coaching golf, in addition to his math teaching duties.

“Jim told me there would be nothing to it,” Rudisill said. “Just a few matches in the spring. No recruiting, no fundraising, no scholarships. You’ll have to hold tryouts.

“And I’ll give you an $800 salary. Now, $800 was a lot of money in 1975. So, I said yes.”

Fifty years later, Rudisill is still coaching.

Rudisill’s Monarchs are playing this week in the Sun Belt Conference Men’s Golf Tournament at the Annandale Golf Club in Madison, Mississippi. It is the 50^th postseason conference tournament of his long and illustrious career.

His tenure appears to be a national record for NCAA golf coaches. Jim Owen has coached 44 years at Oglethorpe, but only 32 years as the head coach.

Eddie Robinson coached football at Grambling for 55 years, but otherwise, and a hanful of coaches have reached the 50 year level in various sports, but Rudisill appears to have set a record for longevity in men's golf.

And he has no desire to retire anytime soon.

“I will continue to coach as long as they allow me to coach,” he said. “I absolutely love what I do.”

Dr. Wood Selig, ODU’s director of athletics, said that Rudisill has his blessing to continue coaching. And while Rudisill’s golf knowledge is vast and deep, it is his character that Selig most appreciates.

“They do not make people any better than Murray Rudisill,” Dr. Selig said. “I can’t think of anyone I’ve ever met with more integrity, more honesty, more goodwill, anyone more interested in his fellow man than Murray.

“I’m just finishing up 15 years and never once have I been called about an ODU men’s golfer for any negative situation. Not one time has anything hit my desk in a negative light on any ODU men’s golfer.

“When I think of his impact at Old Dominion, I think of the hundreds of student-athletes that he’s impacted, the generations of students he’s impacted throughout his career.

“And it’s not just his impact on student athletes. He’s had a huge impact on everyone around him.

“When we have our monthly staff meetings, and we have our coaches report, the head coach everyone most enjoys and looks forward to hearing from is Murray. He’s got a way of spinning the challenges and success his team is facing or enjoying.

“He’s someone everyone wants to be around, wants to listen to, wants to hear from.

“He’s someone who makes everyone feel better and do better and act better. He probably doesn’t realize the positive impact he has on all of those around him.”

Rick Kiefner, who has been part of ODU’s radio broadcast team for decades, and a long-time donor, has known Rudisill for more than five decades.

“He’s the very same man today that he was when he came here,” Kiefner said. “He would do anything for his players.

“He brings in good golfers and when they leave, they are great human beings.”

Dex Blank, ODU’s associate athletic director of development and sports administration, is Rudisill’s direct supervisor, but given that Blank is less than half of Rudisill’s age, their relationship is more friendship than business.

“Murray is a wonderful role model for our student-athletes,” Blank said. “I haven’t come across a person with his character anywhere.

“He’s one of a kind. I can’t imagine anyone coaching at one institution for 50 years. That’s just unheard of and truly amazing

"We are so lucky to still have him at ODU.”

Edwin Murray Rudisill Jr. was born and raised in Gastonia, North Carolina, then a thriving cotton mill city just west of Charlotte; now more of a Charlotte suburb.

He grew up in a modest household, “I lived in the blue-collar part of town,” he said. “As my Dad said, we lived on the wrong side of the tracks.”

But his father was an avid golfer.

“My Dad let me caddy for him when I was a little boy,” Rudisill said. “It was such a thrill when he allowed me to start playing with him.”

Rudisill did not truly begin playing golf competitively until he was an adult – he played one season at North Carolina State – but grew to love the game even as a child.

“It’s a game you can’t conquer,” he said. “If you bowl 300, what is there left to do?

“In golf, every day is different. Your body is different every day. It’s just a challenge. I love that challenge. You think you’ve got the game solved one day and the next day you go out and a bird chirps, and you’ve lost your swing.

“It’s just a wonderful game.”

He was an honor student at Gastonia’s Frank Ashley High School, class of 1956, and married his high school sweetheart his senior year at N.C. State.

Sara Rudisill has been a rock in his life ever since. She dropped out of college and worked to put him through school at N.C. State. She also worked while he attended the University of North Carolina, where he got his Master’s degree, and at Florida.

The Rudisills first came to Hampton Roads in the late 1960s when Murray took a job teaching math at old Frederick College in Suffolk. The now defunct private college was located in the old Marford Ordnance Depot, used by the Marines in both world wars, on the banks of the James River.

Classes were held in old warehouses and faculty housed in old ammo dumps. It was a small town almost unto itself. There were lakes on campus and a fishing pier.

“I loved it,” he said. “The cafeteria was free, and they provided apartments to live in.”

The college closed in 1968 and was deeded to Tidewater Community College, which opened its Portsmouth campus there. Rudisill continued teaching at TCC but after two years, TCC closed the faculty housing. By then, Rudisill was also teaching part-time at ODU.

“I wanted to work at ODU and realized that I had to have my doctorate to become tenured there,” he said. So, he and Sara spent two years in Gainesville before returning to Norfolk for good.

ODU was a very different school in 1975 than it is now. The campus was much smaller and far less attractive. Few students lived on campus. There was no football and Chartway Arena was decades away from opening.

“Honestly, the campus looked so bad, that we didn’t want to bring recruits on campus,” he said.

"It looks so much better now. It looks nothing like it did when I started coaching."

ODU was then a Division II school but that changed quickly his second season when the school moved up to Division I.

“Jim told me I wouldn’t have to raise money, but that changed when we went Division I,” Rudisill said. “We had to start raising money for scholarships and had to start recruiting.”

Rudisill hated, and still hates, to ask donors for money, so he and the late Ed Fraim, then ODU’s only athletics fundraiser, would visit donors together. Rudisill would talk about golf.

“Ed would ask them for money,” Rudisill said. “He wasn’t shy about that.”

Eventually, Rudisill turned into one of ODU’s best fundraisers. He and the late golf pro Chandler Harper began a golf tournament fundraiser in the late 1970s and men’s golf now has six endowed scholarships with a value of more than $1 million.

Many of the changes that have buffeted other sports teams – the transfer portal, Name, Image and Likeness, etc. – haven’t had a direct impact on Rudisill.

Coaching, however, has changed a lot. Fifty years ago, there was very little compliance duty and little NCAA paperwork.

“We just coached,” he said. “Now, you spend so much time on administrative duties.

“The players haven’t changed that much. Because of Tiger Woods, they all workout now. They’re all stronger and know more about the game.

“The kids that came in a long time ago, we had to do a lot of teaching in terms of the fundamentals of the swing. Now, they’re so well prepared that basically all we do is teach them how to handle pressure and course management.

“During matches, you can do some coaching but mainly, it’s providing them moral support.”

Rudisill has been named state coach of the year and conference coach of the year many times and his teams have won four state championships. Two of his former golfers, Jim McGovern and Joey Daley, played on the PGA Tour. 

Jan Hurst, who played in the NCAA championships and Alan Schulte, a two-time Sun Belt Champion, are in the ODU Sports Hall of Fame.

So is J.P. Leigh, who in 1969 became ODU’s first golf All-American when he won the Division II national championship and competed in the Division I tournament, and who plays golf with Rudisill twice a week.

“We’ve become very close friends,” Leigh said. “There’s no better person on the face of the earth than Murray Rudisill.”

Rudisill didn’t want his age revealed in this story, but suffice it to say, he looks far younger, and is in far better physical condition, than most people his age.

“You ought to see him hit a golf ball,” Leigh said. “It’s scary how he hits it. He’s still hitting it 235 or 240 yards. I’ve never seen anyone his age hit the ball like he does.”

“He’s the Dick Clark of college coaches,” said Dick Fraim, a longtime ODU booster, said speaking of the late host of the American Bandstand.

“Coaching has kept him young.”

Rudisill works for a state university which doesn’t endorse any religion. A devout Christian, Rudisill has a bible on his desk at the Lamberts Point Golf Course, and if one of his players asks about his faith, he will answer.

But he’s careful not to push his Christianity unless they ask.

“I had a young man from England who came here to play,” he said. “I can’t preach to the guys and so I don’t, but when he saw my bible, he asked me about my faith.

“So, I gave him my testimony and gave him some stuff to read. Nothing happened right away. He graduated and moved up to New York City to work as an accountant.

“About three years later he called me says, ‘Coach, I’ve given my life to Christ. I found a Christian girl. I just want to thank you for what you said to me.’

“You just plant the seeds and you don’t know what’s going to happen. You can’t convert someone to Christianity. You plant the seeds and let the Holy Spirit do the rest.

“I had one guy on the team who was a hellion. I was so happy when he left. He used to pull my chain all the time.

“He called me thanked me a few years later. He said ‘I’m married, I’ve got a job as a head professional. You put up with a lot from me and I just want to thank you for what you taught me.’

“That’s why I stay as a coach. Yes, I’m competitive. I can’t stand to lose. It just kills me to play badly. But the relationships and the fact that you can maybe help change some of these kids’ lives is the reason that I stay.

“I am so blessed.”

Dr. Selig said “He’s not a bible thumper. But he’s very comfortable in his spirituality. He’s more than happy to share it with others. But he’s also very respectful in that regard and it serves everyone well.”

Even after 50 years, Rudisill hates to lose.

“He worries constantly about every match,” Fraim said. “When we really are good, he can’t enjoy it. He’s a real competitor.”

In spite of his folksy, nice-guy image, Rudisill can be hard on his players.

“Some of them you need to give a pat on the back and give them a hug and others you need to kick in the rear,” he said. “You don’t treat every single person the same way.

“But I’m not the type that gets in their face and they never hear me say a cuss word. But I’ll fuss at them some.”

The Rudisills have three children – Philip, Kathryn Bosco and Wina Giddens – seven grandchildren and a great grandchild, with another on the way.

Sara Rudisill “has been such a blessing to me,” he said.

“When we got married, she knew I loved golf. When I was at the University of Florida, she worked. And then when I got my degree, I told her, ‘Why don’t you stay home and raise these kids, and I hope you never have to work again.

“She’s done such a wonderful job raising our kids. She’s a wonderful wife and mother.”

Being a coach means missing lots of holidays and weekends. He hasn’t been home for Easter in many years – the Sun Belt Tournament began the day after Easter.

“I’ve missed so many birthdays and holidays and celebrations, and Sara, she’s just been fantastic about it,” he said. “If I go out to play golf, she tells me to have a good day. She never fusses.”

“I think,” he added with a smile, “that she likes me out of the house.”

“I’ve thought of retiring. I pray about it every year. I say, ‘Lord, if you don’t want me to coach, then you just let me know. Otherwise, I’m going to go ahead.’ ”

As with anyone on the far side of 50, he’s had health issues.

“I’ve had two hips replaced,” he said. “I’ve got hearing aids and macular degeneration. I can’t see and I can’t hear as well as I used to, but so far, I’m doing OK.

“Sometimes, not often but sometimes, I forget a name. But other than that, I’m so blessed. I’m not fussing.”

After his last physical he said his doctor had a succinct message for him.

“The best thing you can do for you health is to continue coaching,” he said. “Don’t retire unless you have to.”

Which sounds like sage advice, both for Rudisill and for ODU.

Minium is ODU’s senior executive writer. Contact him at hminium@odu.edu or follow him on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram