Reginald Ruffin, the highly successful athletic director and football coach at Miles College, is headed to Tuskegee University, where he will hold the same two positions.

Ruffin will replace Tuskegee football coach and athletic director Willie Slater.

“We are excited to see the return of Reginald Ruffin to Tuskegee,” President Charlotte P. Morris said Tuesday. “He has proven himself a leader in Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) football, and we look forward to him taking our program to the next level.”

For nearly a decade, Ruffin was at the helm of one of the most successful sports programs in the history of Miles College and the SIAC. In nine seasons at the helm of the Golden Bears, Ruffin led the program to four SIAC Football Conference Championship titles, two NCAA playoff appearances and an NCAA Division II bowl appearance.

Over nine seasons, Ruffin won more than 60% of his games, going 59-39 overall, and was named SIAC Coach of the Year three times.

With Ruffin as director of athletics, Miles has two championship titles in basketball, a Western Division championship in women’s basketball, a Western Division championship in baseball, and a Golf D2 PGA Works National championship.

In nine years at Miles College, Reginald Ruffin amassed a 59-39 record and won four Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championships. (Solomon Crenshaw Jr. / Alabama NewsCenter)

In nine years at Miles College, Reginald Ruffin amassed a 59-39 record and won four Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championships. (Miles College Athletics)

In nine years at Miles College, Reginald Ruffin amassed a 59-39 record and won four Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championships. (Solomon Crenshaw Jr. / Alabama NewsCenter)

In nine years at Miles College, Reginald Ruffin amassed a 59-39 record and won four Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championships. (Solomon Crenshaw Jr. / Alabama NewsCenter)

Reginald Ruffin with his son, Gabriel, in 2017 at Gabriel’s first game as a Chelsea High School freshman. (Solomon Crenshaw Jr. / Alabama NewsCenter)

In nine years at Miles College, Reginald Ruffin amassed a 59-39 record and won four Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championships. (Miles College Athletics)

In nine years at Miles College, Reginald Ruffin amassed a 59-39 record and won four Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championships. (Miles College Athletics)

Ruffin is no stranger to Tuskegee. He spent five seasons there as defensive coordinator and linebacker coach from 2006 through 2010. As defensive coordinator at Tuskegee, Ruffin had the SIAC’s top scoring, pass and rushing defense in 2007. His team’s defense finished second in scoring, among the leaders in most defensive categories in 2008, and posted the league’s top defense in 2009.

Before his first stint with the Golden Tigers in 2002-2003, he served as athletic director and football coach at Choctaw County High School in Butler. Other stops included West Georgia; his alma mater, North Alabama; and Jackson High School in Jackson, Alabama.

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 UNA, he became the Lions’ second three-time All-American and is the only Lion to be named All-American at two positions: defensive end in 1995 and 1996 and linebacker in 1997.

A four-year starter, he established a school record with 34 career sacks and the school single-season sack record with 11 in 1994. During his career, the Lions went 43-9 and won two Division II National Championships. In 2020, he was inducted into the UNA Athletic Hall of Fame.

Ruffin is the father of one son, Gabriel.

This story originally was published by The Birmingham Times.