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2010 02 02
Chattahoochee Valley Sports Hall of Fame: Nathan Rustin was a bear of a man — strong yet tender
Nathan Edward Rustin, Jr. passed away in Phenix City at the age of 57 from a fatal heart attack.
Information mirrored in from old BHS website:
BY GUERRY CLEGG
Staff Writer
Nathan Rustin played football at Alabama for Bear Bryant and looked the part of the nickname himself.
With wide shoulders and an even wider smile, he was equal parts grizzly and teddy bear.
Rustin, 57, died of a heart attack Saturday while cutting his mother's grass. Although he'd had heart problems in recent years, Rustin's death shocked and saddened the high school coaching fraternity on both sides of the Chattahoochee River.
"The thing that bothers me the most," said David Smart, a Columbus High assistant baseball and football coach, "is that I don't know if he really knew how much he meant to me."
Rustin, a starting defensive tackle on Alabama's undefeated 1966 SEC championship team, coached high school football and wrestling for 34 years. He spent the last 27 at Pacelli, where he was head football coach for 24 seasons.
"He was so strong, you'd almost have to kill him to whip him," said Henry Gresham, his football coach when he played at Central-Phenix City.
Gresham recalled an incident one night when Rustin was bringing the Pacelli wrestlers back home from the state tournament. They stopped at a McDonalds and two drunk customers started harassing Rustin. One man in particular kept bothering Rustin, who tried to ignore him.
Then the man started bothering one of the kids. That kid was Smart. That's when Rustin warned the man to leave his boys alone.
"The man took a swing at him and I'm telling you Coach Rustin just leveled him," Smart said. "Then he told the manager, 'You better get him out of here or I might kill him.' "
The McDonalds employees applauded.
"The other guy said, 'Fred, you done picked the wrong one,' " Smart said.
The man foolishly took another swing. Rustin leveled him again. The police came and arrested the drunk.
"Coach Rustin didn't want any trouble," Smart said. "He was just protecting his kids."
Rustin was remembered as a coach who could drive his players hard one minute and the next minute be singing "The Old Rugged Cross." Gresham recalled him as fiercely loyal, once even at his own expense. He was an assistant with Gresham at Baker in 1974 when LaGrange High offered him a similar position.
Baker countered by offering him the head coaching job.
"He wouldn't take it because he'd already given his word," Gresham said. "If he gave you his word, it was as good as a signed contract."
Rustin coached numerous state champions in wrestling. Pacelli lacked the resources to be consistently competitive in football. But he did produce some strong teams. The Vikings finished second in Region 5-A to Greenville in 1985 and to Brookstone in 1987.
"Work ethic and integrity, that's how I knew him," Smart said. "He was such a strong person, but you knew he cared about you."
Coached at Pacelli after playing at Central and Bama
By LARRY GIERER - lgierer@ledger-enquirer.com
Former Pacelli High football player Keith Jackson said Nathan Rustin, who will be inducted into the Chattahoochee Valley Sports Hall of Fame Saturday, was a little of both.
“Although, I didn’t really see the teddy bear side until I married his daughter Kim,” he said, laughing.
High school: Central High 1963
College: Alabama 1968
Local ties: His mother, Gaynelle Rustin, widow, Helen Rustin, and daughter, Kim Jackson, live here. His son, Ty, is in Texas.
You need to know: Pacelli sponsors a golf tournament in his name each year. Proceeds from the event help fund scholarships.
One day during Rustin’s first year as head football coach at Pacelli, the team’s star player, running back Marvin Sims, came to Rustin. He told the coach some players were thinking about quitting because of the new intensity at practice. Sims said to Rustin, “it’s not as much fun as it used to be.”
Rustin turned to Sims, who years later would play in the National Football League, and growled, “Marvin, I only need 11.”
“He brought a new attitude to Pacelli,” said former assistant David Taylor. “It was hard work.”
That was Rustin’s grizzly bear side.
Each Christmas, Rustin and two brothers would dress like Santa Claus. They would go into areas locally where people were in need. They would bring gifts and money. It was never publicized.
One afternoon, while doing so, Rustin decided to stop by the home of assistant coach and close friend Pete Ingersoll.
Ingersoll’s young son Armmon answered the door. “Where are the reindeer?” he asked Rustin. “Watering up at the Chattahoochee,” Rustin replied. After spending time at the house, Rustin headed back out to make the holidays better for strangers at his own expense.
“Nathan cared about people,” Ingersoll said. “He felt he’d been fortunate in life and always wanted to give back.”
That was Rustin’s teddy bear side.
When Rustin, who died at 57 in 2002, is inducted Saturday, it will be mentioned how he was a three-sport all-star at Central High in Phenix City, how he was a terrific tackle on Southeastern Conference and national championship teams at the University of Alabama and how he spent 27 years at Pacelli coaching football and wrestling. Speakers will talk about the state champion wrestlers he produced and how he was responsible for keeping the sport alive in the city.
People close to the coach know the gravel-voiced Rustin, born at Fort Benning and raised in Phenix City, was special for another reason.
“Nathan’s legacy won’t be a number of wins on a field or a mat but the people he helped,” Ingersoll said.
Jackson agreed. “He’ll probably be the first coach to go into a hall of fame where his record is never mentioned.”
And Rustin’s wife of 36 years, Helen Rustin, said that would have suited the coach.
“Nathan was always looking after ones who didn’t have enough,” she said. “Nathan wanted to be successful as a coach, but it was more important for him to be successful as a man. He achieved that.”
Playing for the Bear
Rustin was the son of Nathan Rustin Sr., a retired Army warrant officer, and Gaynelle Rustin, a civil service worker. He had three brothers, John, Robert and Wayne.
Rustin was planning to go into the Army but got a football scholarship offer from Paul “Bear” Bryant and accepted it. That was in 1963.
Richard Cole was an All-American defensive tackle at the University of Alabama and was Rustin’s best friend on the team. He often went head-to-head with Rustin at practice, something he said wasn’t much fun. He is now a retired elementary school principal living in Albertville, Ala.
“We had a couple of physical education classes together and would have a long walk across campus to get back to the dorm,” Cole said “We’d talk about just how bad practice was going to be that day.”
Rustin was known for one particiular attribute.
“He was super strong,” Cole said.
Helen and Nathan Rustin started dating in high school. They married in 1966, the same year Rustin played a key role on the offensive line in an undefeated Crimson Tide season making life easier for players such as Ken Stabler and Ray Perkins.
“Coach Bryant didn’t like married players,” she recalled. “He was angry when Nathan told him he was getting married. Coach asked him, ‘How do you like Vietnam? Do you still want to get married?’ Nathan did.”
Grizzly bear
Taylor, who became head coach at Shaw High, had his first coaching job under Rustin. It was 1975 and Rustin’s first year as a head football coach. Rustin came to Pacelli after a year as an assistant at LaGrange High. He also had been head wrestling coach at Baker in Columbus.
Now retired after 34 years in education, Taylor used the word “dynamic” to describe Rustin. “Just a genuine person. What you saw was what you got.”
And Rustin was protective of his players, once punching out a drunken man who was bothering one of Rustin’s athletes in a restaurant.
Ingersoll recalled that Rustin was very competitive. “We’d get beat on some play, and Nathan would look over at me and shout, ‘Coach, did we work on that at practice?’ I’d assure him we did.”
Rustin’s wife said, win or lose, he would stay up all night with sheets of paper spread out and filled with X’s and O’s.
“He was always coming up with a trick play,” Jackson said. “He was famous for that. They worked most of the time. We had some bad seasons, but we never had the number of players or talent other folks had. I do think he relished the idea of being the underdog.”
He added that Rustin worked his players hard so they could compete against bigger teams and expected everyone to give their best effort.
“I don’t know if he heard this while at Alabama or what,” Jackson said, “but he used to tell us that how tall you are or how fast you are, you can thank the Lord and your mama and daddy for that. How hard you work is what you can lay claim to.”
Teddy bear
Rustin’s wife feels that part of her husband’s compassion came because his brother Wayne was paralyzed from the chest down when as a teen he was injured diving into a creek. Rustin helped care for Wayne the rest of his life.
“I never heard Nathan knock a kid,” Helen Rustin said. “Or a parent.”
Taylor said Rustin was what “a coach should be.”
“He took a real interest in what students were doing in the classroom. He made everyone feel important,” said Taylor.
Rustin cared for those who didn’t play sports, as well.
He would invite special education children and their parents to his lake in Buena Vista, Ga., and let them go fishing.
It was the same lake that Rustin would go to for solitude.
“He always had the kids at heart,” said Ingersoll, “Nothing mattered more.”
It was that attitude, Jackson said, that made players want to win for him.
Taylor recalled former Baker players would come assist Rustin at Pacelli just because of the respect they had for him.
“There are students who would come back years later and say they had named a child after Nathan,” said Helen, a co-owner of Westaff in Columbus.
Too much to bear
Rustin had big plans for the day he died. Naturally, it involved doing stuff for others. It was May 11.
He told his wife, “I’m going to cut my mother’s grass, watch my grandchildren play ball, then build a tool shed for my brother. I’ll see you whenever.”
He was cutting his mother’s grass, and neighbors said he was in a good mood. He got indigestion went inside and took an Alka-Seltzer. Rustin, who had heart problems, put his shoes to the side of a recliner and sat down. His son, Ty, came in and headed to the kitchen. “We don’t want to be late for the game,” he called out. Soon after, he found his father dead in the chair.
“It came quick and peacefully,” Helen said. “In all the years, I never knew him to complain.
“He was a spirit who marched to his own tune and loved life.”
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Daniel Burnette (1974)
Best shop teacher and a super person. He taught me to weld and to do sheet metal. I am grateful for his guidance.Joy Mellen (White) (1969)
As a kid, I remember Jr. well. Our fathers (Sarg & Sarg at Ft Benning) were great friends. Too many memories to recite here. I am sure he is missed by many who knew him or knew of him.Gwen Fowler (Setayesh) (1975)
My goodness.....it was heart breaking to get word of Coach Rustins death. He was still a young man. I had become very good friends of his wife (Helen Rustin) after high school and went to work for her staffing agency (Westaff Employment).She has always been like a Business Mom to me and gave me a chance at professional work ethics to be groomed and grow through the years. She was just devastated! The hurt and pain was so great for Mrs. Rustin, they were very close in their marriage. They are good people to know! Would do anything for you. Mrs. Rustin to this very day, now takes care of Coach Rustin's mother who is in her old age and still has her partnership in Westaff Agency in Columbus. Say prayers for them please.....we can not imagine the hardship that face any spouse when they loose the other and are very close. Mr. Rustin was a fine man and had much respect on the field as well as off the field, no one would know until they had the opportunity to of met him during his teaching years. My prayers and thoughts are with his family members always! God bless them all!Danny Williams (1975)
May god be with you. Danny Williams.