The three-time Class 5A all-state performer helped lead the Cougars to state championships in 1987 and 1988 and a berth in the Region I-5A quarterfinals in 1989, where their three-peat hopes ended in a 2-1 series loss to Fort Worth Southwest. After rolling to the 1987 state championship with a thrilling 1-0 semifinal win over Galena Park North Shore, the Cougars blew out San Antonio Marshall, 13-3, for the title.
The 1988 team didn’t get rolling until the playoffs. Still, it earned its way to the state tournament with playoff wins over Lubbock Monterey, El Paso Coronado, Duncanville, and DeSoto before slipping past Eagle Pass, 4-3, in the semifinals. In the state championship game, the Cougars faced a Round Rock Westwood team that had beaten them twice in an early season tournament. But behind six strong innings on the mound from Lance Grider and one inning of relief from ace Jason Satre, the Cougars beat Westwood, 7-4, to earn their second straight Class 5A state title.
After the 1989 three-peat came up short, Pugh went on to the University of Texas, where he led the Southwest Conference in batting average as a freshman in 1990. He later played minor league baseball in the San Diego Padres, Chicago Cubs, and Colorado Rockies’ organizations before too many shoulder injuries and surgeries drove him from the game after the 1994 season.
Now, all these years later, here’s a sobering thought for all those who saw Pugh play football, basketball, and baseball at Cooper and still had the look of a baby-faced 12-year-old through those four years: he’s now 53 years old with two grandchildren who call him “PaPaw.” And he’s slowed down some, having taken a job outside of public education and high school coaching last year, working as a project manager for Chick-fil-A.
“I started working for Chick-fil-A last year, leading projects when they wanted to remodel one of their stores, and it’s been really good for me,” said Pugh, who lives in Granbury and works with his younger brother, Jay – himself a football and baseball standout at Cooper – with Chick-fil-A. I’m on the road for three days and in the office for two, and I’ve had a good time with it. I missed coaching there for a bit, but this is something completely new, and I love it. I’m learning something new every day.”
After leaving professional baseball, he was the lead camp instructor at Keith Moreland’s Baseball Academy in Austin and coached quarterbacks and defensive backs at Hardin-Simmons University. In May 1998, he was hired as the head baseball coach at Cooper, where he also served as an assistant football coach. He led the Cougars to a record of 87-56-1 and three playoff appearances in three seasons before leaving after the 2003 season to become the head baseball coach at A&M Consolidated, where he led the Tigers to an 18-11-1 record and a playoff spot.
But former Cooper football standout and later head coach Randy Allen, who hired Pugh at Cooper before leaving to become the head coach at Highland Park High School, hired Pugh as the quarterbacks’ coach at Highland Park, where he served from 2004-08. Pugh coached Matthew Stafford as the Scots won the 2005 Class 4A Division I state championship. Stafford went on to play at the University of Georgia and was taken by the Detroit Lions with the first pick in the 2009 NFL Draft. Two years ago, he led the Los Angeles Rams to a 23-20 win over the Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl LVI (56).
Pugh later served as the head football coach at both Granbury (2008-2016) and Orange Grove High School (2016-18) near Corpus Christi before returning to the Metroplex, where he served as the assistant head football coach and assistant baseball coach at Colleyville Heritage High School from 2018-22.
Pugh has been married for 10 years to his wife, Brenda, and he has two stepdaughters: Shelbi, who is married and the mother of two children (Mila and Luke), and Kelbi, who is engaged and is getting married in September.
If it’s hard for fans who watched those Cooper baseball teams win back-to-back state championships to believe it’s been 35 years since the last title, imagine what it’s like for Pugh and the others who lived through those heady days when they were the toast of the town and the primary reason baseball took off in the high schools throughout the Big Country.
Pugh recently joined us for a question-and-answer session, looking back on those two championship teams, his experience growing up in Abilene and the Abilene ISD, and the fond memories he has of not only the young men he played with but the man who led them to those two state championships.
Q: When you realize that this year marks 35 years since the last of those two state championships (1987 and 1988), what do you think about first?
Pugh: “The guys from that 1988 team have a group text with about 20 or 25 of us, and we get that going weekly. Some of us haven’t seen each other in a long time, but we still talk weekly. That group was so unique because we all cared about each other. Not only that, we loved each other, and it showed on the field. We played at a time when it meant something to play for Cooper High School. We were also playing for the city of Abilene, and you don’t see that much anymore in the cities and towns around the state. The most important thing for those teams was winning. The closeness and genuine love for each other was the biggest thing we had going for us, and that’s what (head coach) Andy Malone cultivated. That was the difference, and it carries on today. I know if I called any of those guys or needed something, they’d be there as quickly as possible. We had to beat a lot of talented teams to win those two state championships, so we had to have an edge. Our edge was how much we cared about each other and that we just wanted to win. It didn’t matter who was getting the attention; everybody on that team cared about one another.”
Q: There was such a frenzy around those two teams, which probably hasn’t been seen here in the 35 years since those two state championships. What was it like to be a part of that?
Pugh: “It was something I’ve never seen before or after. I credit Coach Malone for that because he was a great public relations guy. He brought anybody in that wanted to be part of it and made them feel like they were as big a part of it as anybody. That was where it started. It was the perfect combination of being in the right place at the right time, and it just exploded. The media in Abilene and Coach Malone’s charisma was a big part of it. His charisma played a big part in those huge crowds we would have at our games; people would come out to see him because you never knew what he would do. I’ve changed all of our old video clips from video tape to CD and shown people, and they can’t believe the atmosphere surrounding that team. The crazy thing is that we knew it was big back then, but we didn’t have time to stop and think about how big it was. The credit for that goes to Coach Malone and the city of Abilene.”
Q: What was it about being at Cooper High School during that period that made that entire run so special?
Pugh: “We were there at a time when – and I’m sure this holds today – when the AISD, Cooper administrators, and Cooper teachers and staff cared about what was going on. It was nothing for us to roll up to a game and see every one of our teachers sitting in the stands. And then, on Monday morning, they would ask about the game. The great thing about Abilene is that it was big enough but still had a small-town feel. Everybody knew everybody, and the teachers knew and cared about their students. I think back on some of the things we got to do that the school district set up, like going out and playing with the kids at the West Texas Rehabilitation Center. Those were special times for us because we enjoyed sharing that time with the kids. But it wouldn’t have happened if the school district and the campus administrators hadn’t put it together. But that was Abilene then, and I’m sure it’s how Abilene is now. We know – and I’m sure the kids at Cooper and Abilene High and throughout the district know – that every administrator, every principal, every teacher, every coach, and every staff member – cared about us and what was going on. They were still hard on us; there were certainly no favors given. But they always showed us they cared for us.”
Q: You coached for over 20 years and served as the head baseball coach at Cooper and A&M Consolidated, where you succeeded and took both teams to the playoffs. Was it hard, though, to separate what your experience was as a player from what you experienced as a head coach?
Pugh: “That was the biggest lesson I had to learn, especially when coaching baseball. I had to separate those two things because the program I played for at Cooper was the perfect storm. Everything aligned perfectly over those two seasons. It took me a long time to realize how unusual that is and that we were in a different day and age. I tell people all the time that Coach Malone wouldn’t last three days coaching in today’s world. I’m so thankful that I got to play in that era because that was such a great time to be a kid.”
Q: You were a 15-year-old freshman in 1986 and were the starting first baseman and led the district in home runs, which set off your whole career. With no slight intended toward the other guys on those great teams, but as far as the players go, most people would probably point to you as the “face” of that era of Cooper baseball. Was that a hard thing to carry?
Pugh: “I think I was just dumb enough not to feel that, and that was a good thing. We had enough talent that all of that was spread around. Maybe the only reason I got a little more attention was because I played football (three-year starter at quarterback) and basketball (three-year starter at point guard), so maybe my name was out there a little more. But once baseball season rolled around, there were so many talented guys on those teams who contributed every day that I never really felt any pressure. Coach Malone was great about taking that pressure off of each of us, just by the force of his personality. He shouldered everything and did a great job shielding us from the outside noise. He wanted us to concentrate on playing, and we did.”
Q: When you got into professional baseball, you made it as high as Double-A before your body started breaking down with shoulder injuries, forcing you out of the game after the 1994 season. Do you have any regrets about how your career ended?
Pugh: “No, not really. I played in the Padres’ organization for a few years and then had shoulder surgery before I got picked up by the Cubs, where I played for a couple of years before I got picked up by the Rockies. Because of the era I grew up in, I think I probably played hurt a lot more than I should have. I’m paying for it today, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world. Luckily after I got released by the Rockies, I had something to bounce back on. My parents were educators, and I was ready to coach by the time I was released the last time. I had a great experience in professional baseball, but sometimes your body breaks down, and that’s what happened to me. But I don’t have any regrets. I gave it everything I had and loved every minute of it.”
