After decades behind the mic, Greg Ruff joins Trevecca hall of fame

Parker Henningsen

Sports Editor and Chief Photographer

For nearly three decades, Greg Ruff has been the steady voice behind Trevecca athletics, calling games, writing stories and celebrating the triumphs of others. 

Now, the longtime broadcaster and sports information director finds himself on the other side of the story: as one of the newest members of the Trevecca Nazarene University Athletics Hall of Fame.

“It’s kind of awkward,” Ruff said with a laugh. “I’m on the Hall of Fame Committee, so to be the one recognized and then have to help put out the press release about myself, that’s not exactly how I’m wired. My greatest joy has always been sharing the accomplishments of other people.”

Ruff graduated from Trevecca in 1987 with a degree in communication studies. He has spent most of his professional life telling the Trojans’ story. Since returning to campus in 1998, he has served as broadcaster, storyteller and mentor to generations of athletes, students, and young media professionals.

Caleb Godwin is one of those students he has mentored. The two met this past January, and Godwin was able to express his interest in broadcasting to Ruff. Before long, Godwin started broadcasting some of the Trojan games and has become a major part of the athletic team this semester.

“[Greg] granted me a great opportunity in terms of my future and my career. I’m very thankful,” said Godwin.

Long before Ruff’s name became synonymous with Trevecca sports, he was a communications student learning the ropes under now retired Professor of Communication Studies David Deese.

“I was teaching broadcasting, and Greg became a student,” Deese said. “He also worked at WNAZ, and he credits that experience for helping him land jobs after college. Later, when we needed someone full-time to handle the play-by-play for basketball, I was able to hire Greg. That gave us stability and consistency because before that, it was whoever I had available, and sometimes it was good and sometimes it wasn’t.”

According to Deese, Ruff’s meticulous nature stood out early on.

“Greg was good at keeping stats,” Deese recalled. “He would never sign off until he had all the stats read over the air. The athletic department began to depend on him because he had contacts with all the local media and because he just made good connections. Before long, he was doing more sports information work than he was for the station, and eventually, they hired him full-time as Sports Information Director.”

Through the years, Ruff’s voice has echoed across gyms and ballfields, calling thousands of games, including basketball, baseball, volleyball, and golf, just to name a few.

“Every game is new,” Ruff said. “That’s what I love about broadcasting. Every pitch, every inning, every half something changes. It’s never the same, and that’s what keeps it fresh.”

Ruff first fell in love with broadcasting as a 12-year-old growing up in Arkansas. He stuttered as a child, and his father gave him a cassette recorder to help him practice reading aloud.

“I’d read the Bible into it, then the sports page,” he said. “Then I’d pretend I was calling games. Broadcasting actually helped me overcome my stutter.”

His passion deepened after an encounter at a high school football game.

“I was standing outside the press box, and the local radio guys waved me in,” Ruff recalled. “They let me say hello to my grandparents on the air. Everyone back home heard it. From that moment, I knew that’s what I wanted to do.”

At Trevecca, Ruff’s first real opportunity behind the mic came during a baseball game.

“They tossed the ball up, and I just started talking,” he said. “I can’t even explain it, it just came out of me.”

Before returning to Trevecca full-time, Ruff’s career took him across Nashville’s sports landscape, working with the Tennessee Titans and Nashville Predators in their early years. He even called games for the Nashville Stars, a professional basketball team that is still around today.

Despite those opportunities, Ruff returned to Trevecca in 1998 drawn back by the school’s mission and the role it played in shaping his faith.

“I wanted to work in a place that strengthened my faith,” he said. “And I’ve been blessed to do what I love, in a place that means so much to me.”

Even after three decades, his enthusiasm hasn’t faded.

“I don’t have another big milestone I’m chasing,” Ruff said. “I just want to keep finding new ways to promote our athletes and coaches, to tell their stories well and be a really good grandpa.”