BRANDON - Tommy Ranager, 68, head coach of the Millsaps baseball team from 1968 to 1988 when he took over as head football coach until retiring in 1996, passed away March 22 in Brandon, Miss.

Ranager began a long and successful career at Millsaps in 1964 and took over the helm of the baseball team in 1968 where he spent the next 19 years, including time coaching current head coach Jim Page.

During this time, Ranager also served as Coach Harper Davis' only assistant with the football squad for 25 years.

Together they won games, broke records and touched the lives of hundreds of young men and women. Davis retired after 25 years, and Ranager became head football coach, concluding his career at Millsaps in 1996 after 32 years.

During his tenure at Millsaps, Coach Ranager taught health and physical education while also serving as the Majors' head track coach for four years.

In 1975, Ranager led the defense that ranked first in the nation in both scoring defense and total defense.

Under Ranager's guidance, the defense set the Division III record for scoring defense in a season by holding the opposition to 3.4 points per contest in 1980, a season the Majors finished a perfect 9-0.

In 1991, he led the football team in capturing its first Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championship.

Ranager was inducted into the Millsaps Athletic Hall of Fame in 1998 was honored again in 2005 when Millsaps named the field house The Tommy Ranager Field House while an academic scholarship was also established in his name.

After retirement, Ranager worked for the Rankin County School District Alternative School.

Ranager, a graduate of Mississippi State University, was a starting offensive guard and linebacker for the Bulldogs football team before joining the staff at Millsaps.

Memorials may be directed to Millsaps College for the Tommy Ranager Field House or the Millsaps College Tommy Ranager Academic Scholarship.