Former Broadmoor Football Coach Rusty Price Passes Away at Age 77
by: William Weathers // GeauxPreps.com Contributor
One of the Baton Rouge area’s most fierce football coaches died early Monday morning.
The 77-year-old Rusty Price, who earned two Purple Hearts with the Marines in Vietnam, suffered a reported heart attack while bike riding Sunday, the Baton Rouge Advocate reported.
WBRZ-TV in Baton Rouge also reported the death.
Price spent a total of 51 years at Broadmoor, the first six (he first attended as a sixth grader) as a student where he graduated in 1967. He entered the military and was a proud Marine when he later attended Southeastern Louisiana with the intention of playing football.
Those plans were shelved after a severe knee injury, opening the door for a career with the school’s track team where he set both school and conference records for his achievements in the discus and hammer.
Price earned NAIA All-America honors, was part of SLU’s 1975 national championship team, and later earned a spot in the school’s Hall of Fame in 1993.
Price’s coaching career at Broadmoor began as a football assistant and head cross-country coach where the Buccaneers won a state championship.
He became the school’s head football coach in 1985 and remained in that capacity for 28 years, leading Broadmoor which was low on numbers, to sizeable achievements that raised the program’s statewide profile.
The Buccaneers’ path ran into state power John Curtis during two memorable state playoff victories, and they reached the 1992 Class 4A state championship where they lost to Hahnville, 37-22.
“Coach Price has been an icon for our school, very loyal to the school,” Broadmoor quarterback Reggie Hayes of Price said in a GeauxPreps.com article on Sept. 5 of Broadmoor naming its football stadium in Price’s honor. “He gave it his all and never missed a day of practice.
“He was very encouraging and motivated us,” Hayes said. “He did all he had to do as a leader for the school. It’s like having another father. He touched a lot of people. He touched me and I love him.”
Price transitioned into a co-head coach’s role and eventually was the school’s athletic director until 2012.
With a wave of support from former players, Broadmoor became the first public school in Baton Rouge to rename its football stadium, doing so in Price’s honor of its season opener Sept. 7 with Ellender.
Despite rainy conditions, the ceremony went on and Price, along with his wife, was honored with his name – Rusty Price Stadium.
“I’m really blessed that some of the older players got it started,” Price told GeauxPreps in September. “It’s an honor, there’s no doubt about that. It’s something I’m very proud of. We had a lot of successful players that went on and contributed to society.”