Call it in the air
Southern Heritage Classic: Navy officer to be first woman to toss coin
Valerie Pugh is slated to become the first woman in the nearly three-decade history of the Southern Heritage Classic to toss the coin for the football game on Saturday in Memphis.
Pugh, 46, was born in Mobile, Alabama and served 28 years in the Navy. She said she signed up after the birth of her son when she was 17 years old, determined to show her mother that she was going to take care of her family. She spent her first several years in data processing and then found her passion in Navy recruiting. Her work took her to Washington, DC, Virginia, Georgia, Louisiana and Sicily, Italy. “I fell in love with recruiting,” she said. Several of her relatives served in the United States military with an aunt, uncles and cousins in the Navy, her father in the Marines and her brother in the Army National Guard.
Pugh now lives in Arlington and works at Naval Support Activity Mid-South in Millington where she is a master chief petty officer. Her son Marvin, 29, is a
graduate of Norfolk State, and her 14year-old son Viktor is a freshman at Arlington High School.
Pugh spoke Friday at a luncheon featuring the coaches of the two teams for Saturday’s game which pits the Tennessee State Tigers against the Jackson State Tigers. The event at the Sheraton Hotel Heritage Ballroom drew about 200 people who listened to speakers, including coaches Rod Reed and Tony Hughes, Freedom’s Chapel Christian Church Rev. Rosalyn Nichols, Black Enterprise president and CEO Earl “Butch” Graves, Jr. and Southern Heritage Classic founder Fred Jones, Jr.
Pugh is new to the Memphis area and said she feels humbled to be chosen for Saturday’s game.
“I feel very honored to be chosen to do it,” she said. “I’ve been here a little over a year. I love the city.”