Kings Mountain slugger Rusty Bumgardner inducted into National Softball Hall of Fame
Kings Mountain native Rusty Bumgardner’s sports career came full circle recently when he was inducted into the National Softball Hall of Fame at its 41st annual ceremony in Shreveport, LA.
His list of Hall of Fame inductions include the Kings Mountain Sports Hall of Fame and the USSSA, ISA, WSL, ASA, USA and North Carolina USSSA Halls of Fame. Bumgardner says this latest honor and his hometown hall of fame inductions are the most special.
“Any Hall of Fame is truly awesome,” Bumgardner said, “but my hometown and this means more to me. This is the original. I’m privileged to be in it. It dates back to the sixties when they had teams like Howard’s Furniture and other big time teams that paved the way. That makes this award even more meaningful.”
Longtime Kings Mountain High School fans can remember Bumgardner’s exploits on the football and baseball fields. He went on to play four years of football at Wake Forest University under Coach Bill Dooley and he and his high school teammate Aubrey Hollifield helped the Deacons post some of their best records back then.
“We were both red-shirted our freshman year and then started every year,” he recalled. “We graduated Kings Mountain High School in ’87 and we had really good teams there in 1985 and 1986. In the fall of ’86 we won the conference championship for the first time since 1964. Both of us played four years and were winners our last season.
“Some of my best memories were at Kings Mountain Junior High and High School,” he said. “David Heffner was our coach at the junior high and Denny Hicks at the high school. Then I helped Coach (Bruce) Clark in high school baseball. My father (the late Bud Bumgardner) helped him from ’89 to ’93 when we won state championships. I had just started at Wake Forest when dad got sick. I took a semester off in the spring of 1989 and helped Coach Clark that year. I also helped Coach Clark in ’93. In ’89 we had people like Paul Brannon and Dale Greene and in ’93 people like Stephen Fisher, Todd Ware, Rick Marr, Damon Putnam and others. The ’89 team wasn’t expected to win. We didn’t even win the conference. South Point did. Once the playoffs started we got on a roll. Paul Brannon hit 20 home runs and Chad and Chris Plonk had double digit home runs. Our pitching staff fell in place with Todd McDaniel, Robert Wingo and Sharee Hopper. Wingo was a sophomore and pitched the state championship game. The hitting and pitching just all came together at the right time.”
Always a heavy hitter in baseball, Bumgardner was a natural for softball. He got his start with Coach Mike Grayson, whose wife Suzanne would later join the coaching staff at KMHS and lead the girls volleyball and softball teams to state championships.
Looking back on his Wake Forest career, Bumgardner said it was “just overwhelming. You started having fun and the football team just took off under Coach Dooley.
“As far as baseball, I just played my senior year because football was over. But I wish I’d played all four years. It was a memorable time. My freshman year of football our left tackle got hurt and they put me in there and I became a starter.”
His first start is one he will always remember.
“It was against Michael Dean Perry at Clemson,” he noted. “On film I saw him just picking up people and throwing them out of the way. I was determined he wasn’t going to do that to me. It ended up he made just one tackle that day.”
As for softball, he said the highlight was playing on teams that won 24 world titles and had 34 all-star selections. Bumgardner was All-World four times and was a two-time World Series MVP.
All-World, he said, was like an All-American team. He was All-American
18 straight years beginning in 1994. He is 11th on the list of the top 50 home run hitters of all time with 2,344 home runs. Nine of those top 11 were people that played on barn storming teams like Howard’s Furniture of Denver that traveled all over the country several days a week playing softball. Bumgardner always played for teams that just played on weekends, thus he had fewer at-bats than sluggers on barn storming teams. For example, a slugger on a barn storming team would average about 2,400 at-bats a year while Bumgardner and others on weekend teams would average about 250 to 300 at-bats per year.
“The dimensions of the fields back then were a lot smaller than when we played,” Bumgardner noted. “And, they were swinging wooden bats. I remember seeing a Shriners tournament at the Kings Mountain Community Center and saw people like Stan Harvey and Don Arndt of Howard’s Furniture. It was crazy watching those guys hit the ball so far. I said ‘one day I’m going to be like that.’”
Bumgardner quit playing travel ball in 2015. He said his life was “built around softball but my body was telling me I’d had enough. My kids had started playing ball and I wanted to watch them. I don’t miss softball at all.
“Plus, the game had started changing,” he said. “There was a lot of drama in the game. The best time of my career was in the ‘90s and early 2000s when softball was still softball. We were always battling to be number one. That was a goal for the team. The home runs weren’t the main thing. Yes, I could hit them but I wanted the team to win championships.
“Yes, I led the team in home runs, batting average and being named Player of the Year many times. But it’s not a one man deal. I was always about the team, not myself.
“I’m glad I went in the Hall of Fame with the people I did. They were three of the best of all time – Steve (Pup) Shortland, Brett Helmer and Christian Dowling. Christian Dowling passed away about a year ago. She was the one that pretty much changed women’s softball.”
See more photos in the E-Edition of KM Herald Page 1B (January 25, 2023)
His list of Hall of Fame inductions include the Kings Mountain Sports Hall of Fame and the USSSA, ISA, WSL, ASA, USA and North Carolina USSSA Halls of Fame. Bumgardner says this latest honor and his hometown hall of fame inductions are the most special.
“Any Hall of Fame is truly awesome,” Bumgardner said, “but my hometown and this means more to me. This is the original. I’m privileged to be in it. It dates back to the sixties when they had teams like Howard’s Furniture and other big time teams that paved the way. That makes this award even more meaningful.”
Longtime Kings Mountain High School fans can remember Bumgardner’s exploits on the football and baseball fields. He went on to play four years of football at Wake Forest University under Coach Bill Dooley and he and his high school teammate Aubrey Hollifield helped the Deacons post some of their best records back then.
“We were both red-shirted our freshman year and then started every year,” he recalled. “We graduated Kings Mountain High School in ’87 and we had really good teams there in 1985 and 1986. In the fall of ’86 we won the conference championship for the first time since 1964. Both of us played four years and were winners our last season.
“Some of my best memories were at Kings Mountain Junior High and High School,” he said. “David Heffner was our coach at the junior high and Denny Hicks at the high school. Then I helped Coach (Bruce) Clark in high school baseball. My father (the late Bud Bumgardner) helped him from ’89 to ’93 when we won state championships. I had just started at Wake Forest when dad got sick. I took a semester off in the spring of 1989 and helped Coach Clark that year. I also helped Coach Clark in ’93. In ’89 we had people like Paul Brannon and Dale Greene and in ’93 people like Stephen Fisher, Todd Ware, Rick Marr, Damon Putnam and others. The ’89 team wasn’t expected to win. We didn’t even win the conference. South Point did. Once the playoffs started we got on a roll. Paul Brannon hit 20 home runs and Chad and Chris Plonk had double digit home runs. Our pitching staff fell in place with Todd McDaniel, Robert Wingo and Sharee Hopper. Wingo was a sophomore and pitched the state championship game. The hitting and pitching just all came together at the right time.”
Always a heavy hitter in baseball, Bumgardner was a natural for softball. He got his start with Coach Mike Grayson, whose wife Suzanne would later join the coaching staff at KMHS and lead the girls volleyball and softball teams to state championships.
Looking back on his Wake Forest career, Bumgardner said it was “just overwhelming. You started having fun and the football team just took off under Coach Dooley.
“As far as baseball, I just played my senior year because football was over. But I wish I’d played all four years. It was a memorable time. My freshman year of football our left tackle got hurt and they put me in there and I became a starter.”
His first start is one he will always remember.
“It was against Michael Dean Perry at Clemson,” he noted. “On film I saw him just picking up people and throwing them out of the way. I was determined he wasn’t going to do that to me. It ended up he made just one tackle that day.”
As for softball, he said the highlight was playing on teams that won 24 world titles and had 34 all-star selections. Bumgardner was All-World four times and was a two-time World Series MVP.
All-World, he said, was like an All-American team. He was All-American
18 straight years beginning in 1994. He is 11th on the list of the top 50 home run hitters of all time with 2,344 home runs. Nine of those top 11 were people that played on barn storming teams like Howard’s Furniture of Denver that traveled all over the country several days a week playing softball. Bumgardner always played for teams that just played on weekends, thus he had fewer at-bats than sluggers on barn storming teams. For example, a slugger on a barn storming team would average about 2,400 at-bats a year while Bumgardner and others on weekend teams would average about 250 to 300 at-bats per year.
“The dimensions of the fields back then were a lot smaller than when we played,” Bumgardner noted. “And, they were swinging wooden bats. I remember seeing a Shriners tournament at the Kings Mountain Community Center and saw people like Stan Harvey and Don Arndt of Howard’s Furniture. It was crazy watching those guys hit the ball so far. I said ‘one day I’m going to be like that.’”
Bumgardner quit playing travel ball in 2015. He said his life was “built around softball but my body was telling me I’d had enough. My kids had started playing ball and I wanted to watch them. I don’t miss softball at all.
“Plus, the game had started changing,” he said. “There was a lot of drama in the game. The best time of my career was in the ‘90s and early 2000s when softball was still softball. We were always battling to be number one. That was a goal for the team. The home runs weren’t the main thing. Yes, I could hit them but I wanted the team to win championships.
“Yes, I led the team in home runs, batting average and being named Player of the Year many times. But it’s not a one man deal. I was always about the team, not myself.
“I’m glad I went in the Hall of Fame with the people I did. They were three of the best of all time – Steve (Pup) Shortland, Brett Helmer and Christian Dowling. Christian Dowling passed away about a year ago. She was the one that pretty much changed women’s softball.”
See more photos in the E-Edition of KM Herald Page 1B (January 25, 2023)
