The 2011-12 academic year is Tom Rutledge's 23rd as head men's cross country/track & field coach at Missouri Southern. He has led the Lions to eight MIAA cross country championships (2000-03, 2005-07, 2009) and two MIAA Indoor Track & Field championships (2004, 2007), ten championships in nine years.

His MSSU cross country team has made ten team appearances in the last eleven years at the NCAA Division II Championships, always finishing in the top twenty but highlighted by a sixth-place national finish in 2000 and a seventh-place showing in 2002.

For his efforts, Rutledge was named MIAA Men's Cross Country Coach of the Year in 2000, 2002, 2003, 2007 and 2009 and Indoor Coach of the Year in 2004 and 2007. Rutledge was also honored as South Central Region Indoor Track & Field Coach of the Year in 1999, 2004 and 2007, and South Central Region Cross Country Coach of the Year in 2007 for his contributions to the sport. Coach Rutledge was inducted as a member of the MSSU Athletics Hall of Fame in 2008.

Rutledge has mentored eight cross country All-Americans and 46 in track & field, several of the 46 achieving multiple All-American statuses.  He has had numerous student-athletes earn academic awards, both on the conference and national levels.  In 2005, the pole vaulters took the top 5 positions in the MIAA Outdoor Conference and took the top three finishes at the NCAA Outdoor National Championships, a rarely achieved accomplishment for one school.

In the spring and summer of 2000, he coached Tongula Givens, a former Missouri Southern national champion in the triple jump, as she made her bid for the U.S. Olympic Team.

Rutledge became head cross country coach in 1989 when Southern first developed its men's and women's teams. Prior to coaching track and field, he had served as offensive line coach and special team coordinator for the Lions during the 1988 season.

Prior to joining the staff at Southern, Rutledge spent one year as an assistant football coach at Fort Lewis College (CO.), after spending two years as women's cross country and track coach and assistant football coach at Adams State College. (CO). At Adams State, he led the cross country squad to a fourth-place finish in the 1985 NAIA championships, followed by a third-place national showing in 1986. He was named District Coach of the Year in 1985.

From 1980-85, Rutledge served as head cross country and track coach and assistant football coach at Arkansas Tech, where he led the Wonderboys to five top-three conference finishes and five top-15 national finishes. He was also twice named conference coach of the year.

An assistant professor of kinesiology, Rutledge received a bachelor's degree in physical education and social studies from Ouachita Baptist University in 1974 and a master's degree in physiology of exercise from Henderson State University in 1976.

Tom is most proud of his efforts to bring track and field to the four states area.  In the last twenty-two years Tom has served as meet director for four national cross country championships (AAU and NCAA) and six regional cross country championships.   These events have brought thousands of athletes and spectators to Joplin and nearly 2 million dollars of revenue to the community.  The annual cross country Southern Stampede brings over two thousand athletes, alone, to Joplin each year.  It is one of the largest cross country meets in the country. 

Coach Rutledge has assisted in developing the MSSU International mission with establishing distance learning programs in Finland and Russia. 

Tom is married to Karen, a local State Farm agent. They have two sons, Chad and Kyle. Chad, a State Farm agent, and his wife Becky and granddaughter Morgan and grandson Ethan, live in Salt Lake City. Kyle, a former All-American pole vaulter for MSSU, and his wife Natalie, live in Rolla, MO where he is an assistant track coach at Missouri S&T University.