Claude “Deig” Stauter

*Claude “Deig” Stauter (MPHS 1939) was an athlete, coach and school administrator. He played high school football and basketball and was a record holder in the high hurdles. One of the first Moss Point students to be offered an athletic scholarship, Claude played on the 1939 Mississippi State freshman football team before volunteering for the United States Marine Corps and fighting in the Pacific during World War II. Following the war, he was captain of the Perkinston Junior College football team, and he also played football for Mississippi Southern College (Southern Miss), where he graduated. Claude coached MPHS football before being named the school’s principal and then assistant superintendent.