HATTIESBURG, leave out. — Ray man, a three-time exquisite Bowl champion with the Raiders and the first punter to make the pro football hall of fame, died Thursday. He turned into 72.
Southern Mississippi, wherein man starred earlier than turning into the first punter ever taken in the first round of the NFL draft, said he died following a prolonged illness. He have been receiving care in a Hattiesburg-place hospice.
Man became drafted 23rd normal by using Al Davis’ Raiders in 1973 and performed his entire 14-yr career with the team in Oakland and los angeles. He turned into a three-time All-pro selection.
In 2014, guy became the primary participant to make be inducted into the pro football corridor of reputation completely for his punting. The seven-time pro Bowl selection was selected to the NFL’s a centesimal anniversary group and the all-decade crew of the 1970s.
“Ray man turned into a soccer player who punted,” the late John Madden said in 2014 before he provided guy for induction into the hall of reputation.
A native of Thomson, Georgia, man is likewise a member of the university soccer soccer corridor of repute and the country wide excessive college sports activities corridor of fame.
At Southern Mississippi, man additionally performed protective back, He nonetheless shares the faculty unmarried-season report for most interceptions with 8 in 1972 and his sixty one-backyard subject purpose at Utah country set an NCAA document on the time.
In 2015, Southern miss renamed the street out of doors The Duff Athletic middle on its campus “Ray guy way.”
Guy ended his NFL career in 1986 with a streak of 619 punts without having one blocked. But it took almost 3 decades for him to be selected to the seasoned soccer hall of repute.
He became a finalist for induction seven times starting in 1992 without being voted in and did not even make it that a long way on different occasions.
“That type of troubled me due to the fact they had been pronouncing it truly is no longer a role, it would not take an athlete to do that, it’s no longer crucial,” guy said before his hall of reputation induction in 2014. “that’s what virtually were given below my pores and skin. It wasn’t so much whether or not I did or didn’t. I want somebody had. It changed into simply knowing that they failed to care. That’s what kind of frosted me a little bit.”
Guy in many methods revolutionized the location.
His kicks went so high that one which hit the Superdome scoreboard 90 toes above the sector in a pro Bowl helped placed “dangle time” into the soccer vernacular. His capability to pin the opponent deep with both high kicks or nicely-positioned ones became a key a part of the success for the notable Raiders teams of the 1970s and ’80s.
“It changed into some thing that become given to me. I do not know how,” he said. “i’m truly blessed in that category. It is something I actually respect and i advanced it and i made it into something extremely good.”
Man’s facts look quite pedestrian compared to state-of-the-art punters. His career average of forty two.4 yards in step with kick ranks 61st all time and his internet average of 32.2 yards (apart from his first 3 seasons while the statistic wasn’t kept through the NFL) isn’t even in the top one hundred.
