Ray Guy, the first punter to make the Pro Football Hall of Fame, died Thursday. He was 72.
Southern Mississippi, where Guy starred before becoming the first punter ever taken in the first round of the NFL draft, said he died following a lengthy illness. He had been receiving care in a hospice in the Hattiesburg, Miss., area.
Guy was drafted 23rd overall by the Oakland Raiders in 1973 and played his entire 14-year career with the team. In 2014, he became the first player to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame exclusively for his punting.
A four-sport star at Thomson High, Guy excelled in a variety of roles in football at the school. Guy played quarterback, safety, linebacker and tailback in addition to his kicking and punting duties. He led the Bulldogs to state titles in 1967 and 1968. In ‘68, he averaged 49.7 yards per punt. Thomson was 43-2 in Guy’s four years at the school. In 2007, the AJC ranked Guy as the state’s 17th-best high school football player of all-time.
Guy also was a standout baseball pitcher, basketball player and track-and-field athlete at Thomson. Guy went on to punt, kick and play safety at Southern Miss. He made a 61-yard field goal in a Utah snowstorm and punted for 93 yards against Ole Miss. Guy intercepted eight passes as a senior and was named MVP of the 1973 Chicago College All-Star game.
He also played baseball at Southern Miss and was selected four times in the MLB draft, including by the Braves in 1972. In college, he struck out 260 batters in 220-2/3 innings, and he completed 14 of 31 starts – with one no-hitter.
While playing for the Raiders, Guy became a three-time Super Bowl champion, seven-time Pro Bowler and six-time first-team All-Pro. In 2000, the Greater Augusta Sports Council instituted the Ray Guy Award to be given to the nation’s best collegiate punter. Guy was selected to the NFL’s 75th anniversary team and the 1970′s all-decade team.
Guy also is a member of the College Football Football Hall of Fame and the National High School Sports Hall of Fame.
At Southern Mississippi, Guy still shares the school single-season record for most interceptions, with eight in 1972. He ranks second in school history in career interceptions, with 18. In a news release, the school cited this quote from the late NFL great John Madden, who coached Guy with the Raiders: “When we first drafted him, it was a heck of a choice. I thought then he could be the greatest in the league, but I changed my mind. I think Ray proved he’s the best of all time.”
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Guy ended his NFL career in 1986 with a streak of 619 punts without having one blocked. But it took nearly three decades for him to be selected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He was a finalist for induction seven times starting in 1992 without being voted in and didn’t even make it that far on other occasions.
“That kind of bothered me because they were saying that’s not a position, it doesn’t take an athlete to do that, it’s not important,” Guy said before his Hall of Fame induction in 2014.
“That’s what really got under my skin. It wasn’t so much whether I did or didn’t. I wish somebody had. It was just knowing that they didn’t care.
“That’s what kind of frosted me a little bit.”
Guy in many ways revolutionized the position.
His kicks went so high that one that hit the Superdome scoreboard 90 feet above the field in a Pro Bowl helped put “hang time” into the football vernacular. His ability to pin the opponent deep with either high kicks or well-positioned ones was a key part of the success for the great Raiders teams of the 1970s and 80s.
“It was something that was given to me. I don’t know how,” he said. “I’m really blessed in that category. It’s something I really appreciate and I advanced it and I made it into something great.”
Guy’s statistics look somewhat pedestrian compared with today’s punters. His career average of 42.4 yards per kick ranks 61st all time and his net average of 32.2 yards (excluding his first three seasons when the statistic wasn’t kept by the NFL) isn’t even in the top 100.
Yet, he still is considered by many as the best ever to play the position.
- Material from The Associated Press and from Todd Holcomb of Georgia High School Football Daily was used in this article.
