Ray Guy

Infobox NFLretired

---

caption=
width=200
position=Punter
number=8
birthdate=birth date and age|1949|12|22
Swainsboro, Georgia
deathdate=
debutyear=1973
finalyear=1986
draftyear=1973
draftround=1
draftpick=23
college=Southern Mississippi
teams=
* Oakland / Los Angeles Raiders (1973-1986)
stat1label=Punts
stat1value=1,049
stat2label=Punting Yards
stat2value=44,493
stat3label=Punting Avg
stat3value=42.4
nfl=GUY474616
highlights=
* 7x Pro Bowl selection (1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1980)
* 9x All-Pro selection (1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981)
* 3x Super Bowl champion (XI, XV, XVIII)
* NFL's 75th Anniversary Team
* NFL 1970s All-Decade Team
* Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame
* Georgia Sports Hall of Fame
HOF=
CollegeHOF=90072

William Ray Guy (born December 22, 1949) is a retired American football punter for the Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders. Coming from University of Southern Mississippi, he was the first pure punter ever to be drafted in the first round of the NFL draft when the Oakland Raiders selected him in 1973.

Guy was a key member of three Super Bowl-winning Raiders teams: Super Bowls XI, XV, and XVIII. Arguably, his best performance was in Super Bowl XVIII against the Washington Redskins. When the Raiders offense faltered just outside the range of placekicker Chris Bahr, Guy, known for his power, showed a great deal of finesse by booting a 27-yard punt that pinned the Washington Redskins on their own 12-yard line late in the first half. On the very next play, the Raiders' Jack Squirek intercepted Washington quarterback Joe Theismann and returned it for a touchdown that gave them a 21-3 halftime lead. The Raiders would eventually win 38-9.

Playing success

Ray Guy was the first, and as of 2008, only punter, to ever be selected in the first round in the NFL Draft.Ray Guy retired in 1986. During his career, Guy:
*Played in 207 consecutive games
*Punted 1,049 times for 44,493 yards, averaging 42.4 yards per punt, with a 33.8 net yards average
*Had 210 punts inside the 20 yard line (not counting his first 3 seasons, when the NFL did not keep track of this stat), with just 128 touchbacks
*Led the NFL in punting three times
*Had a streak of 619 consecutive punts before having one blocked
*Has a record of 111 career punts in post season games
*Had five punts of over 60 yards during the 1981 season
*Never had a punt returned for a touchdown

Ray Guy was selected to seven AFC Pro Bowl teams, and in 1994, he was named the punter on the National Football League's 75th Anniversary Team.

He was also an outstanding placekicker at Southern Mississippi, once kicking a then-record 61-yard field goal in a snowstorm during a game in Utah. After his senior season at Southern Miss, Guy was named Most Valuable Player of the annual College All-Star game, in which an all-star team of college seniors played the current Super Bowl champion. And in addition to his kicking prowess, Guy was also a starting safety in college. During his senior season, he intercepted a USM record eight passes, and was named an All-American defensive back. Guy also played quarterback in his early years and was officially the Oakland Raiders' last-string emergency quarterback, ironically replacing kicker-quarterback George Blanda in this position. During the time that Blanda was still with the Raiders, early in Guy's career, Guy would occasionally do kickoffs for the Raiders because the aging Blanda no longer had great range.

Ray Guy has been inducted into both the Mississippi and Georgia Sports Halls of Fame, the National High School Sports Hall of Fame, and the College Football Hall of Fame, and many feel he is worthy of induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. In 1994, he was the first pure punter to be nominated for enshrinement.

Joe Horrigan, the historian of the Pro Football Hall of Fame once said: "He's the first punter you could look at and say: 'He won games.'"

At the 1976 Pro Bowl, Ray Guy became the first punter to hit the Louisiana Superdome video screen. Officials raised the screen from 90 feet to 200 feet.

Ray Guy was known for punts with a high hang time; he once punted the ball with so much hangtime that the opponents pulled the ball and had it tested for helium. The hangtime statistic was also instituted in the NFL during his time, probably because of himFact|date=February 2008. On April 21, 2008 Guy was inducted into the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame (BASHOF).

The Ray Guy Award

In 2000, the Greater Augusta Sports Council instituted the Ray Guy Award, to be awarded to the nation's best collegiate punter. Past winners are:

*2007 - Durant Brooks, Georgia Tech
*2006 - Daniel Sepulveda, Baylor University
*2005 - Ryan Plackemeier, Wake Forest University
*2004 - Daniel Sepulveda, Baylor University
*2003 - B.J. Sander, Ohio State University
*2002 - Mark Mariscal, University of Colorado
*2001 - Travis Dorsch, Purdue University
*2000 - Kevin Stemke, University of Wisconsin-Madison

The statue itself was created by an Augusta, Georgia orthopaedic surgeon named John Savage, Jr., who sculpted a bronze-clad representation of Ray Guy in clay.

Pro Kicking Camp

In 2005, Ray Guy helped organize and participated in two-day kicking camps, held throughout the United States, for high-school punters, placekickers, and longsnappers. In 2007, the camp will once again be held on the campus of Colorado College. Has help from son Ryan Guy.

Since many collegiate punters nominated for the Ray Guy Award are either former students or work at his kicking camps, Guy himself does not participate in the voting process to avoid accusations of favoritism.

Career statistics

[http://www.databasefootball.com/players/playerpage.htm?ilkid=GUYRAY01 databaseFootball.com] - Career stats

Personal life

Guy's son Ryan, who has a son named Amerson, is a teacher and coach at Harlem Middle School in Harlem, Georgia; Ryan's wife Jennifer also teaches at Harlem Middle School. He played football for his father's alma mater, Thomson High School.

External links

* [http://www.rayguy.net Ray Guy's official website]
* [http://www.prokicker.com "ProKicker.com"]
* [http://www.goldeneaglefans.homestead.com/Guy.html Ray Guy's Southern Miss career]
* [http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/100800/fea_077-0925.000.shtml "The Guy Behind Guy" - Article about the Ray Guy Award statue]
* [http://www.metrospirit.com/rayguy.html "MetroSpirit.com" article on Ray Guy and the Ray Guy Award]
* [http://www.gshf.org Georgia Sports Hall of Fame]