Ray Man, the primary NFL punter to make the Professional Soccer Corridor of Fame, has died. He was 72.
Southern Mississippi, the place Man starred earlier than turning into the primary punter ever taken within the first spherical of the NFL draft, stated he died following a prolonged sickness. He had been receiving care in a Hattiesburg-area hospice.
Man was drafted twenty third general by Al Davis’ Raiders in 1973 and performed his total 14-year profession with the group. He was a three-time All-Professional choice. In 2014, he grew to become the primary participant to be inducted into the Professional Soccer Corridor of Fame completely for his punting.
“Ray Man was a soccer participant who punted,” the late John Madden stated in 2014 earlier than he introduced Man for induction into the Corridor of Fame.
Man was chosen to the NFL’s seventy fifth anniversary group and the 1970’s all-decade group. He was a three-time Tremendous Bowl champion and seven-time Professional Bowl choice.
Madden stated the primary time he watched Man punt in observe for the Raiders, he knew the group had one thing particular.
“He punted the longest, highest footballs that I had ever seen,” Madden stated then.
A local of Thomson, Georgia, William Ray Man can also be a member of the School Soccer Soccer Corridor of Fame and the Nationwide Excessive Faculty Sports activities Corridor of Fame.
At Southern Mississippi, Man additionally performed defensive again. He nonetheless shares the varsity single-season document for many interceptions with eight in 1972 and his 61-yard subject aim at Utah State set an NCAA document on the time.
In 2015, Southern Miss renamed the road exterior The Duff Athletic Heart on its campus “Ray Man Manner.”
Man ended his NFL profession in 1986 with a streak of 619 punts with out having one blocked. However it took almost three a long time for him to be chosen to the Professional Soccer Corridor of Fame.
He was a finalist for induction seven instances beginning in 1992 with out being voted in and didn’t even make it that far on different events.
“That form of bothered me as a result of they have been saying that’s not a place, it doesn’t take an athlete to do this, it’s not necessary,” Man stated earlier than his Corridor of Fame induction in 2014.
“That’s what actually bought below my pores and skin. It wasn’t a lot whether or not I did or didn’t. I want anyone had. It was simply figuring out that they didn’t care.
“That’s what sort of frosted me just a little bit.”
Man in some ways revolutionised the place.
His kicks went so excessive that one which hit the Superdome scoreboard 90 toes above the sphere in a Professional Bowl helped put “dangle time” into the soccer vernacular. His capacity to pin the opponent deep with both excessive kicks or well-positioned ones was a key a part of the success for the nice Raiders groups of the Nineteen Seventies and 80s.
“It was one thing that was given to me. I don’t understand how,” he stated. “I’m actually blessed in that class. It’s one thing I actually recognize and I superior it and I made it into one thing nice.”
Man’s statistics look considerably pedestrian in comparison with in the present day’s punters. His profession common of 42.4 yards per kick ranks 61st all time and his web common of 32.2 yards (excluding his first three seasons when the statistic wasn’t stored by the NFL) isn’t even within the high 100.
But, he nonetheless is taken into account by many as the most effective to ever play the place.
Southern Mississippi stated funeral preparations for Man have been pending.
