Ray inherited a program with no practice field, no stadium, and no real football success and built a champion
Article No. 3,000
🎶Who's gonna fill their shoes?
Who's gonna stand that tall?
Who's gonna play the Opry
And the Wabash cannonball?
Who's gonna give their heart and soul
To get to me and you?
Lord, I wonder who's gonna fill their shoes...🎶
Songwriters: Troy Harold Seals / Max D. Barnes, 1985
Lynn Ray was a three (3) sport athlete at Boone County High (football, basketball, and baseball). He was All-State, Honorable Mention, at RB and was the team’s Most Valuable Back in 1962. In 1963, Ray was the team’s co-captain and All-State (Honorable Mention) as a QB. Ray signed to EKU and earned three varsity letters and was a starter for EKU’s greatest football coach of all time, the late Roy Kidd. Ray accomplished all of that; and, while impressive, his playing achievements still pale in comparison to what he did at Covington Catholic as a football coach.
HB Lyon, Scouting Director, “KPGFootball”
Covington, KY: Some Hall of Fame type coaches were college players, but not too accomplished. Some were high school players only. Some were not really good in high school. Some were college stars.
One hall of fame coach shared with me once that he was walking on his college football team. The team was in the throws of summer workouts and he was receiving the lion’s share of the carries against the team’s first string defense.
This coach told me he was humbled by the fact the staff reposed so much faith and trust in him. He figured he was getting all these carries because the coaches wanted to really see and appreciate his capabilities.
He was getting an opportunity to showcase his abilities. He told me he was eternally grateful for this fortuitous bit of good fortune.
This guy was called into the coaches office and asked, “Well, how do you think it is going?” This coach, a player at the time, told me he muttered through words of gratitude, told these coaches he was appreciating the carries and the opportunity to showcase his abilities and talent.
The head coach started laughing and said, “Heck, son; we’re trying as hard as we know how to run your narrow behind off the team. You just keep showing up, day after day. How about this, why don’t you join our coaching staff?”
Nobody ever tried to run Lynn Ray off a football team
Friday Night Fletch
This guy’s coaching career began that day. He went on to have a tremendous, Hall of Fame, career as a high school head football coach. I love that story.
Roy Kidd never tried to run Lynn Ray off his roster. Matter of fact, Ray was a three year, varsity letterman, and among the better players on the Colonel defense over the course of his playing career.
The Media Guide put the entire picture for Roy Kid’s Colonels regarding what it was hoping to get from Lynn Ray, during the ’67 season, in proper perspective. Ray would assume the daunting task of “…filling the shoes of graduated All-American, Buddy Pfaadt. This would prove no small task.
While this obligation to his Colonels may have been the first time Lynn Ray would feel a little awestruck with a job he would be charged with fulfilling; it certainly wouldn’t be his last. He would have an even tougher job once reaching the KHSAA coaching ranks.
Five years into this coaching career, after stints as an assistant at Lexington’s Bryan Station (1970-’71), Lloyd Memorial (1971-’73), and Covington Catholic from 1973-’74), Ray would be promoted to head football coach for the Colonels wearing blue. Now that position, at Covington Catholic today, is considered a “destination job.” It wasn’t then.
When Ray took the Cov. Cath. job they had neither a practice field nor a stadium and only 34-wins in 8-years
KHSAA Statistical Website
Ray would inherit a program sans practice field, sans stadium, and with only 34-wins in its eight (8) year history. Over the next 30 seasons, Ray would win 234-games, 200 more than the four head coaches who preceded him. Ray would also lead the team to five (5) football titles (1987, 1988, 1993, 1994, 1997).
Along the way, Ray would head up the coaching staff, as its head coach, for the 1990 Kentucky-Tennessee All Star Game, win the 1992 Kentucky State Coach of the Year, and win the 1996 Regional/National Coach of the Year. That is some impressive hardware.
Ray would gain enshrinement, in 1998, into the Northern Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame (as both an athlete & coach), the Northern Kentucky Athletic Directors Hall of Fame (as an athlete) in 1999, and the National Football Foundation & College Football Hall of Fame – Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005.
In 2019, Ray would be inducted into the Buddy LaRosa Greater Cincinnati Sports Hall Of Fame. Not sure Ray could cook a pizza like Buddy LaRosa, but he was much superior at coaching football. Not bad at all for a young coach who was hired at a program which had virtually nothing going for it, until he took control of the program and its fortunes.
We have talked in this series about coaches working for programs which are considered championship machines. Those guys often get omitted from “All-Time Greats” lists because of the perception, “anyone can win at ___________.”
There are programs which can fill the above blank. Covington Catholic counts among those programs with eight (8) all-time titles. Covington Catholic is tied with Male High, Belfry, and Pikeville with the eight (8) titles. Bowling Green has nine (9). Danville has 11.
Programs with five or more titles in football are “Machines”
Friday Night Fletch
When does a program earn the label, “Anyone can win there?” Fifteen (15) programs in the KHSAA have won five (5) or more football titles. We believe five (5) is the number. Once your program hits five (5) titles, that is when the program just wins regardless, if you believe the “experts.”
Newport Central Catholic has five (5) titles. Central and Fort Campbell both have six (6). From Newport Central Catholic to Trinity, which has 29-titles, coaches landing at any of these schools have landed “destination jobs,” with excellent chances to succeed.
That doesn’t make the Bob Schneider types (Newport Central Catholic), the Bob Redman types (Male High), the Lynn Ray types (Covington Catholic), the Dale Mueller types (Fort Thomas Highlands) and the Dennis Lampley types (Louisville Trinity) any less impressive in my estimation. If you are the architect of the programs success, or much of it, then its success doesn’t prevent you from gathering ye rosebuds…
Many of these guys constructed the very success which seems to hold them back presently. Lynn Ray would number among these guys.
Ray personally won five (5) of Covington Catholic’s eight (8) titles. Ray won the first five (5). Ray shook the needle off of the number zero.
Ray was the architect of the machine. Ray is Covington Catholic football.
George Jones, were he still here, might even wonder…who’s gonna fill Ray’s shoes. Who’s gonna stand that tall?
This is Friday Night Fletch, reporting for KPGFootball, reminding you to PLAY THROUGH THE WHISTLE!
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