Hall of Famer's Punts Were Epic

Ray Guy 'was a football player who punted,' John Madden said
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Nov 3, 2022 6:30 PM CDT
Hall of Famer's Punts Were Epic
Hall of Fame inductee Ray Guy poses with his bust during the 2014 Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement Ceremony in 2014.   (AP Photo/Tony Dejak, File)

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 Hattiesburg-area hospice, the AP reports. Guy was drafted 23rd overall by Al Davis' Raiders in 1973 and played his entire 14-year career with the team. He was a three-time All-Pro selection. In 2014, he became the first player to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame exclusively for his punting.

"Ray Guy was a football player who punted," the late John Madden said in 2014 before he presented Guy for induction into the Hall of Fame. Guy was selected to the NFL's 75th anniversary team and the 1970s all-decade team. He was a three-time Super Bowl champion and seven-time Pro Bowl selection. Madden said the first time he watched Guy punt in practice for the Raiders, he knew the team had something special. "He punted the longest, highest footballs that I had ever seen," Madden said then. A native of Thomson, Georgia, William Ray Guy is also a member of the College Football Football Hall of Fame and the National High School Sports Hall of Fame. In 2015, Southern Miss renamed the street outside The Duff Athletic Center 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 nearly three decades for him to be selected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. "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 once said. In many ways, Guy 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. Guy's statistics look somewhat pedestrian compared to today’s punters. His career average of 42.4 yards per kick ranks 61st all time, for instance. Yet, he still is considered by many as the best to ever play the position.

(More obituary stories.)

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