“Hugh L. (Shorty) Ray began his 37th year as a teacher in the Chicago public high schools the other day. There was no celebration Ray simply went about his work as a mechanical drawing teacher at Harrison—he did that is, if he wasn’t doing one of the following things:
Interpreting a rules for the National Football League; the National Federation of High Schools, or maybe some coach in far-off Oregon. Or perhaps writing a rules book; drawing up an officials exam; giving the exam, acting as chairman of a sports committee, compiling statistics and just about anything else that might be included under sports.
Shorty Ray, you see, is a one-man dynamo, and as such he helped organize the Chicago Public High School League in 1912….It was back in his college days at Illinois, 1904-07, that Ray first became interested in rules. He had been a great athlete in football, track. baseball and basketball under George Huff who was a stickler for having his players well versed in the rules. Shorty liked that…The versatile teacher is the only Big Ten official ever to work three sports–baseball, basketball and football.
Right now [1946] he is interested in football injuries, how they occur and how they can be cut down by changes in the rules. Since 1929, rules changes suggested by Ray have cut football injuries by 70 per cent.”
More can be learned about “Hugh L. Ray. THE NFL’S MR. EINSTEIN:Master Designer of the Modern Game” by James W. Stangeland, atamazon.com/books or www.hughrayfootball.com.
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This article was written by Harold Butchin of the Chicago Times, predecessor to the Chicago Sun-Times. Copyright (c) 1946 Chicago Sun-Times.
Hugh L. Ray – Master Designer of the Modern Game.
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