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Certainly, his athletic prowess went far past the moonshot blasts he launched along with his proper leg. “All by way of highschool and school, I performed different positions,” Man mentioned in his Corridor of Fame enshrinement speech. “I used to be a superb athlete and will have been a significant league pitcher, or N.B.A. basketball participant, however I knew God had one thing particular for me.”
William Ray Man was born on Dec. 22, 1949, in Swainsboro, a small metropolis in central Georgia, and grew up in close by Thomson. His father, Benjamin Franklin Man, was a constructing contractor, and Ray helped him construct and renovate homes whereas he was rising up. His mom, Annette (Cato) Man, labored as a schoolteacher’s aide.
At Thomson Excessive College, Man’s athletic feats grew to become the stuff of native lore. On the soccer crew, he performed quarterback, tailback, linebacker, security, kicker and, after all, punter, averaging practically 50 yards per punt in 1968, in accordance with a 2017 article in The Atlanta Journal-Structure. The day after he had led the crew to its second consecutive state title, he scored 39 factors for the basketball crew, with out good thing about a preseason. That spring, he threw 15 scoreless innings in Recreation 1 of the state baseball semifinals.
“He was recognized to his teammates as Wonderboy,” John Barnett, a Thomson historian and longtime assistant coach, informed The Journal-Structure. “He actually may do all of it on the sphere, court docket or diamond.”
Man married Beverly Bentley in 1972; they divorced about 40 years later. Along with their son, Ryan, he’s survived by a daughter from that marriage, Amber Man; his spouse, Sandy (Lord) Man; a brother, Al; and two grandchildren. He lived in Purvis, Miss., a small metropolis outdoors Hattiesburg.
When he confirmed up within the N.F.L., Man hardly regarded like a future gridiron star. A clean-cut Southerner with a willowy 6-foot-3, 195-pound body, he appeared like an odd match with the snarling band of West Coast misfits generally known as the Oakland Raiders within the Seventies.
Embracing a brutal model of soccer below the rebellious proprietor Al Davis, the crew performed as if doling out accidents to opponents bestowed precise factors on the scoreboard, and the gamers had been each bit as roughneck off the sphere. The star quarterback, Ken Stabler, as soon as rolled as much as a Sports activities Illustrated interview in tiny Foley, Ala., at 9 a.m. in a Chevrolet pickup, frosty beer can in hand.
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