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University of Delaware
Head Coach Tubby Raymond
DATE: February 18, 2002 • Tubby
Year by Year NEWARK, DE -- One of the most successful coaching tenures in the history of college football came to an end Monday afternoon as University of Delaware football head coach Harold R. "Tubby" Raymond announced his retirement after 36 years as head coach of the Blue Hens. Raymond, 75, made the announcement at a press conference at the University's Bob Carpenter Center Lounge. His retirement, effective immediately, ends an era that included 300 victories over 36 seasons as head coach at the University of Delaware and spanned seven decades overall in the coaching profession. A national search for Raymond's replacement will begin immediately, said University Director of Athletics Edgar N. Johnson. The next coach will be just the fourth to hold the position as head coach at UD since the 1940 season. "Nothing lasts forever, and so it is with me," said Raymond, who became just the ninth coach in the history of college football to reach 300 victories when his team defeated Richmond 10-6 Nov. 10 at Delaware Stadium. "I knew eventually it would be time to leave and this just seemed like the appropriate time. This was a very difficult decision for me. I've coached football for 52 years and to suddenly remove that from your life is a very emotional thing. Over the years I've had many people come up and ask 'wouldn't it be wonderful if you moved up and coached at the next level'. But I responded enthusiastically that I had the best guys in the country right here. We've had so many wonderful players over the years and I am as proud of the ones that went on to play professionally as I am of the ones who went on to become successful businessmen, husbands, and fathers. I was also fortunate to work with some of the best football coaches in the country and many times I've said that I had the best staff in the country right here at Delaware. I'll miss our fans as well. I love our fans - they were a source of inspiration and humor for me."
"Tubby Raymond is a college football icon," said Johnson in making the announcement. "He has been Delaware football for 36 years. His contributions to our University, to its athletics program, to the hundreds of young men whose lives he has impacted and to the sport of football are unrivaled. Those contributions will stand for all time as a testament to his commitment to the University of Delaware and to the values we hold most dear--integrity, loyalty and tradition." The cliche goes something like "the record speaks for itself" and so it did for Raymond. Under his direction the Blue Hens compiled a 300-119-3 record, making him one of only nine coaches in the history of college football to reach 300 victories and just the fourth to do so at one school. He leaves the coaching ranks placing third behind only Eddie Robinson of Grambling and Roy Kidd at Eastern Kentucky as the winningest coach at the NCAA I-AA level. His winning percentage of .714 ranked eighth among all active NCAA I-AA coaches in the nation entering the 2001 season. Raymond has accounted for over 50 percent of Delaware's 575 all-time victories in 110 seasons of intercollegiate competition. He entered his seventh decade coaching football in 2000, having began his career as a high school assistant in 1949 while an undergraduate at the University of Michigan. Raymond's accomplishments are staggering. The list includes three national titles - 1971, 1972 and 1979; 14 Lambert Cup Eastern Championships; five appearances in a seven-year span of the NCAA Division II playoffs; 11 NCAA I-AA tournament appearances in 1981, 1982, 1986, 1988, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1995, 1996,1997, and 2000; six Atlantic 10 Conference (formerly Yankee Conference) titles in 1986, 1988, 1991, 1992, 1995, and 2000; four Boardwalk Bowl victories; nine ECAC "Team of the Year" Awards; consistent ranking among the Top 20 College Division teams in the nation for the past decade; and a host of All-Americans and professional football draft selections. Thirty-one of Raymond's 36 teams have had winning records, including a streak of 13 straight winning seasons that was snapped this past fall when the Hens posted a mark of 4-6. Only 13 times did a Raymond-coached squad have fewer than eight victories. The team success brought Raymond numerous honors including the distinction of being just one of two College Division coaches to win consecutive American Football Coaches Association Coach of the Year Awards, the only other coach to receive such honors was Wittenberg's Bill Edwards in 1962 and 1963. Raymond's accolades came in 1971 and 1972 when he coached Delaware to back-to-back wire service national titles. In 1979, after winning the NCAA Division II National Championship, ABC Sports and Chevrolet named him "Coach of the Year" in NCAA Division II. On the district level, Raymond was named AFCA College Division District II (now NCAA I-AA Region I) Coach of the Year by the AFCA seven times, including the 1995 season, and the New York Football Writers Association ECAC I-AA Coach of the Year twice, including the 1992 campaign. He earned yet another prestigious coaching award in 1998 when he was presented the Vince Lombardi Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award at the annual ECAC Football Banquet. The award, presented by the late Vince Lombardi's brother, Joseph, recognizes lifetime achievement among Eastern coaches. Hofstra's Joe Gardi, Syracuse's Paul Pasqualoni, and Penn State's Joe Paterno are former recipients. In 2000, he was also recognized by Sports Illustrated magazine as one of the top 100 sports figures of the 20th century in the state of Delaware. In addition Raymond, coached in several football all-star games, including the 1972 and 1973 AFCA All-Star Games and the 1976 College All-Star Game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. In 1980 he was the subject of a full-length biography, Tubby!, written by former Wilmington News Journal Sports Editor Al Cartwright. Raymond was named Yankee Conference Coach of the Year for the first time in 1991 when he led Delaware to a record of 10-2, the Lambert Cup, Yankee Conference tri-championship, and a berth into the NCAA I-AA playoffs. He surpassed those numbers in 1992 when Delaware went 11-3, won the outright Yankee title, and advanced to the I-AA semifinals before losing to eventual champion Marshall, 21-7. The Hens made it three straight trips to the I-AA playoffs in 1993 when the squad went 9-4 and downed No. 2 Montana 49-48 in the opening round before falling again to Marshall, 34-31, in the quarterfinals. Delaware failed to qualify for post-season play in 1994, but it was a short-lived drought. The Hens put together another great year in 1995, posting an 11-2 record, winning the Yankee title with a perfect 8-0 mark, and advancing to the I-AA quarterfinals before losing to top-ranked McNeese State at Lake Charles, LA.
The Hens once again made post-season play in 1996, earning an at-large berth in an 8-4 season before losing in the first round to eventual undefeated national champion Marshall. In 1997, the Hens posted a 12-2 record and advanced to the NCAA I-AA semifinals before a last second 23-21 setback to McNeese State. After failing to qualify for the NCAA playoffs in 1998 and 1999, the Blue Hens returned to post-season action in a big way in 2000, posting a 12-2 record, earning the Atlantic 10 co-title with Richmond, and advancing to the I-AA semifinals before falling to eventual national champion Georgia Southern. The No. 2 seed Hens opened the playoffs with victories over Portland State (49-14) in the first round and Lehigh (47-22) in the quarterfinals. The Hens fell to No. 3 seed Georgia Southern 27-18 in the semifinals at Delaware Stadium. Under Raymond the Blue Hens received national recognition virtually unparalleled in their 113-year football history. Since 1969, Delaware has been ranked in the final Top 10 College Division or Division I-AA poll 16 times, ranking first in 1971, 1972 and 1979. The Hens were ranked No. 3 in both the final Sports Network and ESPN/USA Today polls in 1997 and 2000. The 1971 team went 10-1 and won both the AP and UPI national titles while the 1972 club repeated, going 10-0 to rank as only the fifth untied, undefeated football team in UD history. His 1979 squad produced the best record in all of college football with a 13-1 mark winning the 1979 national title through the NCAA playoff system. In addition, his 1974 and 1978 squads played in the Division II title game while his 1982 team played in the I-AA title game. Raymond came to Delaware from the University of Maine in 1954 and served as Dave Nelson's backfield coach for 12 years before Nelson, a member of the College Football Hall of Fame who died in 1991, resigned to devote full-time to his athletic director duties. As Nelson's backfield coach at Delaware, Raymond played a major role in developing the powerhouse UD teams in the early 1960's, including the 1963 squad that won the UPI small college national title. Raymond led his first team in 1966 to a 6-3 record and the first of three Middle Atlantic Conference University Division championships. The Blue Hens were 8-3 in 1968 and 9-2 in both 1969 and 1970, winning the MAC title in 1968 and 1969 and the Lambert Cup and NCAA Boardwalk Bowl regional crown all three seasons. They made it four straight Boardwalk Bowl titles and a national crown as well in 1971 when they topped C.W. Post in the Atlantic City Convention Center in December 1971. The 1972 team went undefeated and won a second national title. The Hen winning streak reached 20 games midway through the 1973 season and that team became the first of five UD entries into the NCAA II playoffs. The 1974 squad posted a 12-2 mark reaching the championship game via a 49-11 win over Nevada-Las Vegas that was seen nationwide and is still considered the best exhibition of the Delaware Wing-T offense. The 1978 squad again reached the NCAA finals with a 10-4 record while the final Division II Delaware team in 1979 won the crown and suffered its lone loss to 17th-ranked Garden State Bowl titlist Division I-A Temple. His 1982 team finished 12-2 and reached the I-AA title game. Known as an outstanding football strategist, Raymond built a powerful offensive machine at Delaware. The Blue Hens led the nation in rushing in 1970, averaging 390 yards per game. The 1969 team led the nation's College Division teams in total offense, while the 1968 club was tops in rushing and fifth in total offense. Finally, in 1971, they combined efforts to win both the rushing and total offense crowns. In 1982 the Wing-T offense guided the Hens to the national NCAA I-AA scoring title (34.1) and national rushing title (258.4 yards per game). The 1979 NCAA Division II National Championship team led the nation in offense - 405.5 yards per game- and in scoring with 35.5 points a game. Called "Tubby" by his childhood playmates, Raymond lost the weight but not the nickname. A native of Flint, Michigan, and a 1950 graduate of the University of Michigan, Raymond played football and baseball for the Wolverines and captained the 1949 baseball team. He played minor league professional baseball for two years and was head football coach at University High School in Ann Arbor, Michigan, before heading to the University of Maine. He served as Blue Hen baseball coach for nine years and compiled the second best coaching record in the history of the sport at UD with a mark of 141-56. He left the baseball post (giving way to his assistant, recently retired Bob Hannah) before the 1965 season to become a full-time football assistant. Six of Raymond's nine baseball teams qualified for the NCAA District II playoffs. Raymond's main outside interests include golf and painting. His acrylic painting has brought him national media attention, including features on ABC's Good Morning America, NBC Nightly News, Sports Illustrated, CNN, and Fox Sports "The Slant". He painted a portrait of a senior member of the team each week during the season for most of his career at Delaware and has painted several for charity auctions. He provided the art work of captain and current Blue Hen assistant coach Brian Ginn for the cover of the 1999 UD Football Media Guide. He also provided the artwork for the 1990 guide. In addition to his football duties at Delaware, Raymond is a past president of the American Football Coaches Association, and is currently Chairman of the AFCA Rules Committee. Raymond was married January 1, 1993 to the former Diane Esterling. They reside in Landenberg, PA with their daughter, Michelle. Raymond has four children and 12 grandchildren. Oldest son Chris, a former coach on the Division III and semi-pro level, is an officer with J.P. Morgan Bank. Youngest son, David, had a national following all his own as The Phillie Phanatic, official mascot of the Philadelphia Phillies baseball team. He now owns Raymond Entertainment and still performs in other costumes. Daughter, Debbie, is a psychologist with the Rockford Center in Wilmington, DE. Tubby Raymond Year by Year at Delaware
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