Ray Tellier Jr. (born June 10, 1951) is an American college athletics administrator and former

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

player and coach. He currently serves as an associate athletics director at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, a position he has held since 2005. Tellier was the head football coach at the

University of Rochester The University of Rochester (U of R, UR, or U of Rochester) is a private research university in Rochester, New York. The university grants undergraduate and graduate degrees, including doctoral and professional degrees. The University of Roc ...

from 1984 to 1988 and at Columbia from 1989 to 2002, compiling a career record of 63–122–3.

Biography

Tellier grew up in

West Haven, Connecticut West Haven is a city in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States. It is located on the coast of Long Island Sound. At the 2020 census, the population of the city was 55,584. History Settled in 1648, West Haven (then known as West Farms) ...

and was a

high school football High school football (french: football au lycée) is gridiron football played by high school teams in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular interscholastic sports in both countries, but its popularity is declining, part ...

All-American, playing for his father in 1968 at Notre Dame High School of West Haven, CT. He attended the

University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university in Storrs, Connecticut, a village in the town of Mansfield. The primary 4,400-acre (17.8 km2) campus is in Storrs, approximately a half hour's drive from Hart ...

and lead that team to the

Yankee Conference The Yankee Conference was a collegiate sports conference in the eastern United States. From 1947 to 1976, it sponsored competition in many sports, but was a football-only league from mid-1976 until its dissolution in 1996. It is essentially the an ...

title in 1971. After graduating from Connecticut in 1973, Tellier entered the coaching ranks, serving as an assistant at Connecticut,

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native A ...

Wabash College Wabash College is a private liberal arts men's college in Crawfordsville, Indiana. Founded in 1832 by several Dartmouth College graduates and Midwestern leaders, it enrolls nearly 900 students. The college offers an undergraduate liberal arts cur ...

, and

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...

during the 1970s. In 1978, he became

offensive coordinator An offensive coordinator is a member of the coaching staff of an American football or Canadian football team who is in charge of the team's offense. Generally, along with the defensive coordinator and the special teams coordinator, this coach re ...

at Brown University under head coach John A. Anderson. Brown was experiencing a revival in football at the time and Tellier's time there was a successful one. When Anderson resigned in 1983, Tellier moved on to become head coach at

, an

NCAA Division III NCAA Division III (D-III) is a division of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States. D-III consists of athletic programs at colleges and universities that choose not to offer athletic scholarships to their stu ...

school. He turned the moribund program around over the next five years, going 9–2 and making the NCAA Division III playoffs for the first time in school history, in 1987. His overall record at Rochester was 21–26–1. In 1989 Tellier was hired by Columbia and asked to revive their program (which had just broken a 44-game losing streak) in a similar fashion. His results were mixed. Significant improvement did not begin to be seen until 1994 and in 1996 the team would win eight games for the first time since 1945. But thereafter the team slowly declined again until by 2002 the team was again winless in the

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising eight private research universities in the Northeastern United States. The term ''Ivy League'' is typically used beyond the sports context to refer to the eight schools ...

. Tellier stepped aside at the end of that season and joined the administrative side of the athletic department. In 2005, he was appointed an associate athletics director and continues to serve in that capacity.

Head coaching record

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tellier, Ray 1951 births Living people American football quarterbacks Boston University Terriers football coaches Brown Bears football coaches Columbia Lions football coaches UConn Huskies football coaches UConn Huskies football players Dartmouth Big Green football coaches Rochester Yellowjackets football coaches Wabash Little Giants football coaches Sportspeople from New Haven, Connecticut Players of American football from New Haven, Connecticut