Ray Van Orman (January 25, 1884 – May 24, 1954) was an American veterinarian and

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 ...

and

lacrosse Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensively ...

coach. He served as the head lacrosse and football coach at

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...

, from 1920 to 1935 and 1926 to 1935 respectively, and the head lacrosse coach at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

from 1940 to 1949. Van Orman was inducted into the

National Lacrosse Hall of Fame The National Lacrosse Hall of Fame and Museum, is located in Sparks, Maryland at the USA Lacrosse headquarters. Prior to moving to its present location in 2016, the hall of fame and museum was located in Baltimore, Maryland, on the Homewood campu ...

in 1992.

Early life

Van Orman attended Ithaca High School in

upstate New York Upstate New York is a geographic region consisting of the area of New York State that lies north and northwest of the New York City metropolitan area. Although the precise boundary is debated, Upstate New York excludes New York City and Long Is ...

, where he played

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

and was a team captain. He attended college at

, where he continued his football career as an

end End, END, Ending, or variation, may refer to: End *In mathematics: ** End (category theory) ** End (topology) **End (graph theory) ** End (group theory) (a subcase of the previous) **End (endomorphism) *In sports and games **End (gridiron footbal ...

under head coach Glenn "Pop" Warner from 1904 to 1906. Cornell Alumni News
(PDF), Cornell University, December 6, 1905. During his freshman year in 1904, he was elected class president. He served as the football team captain in 1906.
''The New York Times'', May 24, 1954. Van Orman was expelled from the university in March 1906 by the student conduct committee for allegedly "

cribbing Crib may refer to: *Bach (New Zealand), a type of modest beach house, called a crib in the southern half of the South Island e.g. Otago and Southland *Box crib, a wooden frame used to stabilise a heavy object during a rescue, jacking, construction ...

" during a veterinary surgery examination.Van Orman Dropped; Cornell Football Captain Has Been Removed. "Cribbing" in An Examination the Charge Against Him
''Boston Daily Globe'', March 21, 1906. He later returned to the school and graduated with a doctorate of veterinary medicine in 1908.Ray Van Orman
National Lacrosse Hall of Fame, retrieved August 3, 2010.

Coaching career

In 1912, Van Orman returned to his alma mater to serve on the Cornell football staff under head coach A. H. Sharpe. He remained in that position until 1920, when he left to become head football coach and

athletic director An athletic director (commonly "athletics director" or "AD") is an administrator at many American clubs or institutions, such as colleges and universities, as well as in larger high schools and middle schools, who oversees the work of coaches and ...

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

. Van Orman worked in those roles through 1935. In 1933, '' The Sunday Spartanburg Herald-Journal'' ran a story on his invention of a "scrimmage machine". The contraption was a large wooden triangular frame from which dummies filled with sand or sawdust were arranged in the

formation Formation may refer to: Linguistics * Back-formation, the process of creating a new lexeme by removing or affixes * Word formation, the creation of a new word by adding affixes Mathematics and science * Cave formation or speleothem, a secondar ...

used by the opposing team. As a head football coach, he compiled a 60–64–7 record.All-Time Coaching Records by Year
, College Football Data Warehouse, retrieved August 23, 2010. Despite never having seen a game of

before, he became the coach of the Johns Hopkins team in 1926. In 1928 and 1932, his teams won tournaments to represent the United States in the Olympic Games. During his tenure as Hopkins lacrosse coach from 1926 to 1934, Van Orman's teams amassed a 71–11 record and captured six national championships. In 1935, the Johns Hopkins University administration began a policy to "de-emphasize" football, and Van Orman left to coach the highly successful amateur

Mount Washington Lacrosse Club The Mount Washington Lacrosse Club is an amateur field lacrosse club based in Baltimore, Maryland. As one of the most successful and well-known lacrosse clubs in history, at one point it dominated the sport at both the collegiate and club level. Th ...

. In February, he was offered the position as head coach of the

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

lacrosse team, but that ultimately fell through. The following year, he returned to Cornell as an assistant football coach. From 1940 to 1949, Van Orman served as the head coach of the Cornell lacrosse team and amassed a 24–45 record. Van Orman died of a heart attack on May 24, 1954, in

Ithaca, New York Ithaca is a city in the Finger Lakes region of New York, United States. Situated on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake, Ithaca is the seat of Tompkins County and the largest community in the Ithaca metropolitan statistical area. It is named a ...

, at the age of 71.Dr. Ray Van Orman, Former Hopkins Coach, Dies At Ithaca
''The Baltimore Sun'', May 24, 1954. The Cornell University Athletic Hall of Fame posthumously inducted him in 1982. He was inducted into the

as a player in 1992.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Van Orman, Ray 1884 births 1954 deaths American football ends American veterinarians Male veterinarians Cornell Big Red football coaches Cornell Big Red football players Cornell Big Red men's lacrosse coaches Johns Hopkins Blue Jays athletic directors Johns Hopkins Blue Jays football coaches Johns Hopkins Blue Jays men's lacrosse coaches Mount Washington Lacrosse Club coaches Sportspeople from Ithaca, New York Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine alumni Players of American football from New York (state) Ithaca High School (Ithaca, New York) alumni