Ray James Woods (February 2, 1895 – October 1965) was an American college basketball standout for
Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...
in the 1910s. A
guard
Guard or guards may refer to:
Professional occupations
* Bodyguard, who protects an individual from personal assault
* Crossing guard, who stops traffic so pedestrians can cross the street
* Lifeguard, who rescues people from drowning
* Prison ...
, Woods helped lead the Fighting Illini to two
Big Ten Conference
The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...
championships in 1915 and 1917, with the former being an undefeated 16–0 season that resulted in a retroactive national championship. In all three seasons he played at the school, Woods was named an
All-American and was honored as the
Helms Foundation National Player of the Year as a
senior
Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to:
* Senior (name), a surname ...
in 1916–17. He was Illinois' first-ever All-American in basketball and teamed up with his brother, Ralf (a
forward
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* Forward (surname)
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* Forward (association football)
* Forward (basketball), including:
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** Power forward (basketball)
** Sm ...
), in guiding the school to their first era of basketball dominance.
Honors
* 1917 -
Helms National Player of the Year
*
1915
Events
Below, the events of World War I have the "WWI" prefix.
January
* January – British physicist Sir Joseph Larmor publishes his observations on "The Influence of Local Atmospheric Cooling on Astronomical Refraction".
*January 1 ...
,
1916
Events
Below, the events of the First World War have the "WWI" prefix.
January
* January 1 – The British Royal Army Medical Corps carries out the first successful blood transfusion, using blood that had been stored and cooled.
* ...
,
1917
Events
Below, the events of World War I have the "WWI" prefix.
January
* January 9 – WWI – Battle of Rafa: The last substantial Ottoman Army garrison on the Sinai Peninsula is captured by the Egyptian Expeditionary Force's ...
- First Team
All-American
* 1915, 1916, 1917 - First-team All-
Big Ten
The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...
* 2004 - Elected to the "
Illini Men's Basketball All-Century Team"
* September 13, 2008 - Honored as one of the thirty-three
honored jerseys which hang in the
State Farm Center
The State Farm Center is a large dome-shaped 15,544-seat indoor arena located in Champaign, Illinois, owned and operated by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The arena hosts games for the Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball, ...
to show regard for being the most decorated basketball players in the University of Illinois' history.
Statistics
References
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1895 births
1965 deaths
All-American college men's basketball players
American men's basketball players
Basketball players from Illinois
Evanston Township High School alumni
Guards (basketball)
Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball players
Sportspeople from Evanston, Illinois
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