Ray Guy
| No. 8 | |||||||||
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| Position: | Punter | ||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||
| Date of birth: | December 22, 1949 | ||||||||
| Place of birth: | Swainsboro, Georgia | ||||||||
| Height: | 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) | ||||||||
| Weight: | 195 lb (88 kg) | ||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||
| High school: | Thomson (GA) | ||||||||
| College: | Southern Mississippi | ||||||||
| NFL Draft: | 1973 / Round: 1 / Pick: 23 | ||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||
| Career highlights and awards | |||||||||
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| Career NFL statistics | |||||||||
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| Punts: | 1,049 |
|---|---|
| Punting yards: | 44,493 |
| Average punt: | 42.4 |
| Player stats at NFL.com | |
William Ray Guy (born December 22, 1949) is a retired American football punter for the Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders of the National Football League (NFL). Guy was a unanimous All-American selection in 1972 as a senior at the University of Southern Mississippi, and was the first pure punter ever to be drafted in the first round of the NFL Draft, when the Oakland Raiders selected him with the 23rd overall pick in 1973.
A six-time NFL All-Pro, Guy is widely considered to be the greatest punter of all time and has been a seven-time finalist as a modern era candidate for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. On August 21, 2013, he was selected by the Seniors Committee as a finalist for election to the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2014. He was inducted to the Hall of Fame on August 2, 2014, becoming only the second pure kicker (after Jan Stenerud) and the first pure punter so honored.
Guy was the first punter ever to be selected in the first round in the NFL Draft, in 1973. In his 13-year career, Guy:
Ray Guy was selected to seven AFC Pro Bowl teams, and in 1994, he was named the punter on the National Football League's 75th Anniversary Team. His trademark was kicking punts that stayed in the air for so long that by the time the punt returner was able to field it, the Raiders' coverage unit had the field covered so well that a return was not possible. Guy's punts often left opposing offenses pinned in their own end of the field. The statistic for hang time was instituted in the NFL during his career, reportedly because of him. Joe Horrigan, the historian of the Pro Football Hall of Fame once said: "He's the first punter you could look at and say: 'He won games.'"
In Super Bowl XVIII, Guy punted seven times for 299 yards (42.7 average), with 244 net yards (34.8 average) and planted five of his seven punts inside the 20. Due in part to his effective punting, Oakland easily won the game, 38-9.
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