Jimmy Raye Youth Foundation

FREE Football Clinic for Kids on Tuesday, June 28, 2011 at 71st High School at 2pm. For more information, please contact 910-482-8865. NFL Pros will be at the clinic!
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Monday Night Football Benefit Dinner: Meet & Greet With the Stars
Guest Speaker: Mike McCarthy, Head Coach of the Green Bay Packers

Bio:

Mike McCarthy graduated from Baker University with a degree in business administration. Beginning his NFL career with the Kansas City Chiefs (1993 -98), McCarthy has worked with multiple teams including the New Orleans Saints and San Francisco 49ers before returning to Green Bay as Head Coach January 12, 2006. He has coached two of the four highest-scoring teams in franchise history (2007, 2009).
The Green Bay Packers are the reigning Super Bowl Champions (2010).

Tickets will be available online.
June 27, 2011 at 6 p.m.
Doors open at 5:30 p.m.
Cap Fear Botanical Garden
Held at the Wyatt Visitors Pavilion Complex – The Orangery
536 North Eastern Boulevard
Fayetteville, NC 28301-5100

By Earl Vaughan Jr.
Scholastic sports editor

After 34 years as an NFL assistant coach, former E.E. Smith High School football star Jimmy Raye was afforded the highest honor his high school alma mater could bestow Saturday night at the school’s athletic banquet with the retiring of his No. 10 jersey.

So why did it take so long for this to happen?

Bill Carver, who was the offensive line coach at Smith during Raye’s senior season in 1963-64, thinks one of the strong points of Raye’s character may be the reason.

“He’s always been a team player,” Carver said. “He doesn’t draw a lot of attention to himself.”

Carver thinks that’s also a reason Raye has never been a head coach in the NFL.

“He wasn’t as vocal as some of the other people,” Carver said. “Sometimes people take that for weakness. But he gets the job done. Evidently he was a heck of a coach for people to keep him around and want him on the staff.”

Raye was the offensive coordinator with the San Francisco 49ers before he was let go last season by head coach Mike Singletary, who was himself later dismissed by the team.

Since that time, Raye has enjoyed some much-deserved time away from the game, although he has remained involved with the game as president of the NFL Coaches Association.

Raye has not ruled out a return to the NFL, but the work stoppage has complicated his attempts to get rehired.

“There isn’t anything going on hiring-wise in terms of coaching because they don’t have anybody to coach,” he said.

He has been talking with some teams about taking on a role as a senior offensive adviser, working with younger members of the coaching staff in developing short-yardage, goal-line, third-down and red-zone strategies.

He’s hopeful the labor dispute will be settled sometime in early June, and while teams may miss a few offseason mini-camps, he believes training camps will open on schedule.

In between dealing with the logistics of the cooperative bargaining agreement and the lockout of NFL players, Raye has been traveling the country to visit his children and grandchildren. His daughter, Robin Austin, and her children, Derrick and Avery, live in Houston, Texas. His son, Jimmy, is the director of player personnel for the San Diego Chargers.

Raye says his longevity in the game, 34 uninterrupted years as an assistant coach, has been a blessing, and something for which he doesn’t take full credit.

“I’ve been with good coaches,” he said. “Along with that good fortune is my ability to develop players. That was always the forefront of my calling card, the players that I coached.”

That talent list includes Pro Football Hall of Fame players Eric Dickerson and Marcus Allen, and at least a couple of others that could one day join them in running back Curtis Martin and tight end Tony Gonzalez.
Loyalty shown

It’s evident, too, in the loyalty those players, even some he never coached, show him when they come to Fayetteville each summer to help with his Jimmy Raye Youth Foundation banquet and football clinic. Raye created the foundation with the help of his friend, the late Ronnie Chalmers.

Allen, Dickerson and former Douglas Byrd standout Joe Horn make regular pilgrimages here to help Raye with the work of the foundation, which raises money for local youth recreation programs and scholarships for college students seeking to improve themselves.

Raye said one of his biggest thrills came recently when he got a graduation invitation from a young woman his foundation helped send to Fayetteville State.

“This is the second or third young person we’ve been able to provide scholarship help to, to pursue their dreams and goals,” he said. “I’m most proud of the direction of the foundation and the things we’ve been able to do to help youngsters pursue their education and follow their dreams.”

Even with the NFL lockout, Raye is advancing plans for this year’s foundation event June 27-28. The banquet will be June 27 at a location to be determined. The football clinic for young people will be June 28.

Raye said the economy and the NFL work stoppage could affect how many players are able to show up for this year’s event.

Michael Evans, who played with Raye at E.E. Smith in the mid-1960s, says the players will come to Fayetteville for Raye.

“Jimmy is the kind of person everyone cares about,” Evans said. “You can’t beat him as a person. He has a heart of gold and a concern for other people.”
Scholastic sports editor Earl Vaughan Jr. can be reached at vaughane@fayobserver.com or 486-3519.

http://fayobserver.com/articles/2011/05/15/1093750

By Earl Vaughan Jr.
Scholastic sports editor

For once, Jimmy Raye wasn’t sure what play to call.

The former star quarterback at E.E. Smith and Michigan State, and veteran of 34 seasons as an NFL assistant coach, was left speechless Saturday night when Smith principal Clinton Robinson Jr. announced that Raye’s No. 10 football jersey was being retired.

It was the fourth jersey to be retired for football at the school and the fifth overall.

Previously retired in football were the No. 3 worn by Aaron Curry, the No. 22 worn by Junior Smith and the No. 72 worn by Tank Tyler. The lone retired basketball jersey is the No. 21 of Robert Brickey.

Curry plays for the Seattle Seahawks. Smith broke numerous rushing records at East Carolina. Tyler starred at N.C. State and is now with the Chicago Bears. Brickey was a basketball standout at Duke.

Raye, who last coached with the San Francisco 49ers, is currently out of work but still serves as president of the NFL Coaches Association. He was honored at E.E. Smith athletic banquet, and was led to believe the reason for him being there was just to make a few remarks.

“I am most humbled by this honor,” Raye said. Referring to the segregation era during which he played at Smith, Raye said, “I am really humbled to think of all the great athletes denied the opportunity to excel because of the times we were a part of.”

But he added his teachers and coaches during that time never allowed segregation to be an excuse for not pursuing excellence in athletics and academics.

“When you win, there’s glory for all,” he said. “When you lose, there’s glory for none. Your stats are hollow when the team loses.”

Robinson, who joined with Raye’s father, Jimmy Raye Sr., in presenting the jersey, said it is important for the current generation of athletes to hear about Raye’s career and understand what it took for him to reach the level of success he has.

“In today’s generation, children are faced with so many challenges,” Robinson said. “They have to understand that hard work and a commitment to excellence pays off. When you bring people back that have grown up in this area and gone on to do great things, and they get recognized for all they have contributed to society and their school, it gives them the motivation to succeed and do well themselves.”

Robinson called Raye a man of servitude with a humble and calming spirit. “I never once heard him be critical or judgmental,” Robinson said.

Jimmy Harvey, a 1967 graduate of E.E. Smith who helped organize the ceremony to honor Raye, said it was important for today’s athletes to hear a man of Raye’s stature tell them they need to go to class and have a backup plan for life.

“He gave them tonight a road map they can follow,” Harvey said. “They never heard a role model like that say things to them like that.”
Scholastic sports editor Earl Vaughan Jr. can be reached at vaughane@fayobserver.com or 486-3519.

http://fayobserver.com/articles/2011/05/15/1094256

NFL stars share skills and values it took to get them to pros.

Page 1, Page 2 | Courtesy of The Fayetteville Observer

NFL and college football personalities ready to contribute to this year’s Jimmy Raye Foundation event.
Page 1 , Page 2 | Courtesy of The Fayetteville Observer

Date and Time: TBD
Held at Jack Britt High School’s football field
7403 Rockfish Rd.
Fayetteville, NC 28306
*Registration is on the day of the event. Children under the age of 18 must be accompanied by an adult.

The Jimmy Raye Youth Foundation will have a new web site as of September, 2010. Through this new site, you will be able to access more information as well as make a donation to the foundation to help serve the youth of Fayetteville and Cumberland County.

At the foundation’s annual banquet this summer, the following high school coaches were given coach of the year awards:

• Girls Basketball – Dee Hardy from E.E. Smith HS
• Boys Basketball – Bill Boyette from Terry Sanford HS
• Football – Richard Bailey from Jack Britt HS

It was no surprise that one of the biggest hands of the night at the Jimmy Raye Youth Foundation Banquet Monday night came when Raye brought NFL Hall of Famers Charlie Sanders, Willie Lanier, Eric Dickerson and Marcus Allen to the stage at the same time.

Read More | Courtesy of The Fayetteville Observer