Raymond Eliot "Butch" Nusspickel (June 13, 1905 – February 24, 1980) was an

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

and

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

player, coach, and college athletics administrator.

Early life

Eliot lettered as a guard for Illinois three times: twice for football (1930, 1931) and once for baseball (1930).

Coaching career

He served as the head football coach at

Illinois College Illinois College is a private liberal arts college in Jacksonville, Illinois. It is affiliated with the United Church of Christ and the Presbyterian Church (USA). It was the second college founded in Illinois but the first to grant a degree (in ...

from 1934 to 1936 and at the

University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United States. Established in 1867, it is the f ...

from 1942 to 1959, compiling a career

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

record of 98–80–12. Eliot was also the head baseball coach at Illinois College from 1933 to 1937. His

Illinois Fighting Illini football The Illinois Fighting Illini football program represents the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in college football at the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A) level. The Fighting Illini are a founding member of ...

teams won three

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference, among others) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Fa ...

championships (1946, 1951, and 1953) and two Rose Bowls (1947 and 1952). Notable players during Eliot's tenure included Bobby Mitchell and Ray Nitschke. Eliot stepped down in 1959 and was succeeded by

Pete Elliott Peter R. Elliott (September 29, 1926 – January 4, 2013) was an American football player and coach. Elliott served as the head football coach at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln (1956), the University of California, Berkeley (1957–1959), ...

. Eliot, who spent almost his entire career at the University of Illinois—he was a student athlete, an assistant football coach, head football coach, associate

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 a ...

, and finally the interim athletic director for the university—was nicknamed "Mr. Illini." He attended the University of Illinois, played as a guard on the football team in 1930 and 1931, and was a member of

Alpha Sigma Phi Alpha Sigma Phi (), commonly known as Alpha Sig, is an intercollegiate men's social Fraternities and sororities, fraternity. Founded in 1845 at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, it is the tenth oldest social fraternity in the United Sta ...

fraternity. Eliot was also the first head coach of the Illini hockey team in 1937.

Personal life

He died of an apparent heart attack on February 24, 1980, in

Urbana, Illinois Urbana ( ) is a city in Champaign County, Illinois, United States, and its county seat. As of the 2020 census, Urbana had a population of 38,336. It is a principal city of the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, which had 236,000 residents i ...

Legacy

Eliot's 1951 Illinois squad is currently the last Illini team to finish the season with no losses. Eliot is remembered by the Illinois High School Football Coaches Association through its Ray Eliot Award. Eliot was inducted into the Illinois Athletics Hall of Fame in 2018."Ray Eliot,"
University of Illinois Athletics Hall of Fame, fightingillini.com

Head coaching record

Football

Ice hockey

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Eliot, Ray 1905 births 1980 deaths American football guards Illinois College Blueboys baseball coaches Illinois College Blueboys football coaches Illinois Fighting Illini athletic directors Illinois Fighting Illini football players Illinois Fighting Illini baseball coaches Illinois Fighting Illini football coaches University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign faculty Kents Hill School alumni Players of American football from Boston Presidents of the American Football Coaches Association