Ray Tellier Jr. (born June 10, 1951) is an American college athletics administrator and former

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 ...

player and coach. He currently serves as an associate athletics director at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

, a position he has held since 2005. Tellier was the head football coach at the

University of Rochester The University of Rochester is a private university, private research university in Rochester, New York, United States. It was founded in 1850 and moved into its current campus, next to the Genesee River in 1930. With approximately 30,000 full ...

from 1984 to 1988 and at Columbia from 1989 to 2002, compiling a career record of 63–122–3.

Biography

Tellier grew up in

West Haven, Connecticut West Haven is a city in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States, located on the coast of Long Island Sound. The city is part of the South Central Connecticut Planning Region, Connecticut, South Central Connecticut Planning Region. At the 2 ...

and was a

high school football High school football, also known as prep football, is gridiron football played by High school (North America), high school teams in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular high school sports, interscholastic sports in both c ...

All-American, playing for his father in 1968 at Notre Dame High School of West Haven, CT. He attended the

University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university system with its main campus in Storrs, Connecticut, United States. It was founded in 1881 as the Storrs Agricultural School, named after two benefactors. In 1893, ...

and lead that team to the

Yankee Conference The Yankee Conference was a collegiate sports conference in the eastern United States. From 1947 to 1976, it sponsored competition in many sports, but was a football-only league from mid-1976 until its dissolution in 1996. It is essentially the a ...

title in 1971. After graduating from Connecticut in 1973, Tellier entered the coaching ranks, serving as an assistant at Connecticut,

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College ( ) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, Dartmouth is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the America ...

Wabash College Wabash College is a private liberal arts men's college located in Crawfordsville, Indiana. Founded in 1832, by a group of Dartmouth College graduates and Midwestern leaders, the institution was originally named "The Wabash Teachers Seminary an ...

, and

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...

during the 1970s. In 1978, he became

offensive coordinator An offensive coordinator (OC) is a Coach (sport), coach responsible for a gridiron football team's offense (American football), offense. Generally, the offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator and special teams coordinator represent the second ...

at Brown University under head coach John A. Anderson. Brown was experiencing a revival in football at the time and Tellier's time there was a successful one. When Anderson resigned in 1983, Tellier moved on to become head coach at

, an

NCAA Division III NCAA Division III (D-III) is the lowest division of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States. D-III consists of athletic programs at colleges and universities that do not offer athletic scholarships to student- ...

school. He turned the moribund program around over the next five years, going 9–2 and making the NCAA Division III playoffs for the first time in school history, in 1987. His overall record at Rochester was 21–26–1. In 1989 Tellier was hired by Columbia and asked to revive their program (which had just broken a 44-game losing streak) in a similar fashion. His results were mixed. Significant improvement did not begin to be seen until 1994 and in 1996 the team would win eight games for the first time since 1945. But thereafter the team slowly declined again until by 2002 the team was again winless in the

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference of eight Private university, private Research university, research universities in the Northeastern United States. It participates in the National Collegia ...

. Tellier stepped aside at the end of that season and joined the administrative side of the athletic department. In 2005, he was appointed an associate athletics director and continues to serve in that capacity.

Head coaching record

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tellier, Ray 1951 births Living people American football quarterbacks Boston University Terriers football coaches Brown Bears football coaches Columbia Lions football coaches UConn Huskies football coaches UConn Huskies football players Dartmouth Big Green football coaches Rochester Yellowjackets football coaches Wabash Little Giants football coaches Players of American football from New Haven County, Connecticut Notre Dame High School (West Haven, Connecticut) alumni