Ray Van Orman (January 25, 1884 – May 24, 1954) was an American veterinarian and

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 ...

and

lacrosse Lacrosse is a contact team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game w ...

coach. He served as the head lacrosse and football coach at

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

, from 1920 to 1935 and 1926 to 1935 respectively, and the head lacrosse coach at

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

from 1940 to 1949. Van Orman was inducted into the

National Lacrosse Hall of Fame The National Lacrosse Hall of Fame and Museum, is located in Sparks, Maryland, at the USA Lacrosse headquarters. Prior to moving to its present location in 2016, the hall of fame and museum was located in Baltimore, Maryland, on the Homewood c ...

in 1992.

Early life

Van Orman attended Ithaca High School in

upstate New York Upstate New York is a geographic region of New York (state), New York that lies north and northwest of the New York metropolitan area, New York City metropolitan area of downstate New York. Upstate includes the middle and upper Hudson Valley, ...

, where he played

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

and was a team captain. He attended college at

, where he continued his football career as an

end End, END, Ending, or ENDS may refer to: End Mathematics *End (category theory) * End (topology) * End (graph theory) * End (group theory) (a subcase of the previous) * End (endomorphism) Sports and games *End (gridiron football) *End, a division ...

under head coach Glenn "Pop" Warner from 1904 to 1906. Cornell Alumni News
(PDF), Cornell University, December 6, 1905. During his freshman year in 1904, he was elected class president. He served as the football team captain in 1906.
''The New York Times'', May 24, 1954. Van Orman was expelled from the university in March 1906 by the student conduct committee for allegedly " cribbing" during a veterinary surgery examination.Van Orman Dropped; Cornell Football Captain Has Been Removed. "Cribbing" in An Examination the Charge Against Him
''Boston Daily Globe'', March 21, 1906. He later returned to the school and graduated with a doctorate of veterinary medicine in 1908.Ray Van Orman
National Lacrosse Hall of Fame, retrieved August 3, 2010.

Coaching career

In 1912, Van Orman returned to his alma mater to serve on the Cornell football staff under head coach A. H. Sharpe. He remained in that position until 1920, when he left to become head football coach and

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 ...

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the List of United States ...

. Van Orman worked in those roles through 1935. In 1933, '' The Sunday Spartanburg Herald-Journal'' ran a story on his invention of a "scrimmage machine". The contraption was a large wooden triangular frame from which dummies filled with sand or sawdust were arranged in the formation used by the opposing team. As a head football coach, he compiled a 60–64–7 record.All-Time Coaching Records by Year
, College Football Data Warehouse, retrieved August 23, 2010. Despite never having seen a game of

before, he became the coach of the Johns Hopkins team in 1926. In 1928 and 1932, his teams won tournaments to represent the United States in the Olympic Games. During his tenure as Hopkins lacrosse coach from 1926 to 1934, Van Orman's teams amassed a 71–11 record and captured six national championships. In 1935, the Johns Hopkins University administration began a policy to "de-emphasize" football, and Van Orman left to coach the highly successful amateur Mount Washington Lacrosse Club. In February, he was offered the position as head coach of the

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

lacrosse team, but that ultimately fell through. The following year, he returned to Cornell as an assistant football coach. From 1940 to 1949, Van Orman served as the head coach of the Cornell lacrosse team and amassed a 24–45 record. Van Orman died of a heart attack on May 24, 1954, in

Ithaca, New York Ithaca () is a city in and the county seat of Tompkins County, New York, United States. Situated on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake in the Finger Lakes region of New York (state), New York, Ithaca is the largest community in the Ithaca metrop ...

, at the age of 71.Dr. Ray Van Orman, Former Hopkins Coach, Dies At Ithaca
''The Baltimore Sun'', May 24, 1954. The Cornell University Athletic Hall of Fame posthumously inducted him in 1982. He was inducted into the

as a player in 1992.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Van Orman, Ray 1884 births 1954 deaths American football ends American veterinarians Cornell Big Red football coaches Cornell Big Red football players Cornell Big Red men's lacrosse coaches Johns Hopkins Blue Jays athletic directors Johns Hopkins Blue Jays football coaches Johns Hopkins Blue Jays men's lacrosse coaches Mount Washington Lacrosse Club coaches Sportspeople from Ithaca, New York Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine alumni Players of American football from New York (state) Ithaca High School (Ithaca, New York) alumni