Raymond Richard Schumacher (April 15, 1924November 4, 1973) served in the

Army Air Force The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, played professional

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 ...

as a fullback after the war, and later worked as

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing i ...

for the City of Chicago.

Early life

Born in Chicago, Schumacher attended

Tilden Technical High School Edward Tilden Career Community Academy High School (formerly known as Tilden Technical High School) is a public four-year high school bordered between the Canaryville and Fuller Park neighborhoods on the south side of Chicago, Illinois, United ...

, studying engineering, and was awarded the Purdue Club's 1942 Noble E. Kizer MVP Award in football. He then attended

Purdue University Purdue University is a Public university#United States, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, United States, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded ...

Military career

He was first inducted February 17, 1943 into the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

and went to basic training in North Carolina, where his bunkmate was Charles Clark. Others in his group included Wally Kokockis (Cicero Kid), Sgt. Nelphi, Sgt. (Porky) Thorton, Charles Clark, Jack Sather from Berkeley, California, Jimmie Spallus from Wisconsin, and Ray Shaw. All then went on to Janesville, Wisconsin for flight training. Schumacher was later based at the following locations: * Hondo Texas for navigator training, and served as an instructor afterwards * Miami *

Macdill Air Force Base MacDill Air Force Base (MacDill AFB) is an active United States Air Force installation located 4 miles (6.4 km) south-southwest of downtown Tampa, Florida. The "host wing" for MacDill AFB is the 6th Air Refueling Wing (6 ARW), assig ...

in Tampa about 7/43 * Lincoln, Nebraska where he trained navigators until mid-1945 * Victorville, Ca. *

Tinian Tinian () is one of the three principal islands of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). Together with uninhabited neighboring Aguiguan, it forms Tinian Municipality, one of the four constituent municipalities of the Northern ...

Early in his training he accepted an Argus camera as payment for a debt, and used it to take hundreds of photos of Army training camps and around the Pacific theater, including the

atomic bomb A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission or atomic bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear weapon), producing a nuclear expl ...

waiting on the runway on Tinian. Near the end of the war B-29 crews did not always have exclusive use of a plane but rotated with another crew; his plane assigned while stationed on Tinian was known to have

nose art Nose art is a decorative painting or design on the fuselage of an aircraft, usually on the front fuselage. While begun for practical reasons of identifying friendly units, the practice evolved to express the individuality often constrained by ...

of a lady and a name, but the number is unknown. He flew in the formation over the treaty signing on the USS ''Missouri'', was finally stationed in Tokyo until January 1946, and officially released March 17, 1946. He ended his military service as a

First Lieutenant First lieutenant is a commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces; in some forces, it is an appointment. The rank of lieutenant has different meanings in different military formations, but in most forces it is sub-divided into a se ...

, Navigator, 20th AF, 313th Bomb Wing, 504th Bomb Group (Circle-E).

Football career

Harold and Ray Schumacher with George Halas

Schumacher was All-City in Chicago, winning the Kizer all-city award in December 1942 as a co-captain of the Tilden Tech Blue Devils. He then played one year at Purdue before enlisting in the Army Air Forces, subsequently playing for the Hondo Air Field team in

Hondo, Texas Hondo is a city in and the county seat of Medina County, Texas, United States. According to the 2020 Census, its population was 8,289. It is part of the San Antonio metropolitan statistical area. History Hondo was the scene of two bank robber ...

. Upon returning home,

George Halas George Stanley Halas Sr. (February 2, 1895 – October 31, 1983), nicknamed "Papa Bear", was an American professional football end, coach, and executive. He was the founder and owner of the Chicago Bears of the National Football League (NFL), ...

signed Raymond and his brother Harold to the

Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. They are one of two remaining ...

at the same time, on July 26, 1946. He first played for the Bears' farm team Akron Bears of the American Association, taking on their parent team in a September exhibition game at the

Rubber Bowl The Rubber Bowl was a stadium located in Akron, Ohio, that was primarily used for American football. From its opening in 1940 until 2008, it served as the home field of the Akron Zips football team of the University of Akron prior to the openin ...

. In early 1947, Akron left the AFL leaving Newark as the Chicago Bears' primary farm team; Newark then moved to

Bloomfield, New Jersey Bloomfield is a township in Essex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, and an inner-ring suburb of Newark. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 53,105, an increase of 5,790 (+12.2%) from the 2010 census cou ...

and became the Cardinals. In August, he played for the Bears in the

Chicago College All-Star Game The Chicago Charities College All-Star Game was a preseason American football game played from 1934 to 1976 between the National Football League (NFL) champions and a team of star college seniors from the previous year. It was also known as the ...

. He later played for the Bloomfield Cardinals during the 1947 season. He never played in a regular season game for the Bears, and later retired with knee and other injuries. There had been some friction between Halas and Ray as well; Ray owned a garage with his brothers, and Halas did not like his players to have "outside" jobs. A grandson of his brother James, Jerry Schumacher, was a

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and typically line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and so back up the defensive linemen. They play closer to the line ...

for the

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 ...

team and spent time with the Bears in 2004.

Personal life

Schumacher spent most of the rest of his life as a civil engineer for the City of Chicago, responsible for planning on the Deep Tunnel Project and others in the

Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRD), originally known as the Sanitary District of Chicago, is a special-purpose district chartered to operate in Cook County, Illinois, since 1889. Although its name may imply oth ...

. He also owned and operated Parkview Lanes Bowling Alley with two of his brothers, as well as a small farm in Pepin County Wisconsin.

References

External links

U.S. Army Air Corps 504th bomb group, Tinian
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schumacher, Raymond R. 1924 births 1973 deaths American civil engineers Chicago Bears players Players of American football from Illinois American football fullbacks United States Army Air Forces officers United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II 20th-century American engineers Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago people American people of German descent American Association (American football) players