View source for Rube McCray

{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2024}}
{{Infobox college coach
| name = Rube McCray
| image = RubeMcCray.png
| alt = 
| caption = McCray pictured in ''Colonial Echo 1947'', William & Mary yearbook
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1904|6|13}}
| birth_place = [[Greeneville, Tennessee]], U.S.
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1972|11|20|1904|6|13}}
| death_place = [[Lake Waccamaw, North Carolina]], U.S.
| alma_mater = 
| player_years1 = 1926–1930
| player_team1 = [[Kentucky Wesleyan Panthers|Kentucky Wesleyan]] (football, basketball, baseball)
| coach_sport1 = Football
| coach_years2 = 1931–1938
| coach_team2 = [[Tennessee Wesleyan Bulldogs football|Tennessee Wesleyan]]
| coach_years3 = 1939–1943
| coach_team3 = [[William & Mary Tribe football|William & Mary]] (assistant)
| coach_years4 = 1944–1950
| coach_team4 = William & Mary
| coach_sport5 = Basketball
| coach_years6 = 1931–1939
| coach_team6 = [[Tennessee Wesleyan Bulldogs men's basketball|Tennessee Wesleyan]]
| coach_years7 = 1939–1943
| coach_team7 = [[William & Mary Tribe men's basketball|William & Mary]] (assistant)
| coach_years8 = 1943–1945
| coach_team8 = William & Mary
| coach_sport9 = Baseball
| coach_years10 = 1939–1941
| coach_team10 = [[William & Mary Tribe baseball|William & Mary]]
| admin_years1 = 1944–1951
| admin_team1 = [[William & Mary Tribe|William & Mary]]
| overall_record = 
| bowl_record = 1–1
| tournament_record = 
| championships = Football<br>1 [[Southern Conference|SoCon]] (1947)
| awards = 
| coaching_records = 
}}
'''Ruben North McCray''' (June 13, 1904 – November 20, 1972) was the head football, men's basketball, and baseball coach at the [[College of William & Mary]]. He also served as their [[athletic director]]. Later in life he became a community leader in [[Lake Waccamaw, North Carolina]], winning the state's top Civilian award for "outstanding service."

McCray came to William & Mary in 1939 when [[Carl Voyles]] became head football coach. McCray's primary football responsibility was recruiting and working with the freshmen. He became head football coach in 1944, serving through the 1950 season and compiling a 45–22 record. He is second all-time in school history for career coaching wins behind [[Jimmye Laycock]]. He also served as head coach for the [[William & Mary Tribe men's basketball|William & Mary's men's basketball team]] from 1943 to 1945.<ref name=MDG>[http://www.tribeathletics.com/story.php/6213/ William & Mary men's basketball history - Media Guide 2007-08] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080511145330/http://www.tribeathletics.com/story.php/6213/ |date=May 11, 2008 }}. Accessed March 24, 2008.</ref> He compiled an overall record of 17–21 (4–7 in the [[Southern Conference]]).<ref name=MDG/>

McCray's best football teams at William & Mary were in 1947 (9–2) with a trip to the [[1948 Dixie Bowl|Dixie Bowl]] in [[Birmingham, Alabama]] against [[1947 Arkansas Razorbacks football team|Arkansas]], and in 1948 (7–2–2) and another bowl trip to Memphis, Tennessee in the [[1949 Delta Bowl|Delta Bowl]] against [[1948 Oklahoma A&M Cowboys football team|Oklahoma A&M]]. The Indians lost to Arkansas 21–19, but defeated Oklahoma A&M 20–0.

Prior to coming to William & Mary he coached eight years at [[Tennessee Wesleyan College]], where his teams won six championships and once had a streak of 23 straight victories. His 1938 team won the national junior college football championship.

He resigned from his dual athletic post at William & Mary in 1951 and went into the automobile business as president and general manager of the West Point Motor Co. in West Point, Virginia. He was appointed to fill an unexpired term on the West Point town council from 1956 to 1958.

In 1958, he became director of Boys' Home of North Carolina in Lake Waccamaw and served until his death in 1972. The home served homeless and neglected youths from ages 10–19. The home became a model for such facilities around the country. In May 1972, six months before his death, McCray received the highest recognition of his life. The statewide North Carolina Civitans gave him its "Outstanding Citizen of the Year" Award, recognizing McCray's "outstanding service to youth, his years of coaching and developing character of young men, and his civic and religious activities."

Additionally in 1992, twenty years after he died, Lake Waccamaw named its new public library in his memory.

==Head coaching record==
===Football===
{{CFB Yearly Record Start | type = coach | team = | conf = | bowl = | poll = AP }}
{{CFB Yearly Record Subhead
 | name      = [[William & Mary Tribe football|William & Mary Tribe]]
 | conf      = [[Southern Conference]]
 | startyear = 1944
 | endyear   = 1950
}}
{{CFB Yearly Record Entry
 | championship = 
 | year         = [[1944 college football season|1944]]
 | name         = [[1944 William & Mary Indians football team|William & Mary]]
 | overall      = 5–2–1
 | conference   = 2–1–1
 | confstanding = 5th
 | bowlname     = 
 | bowloutcome  = 
 | bcsbowl      = 
 | ranking      = 
 | ranking2     = no
}}
{{CFB Yearly Record Entry
 | championship = 
 | year         = [[1945 college football season|1945]]
 | name         = [[1945 William & Mary Indians football team|William & Mary]]
 | overall      = 6–3
 | conference   = 4–2
 | confstanding = 3rd
 | bowlname     = 
 | bowloutcome  = 
 | bcsbowl      = 
 | ranking      = 
 | ranking2     = no
}}
{{CFB Yearly Record Entry
 | championship = 
 | year         = [[1946 college football season|1946]]
 | name         = [[1946 William & Mary Indians football team|William & Mary]]
 | overall      = 8–2
 | conference   = 7–1
 | confstanding = 2nd
 | bowlname     = 
 | bowloutcome  = 
 | bcsbowl      = 
 | ranking      = 
 | ranking2     = no
}}
{{CFB Yearly Record Entry
 | championship = conference
 | year         = [[1947 college football season|1947]]
 | name         = [[1947 William & Mary Indians football team|William & Mary]]
 | overall      = 9–2
 | conference   = 7–1
 | confstanding = 1st
 | bowlname     = [[1948 Dixie Bowl|Dixie]]
 | bowloutcome  = L
 | bcsbowl      = 
 | ranking      = 14
 | ranking2     = no
}}
{{CFB Yearly Record Entry
 | championship = 
 | year         = [[1948 college football season|1948]]
 | name         = [[1948 William & Mary Indians football team|William & Mary]]
 | overall      = 7–2–2
 | conference   = 5–1–1
 | confstanding = 4th
 | bowlname     = [[1949 Delta Bowl|Delta]]
 | bowloutcome  = W
 | bcsbowl      = 
 | ranking      = 17
 | ranking2     = no
}}
{{CFB Yearly Record Entry
 | championship = 
 | year         = [[1949 college football season|1949]]
 | name         = [[1949 William & Mary Indians football team|William & Mary]]
 | overall      = 6–4
 | conference   = 4–2
 | confstanding = T–4th
 | bowlname     = 
 | bowloutcome  = 
 | bcsbowl      = 
 | ranking      = 
 | ranking2     = no
}}
{{CFB Yearly Record Entry
 | championship = 
 | year         = [[1950 college football season|1950]]
 | name         = [[1950 William & Mary Indians football team|William & Mary]]
 | overall      = 4–7
 | conference   = 3–3
 | confstanding = T–9th
 | bowlname     = 
 | bowloutcome  = 
 | bcsbowl      = 
 | ranking      = 
 | ranking2     = no
}}
{{CFB Yearly Record Subtotal
 | name       = William & Mary
 | overall    = 45–22–3
 | confrecord = 32–11–2
}}
{{CFB Yearly Record End
 | overall  = 
 | bowls    = no
 | poll     = 
 | polltype = Rankings from final [[AP Poll]]
}}

==See also==
*[[William & Mary scandal of 1951]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* [https://www.nytimes.com/1972/11/21/archives/r-n-mcray.html Rube McCray's obituary]

{{navboxes|list=
{{Tennessee Wesleyan Bulldogs football coach navbox}}
{{William & Mary Tribe baseball coach navbox}}
{{William & Mary Tribe men's basketball coach navbox}}
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}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mccray, Rube}}
[[Category:1904 births]]
[[Category:1972 deaths]]
[[Category:American men's basketball players]]
[[Category:Baseball players from Tennessee]]
[[Category:Basketball coaches from Tennessee]]
[[Category:Basketball players from Tennessee]]
[[Category:College of William & Mary faculty]]
[[Category:College men's basketball head coaches in the United States]]
[[Category:Kentucky Wesleyan Panthers baseball players]]
[[Category:Kentucky Wesleyan Panthers football players]]
[[Category:Kentucky Wesleyan Panthers men's basketball players]]
[[Category:People from Greeneville, Tennessee]]
[[Category:Players of American football from Tennessee]]
[[Category:Tennessee Wesleyan Bulldogs football coaches]]
[[Category:Tennessee Wesleyan Bulldogs men's basketball coaches]]
[[Category:William & Mary Tribe athletic directors]]
[[Category:William & Mary Tribe baseball coaches]]
[[Category:William & Mary Tribe football coaches]]
[[Category:William & Mary Tribe men's basketball coaches]]
[[Category:20th-century American sportsmen]]


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