Ray Van Orman

Ray Van Orman (January 25, 1884 – May 24, 1954) was an American veterinarian and college football and lacrosse coach. He served as the head lacrosse and football coach at Johns Hopkins University, from 1920 to 1935 and 1926 to 1935 respectively, and the head lacrosse coach at Cornell University from 1940 to 1949. Van Orman was inducted into the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 1992.

Early life Van Orman attended Ithaca High School in upstate New York, where he played football and was a team captain. He attended college at Cornell University, where he continued his football career as an end under head coach Glenn "Pop" Warner from 1904 to 1906. During his freshman year in 1904, he was elected class president. He later returned to the school and graduated with a doctorate of veterinary medicine in 1908.

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 at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. Van Orman worked in those roles through 1935. As a head football coach, he compiled a 60–64–7 record. Despite never having seen a game of lacrosse before, he became the coach of the Johns Hopkins team in 1926. 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. but that ultimately fell through. The following year, he returned to Cornell as an assistant football coach.

Van Orman died of a heart attack on May 24, 1954, in Ithaca, New York, at the age of 71. The Cornell University Athletic Hall of Fame posthumously inducted him in 1982. He was inducted into the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame as a player in 1992.