Ray Graves - Coaching Career

Coaching Career

Graves was retained as a volunteer coach at the University of Tennessee in 1943, but Tennessee did not field a football team that season due to World War II. Graves was hired as an assistant coach for the Volunteers in 1944, and resigned as the offensive line coach following the 1945 season to play for the Eagles again. Following his playing career, Graves was the defensive coach at Georgia Tech under head coach Bobby Dodd. Under Dodd, Graves and offensive coach Frank Broyles, the Yellow Jackets won Southeastern Conference championships in 1951 and 1952, the 1951 Orange Bowl, the 1952 Sugar Bowl and the 1952 national championship. Graves is widely credited with creating what was then known as the "monster defense"—the modern alignment of the free safety and strong safety in the defensive backfield.

In 1960 Graves was hired as head football coach of the University of Florida, replacing fellow Tennessee alumnus Bob Woodruff. He served as the Gators' head coach for ten years from 1960 to 1969. Graves led Florida to five bowl appearances and he coached several outstanding players, including quarterback and Heisman Trophy recipient Steve Spurrier (1964–1966), running back and future NFL first-round draft pick Larry Smith (1966–1968) and defensive end and NFL Hall of Fame inductee Jack Youngblood (1968–1970).

Among the many highlights of the Graves era was the 1963 Gators' 10–6 upset victory over coach Bear Bryant's 1963 Alabama Crimson Tide in Tuscaloosa. In one of the more interesting footnotes to his football legacy, Graves allowed Dr. Robert Cade, a professor in the University of Florida College of Medicine, to conduct dehydration analysis and rehydration experiments using team members which led to the formulation of Gatorade in 1965. After seeing the formula's potential in an intrasquad scrimmage, Graves asked Cade to make enough for the entire team for the next game against Louisiana State; the LSU Tigers wilted in the 102-degree game-day heat, and the Gators came from behind to win in the second half. He told his friend Kansas City Chiefs head coach Hank Stram of the drink's effectiveness, a move that eventually led to Gatorade becoming the official sports drink of the NFL.

Graves' saved the best for last. His 1969 Gators posted a 9–1–1 record, upset the Tennessee Volunteers, 14–13, in the Gator Bowl, and were ranked fourteenth in the final AP Poll. After achieving an all-time win-loss record at Florida of 70–31–4 (.686) and four final top-twenty poll rankings (1960, 1965, 1966, 1969), Graves stepped down to make room for former Gators quarterback Doug Dickey to return to his alma mater as the new head coach of the 1970 Gators. Graves remained the winningest coach in Gators football history until his former quarterback, Steve Spurrier, surpassed him in 1996.

Graves' Gators are remembered for their remarkable academic success as much as their athletic success. Ninety-three percent of his football players graduated, and more than half of the graduates ultimately earned law or medical degrees. Graves' Silver Sixties Gators remain a close-knit group, and have held an annual reunion with their coach every year since 1970.

After resigning as Florida's head football coach, Graves remained the university's athletic director until 1979, a position he had also held since becoming the football coach in 1960. His remaining tenure as athletic director was notable for the University of Florida's embrace of the challenges and opportunities in women's college sports presented by Title IX. Under Graves' guidance, Florida's women's sports program began its climb to become one of the top ten women's programs in Division I sports. After he retired as athletic director in 1979, he worked for another year as a special assistant for fund raising in the office of the university president.

Graves was inducted into the Florida Sports Hall of Fame in 1972, the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame in 1981, the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame in 1990, and the College Football Hall of Fame in 1990. When Steve Spurrier returned to Gainesville as the Gators' head coach in 1990, he created the team's new most valuable player award, the Ray Graves Trophy, with the annual recipients selected by the players themselves. The Athletic Office at the University of Florida's Ben Hill Griffin Stadium was named in honor of Graves during the 2005 Gator Football season.