Ray Man, the primary punter to be elected to the Professional Soccer Corridor of Fame, died Thursday. He was 72.

The College of Southern Mississippi, the place Man starred earlier than turning into the primary punter ever taken within the first spherical of the NFL draft, stated he died following a prolonged sickness. He had been receiving care in a Hattiesburg-area hospice.

Man was drafted twenty third general by Al Davis’ Raiders in 1973 and performed his complete 14-year profession with the workforce. He was a three-time All-Professional choice. In 2014, he turned the primary participant to be inducted into the Professional Soccer Corridor of Fame completely for his punting.

“Ray Man was a soccer participant who punted,” the late John Madden stated in 2014 earlier than he offered Man for induction within the Corridor of Fame.

Man was chosen to the NFL’s seventy fifth anniversary workforce and the Seventies’ all-decade workforce. He was a three-time Tremendous Bowl champion and seven-time Professional Bowl choice.

His Tremendous Bowl wins included the 1984 sport, when the Raiders had been based mostly in Los Angeles.

Madden stated the primary time he watched Man punt in observe for the Raiders, he knew the workforce had one thing particular.

“He punted the longest, highest footballs that I had ever seen,” Madden stated then.

A local of Thomson, Ga., William Ray Man can be a member of the Faculty Soccer Soccer Corridor of Fame and the Nationwide Excessive Faculty Sports activities Corridor of Fame.

At Southern Mississippi, Man additionally performed defensive again. He nonetheless shares the college single-season report for many interceptions, with eight in 1972, and his 61-yard area objective at Utah State set an NCAA report on the time. An annual award given to the participant judged to be the nation’s high collegiate punter is known as for Man.

In 2015, Southern Miss renamed the road outdoors the Duff Athletic Middle on its campus Ray Man Method.

Man ended his NFL profession in 1986 with a streak of 619 punts with out having one blocked. Nevertheless it took practically three many years for him to be chosen to the Professional Soccer Corridor of Fame.

He was a finalist for induction seven instances beginning in 1992 with out being voted in and didn’t even make it that far on different events.

“That form of bothered me as a result of they had been saying that’s not a place, it doesn’t take an athlete to try this, it’s not essential,” Man stated earlier than his Corridor of Fame induction in 2014.

“That’s what actually acquired beneath my pores and skin. It wasn’t a lot whether or not I did or didn’t. I want any individual had. It was simply understanding that they didn’t care.

“That’s what sort of frosted me a bit bit.”

Man in some ways revolutionized the place.

His kicks went so excessive that one which hit the Superdome scoreboard 90 toes above the sector throughout a Professional Bowl sport helped put “grasp time” into the soccer vernacular. His potential to pin the opponent deep with both excessive kicks or well-positioned ones was a key a part of the success for the good Raiders groups of the Seventies and ’80s.

“It was one thing that was given to me. I don’t know the way,” he stated. “I’m actually blessed in that class. It’s one thing I actually respect and I superior it and I made it into one thing nice.”

Man’s statistics look considerably pedestrian in comparison with at present’s punters. His profession common of 42.4 yards per kick ranks 61st all time and his web common of 32.2 yards (excluding his first three seasons, when the statistic wasn’t saved by the NFL) isn’t even within the high 100.

But, he nonetheless is taken into account by many as one of the best to ever play the place.