'Ruby' Ray Rex Outruns Clemson's Best

NC State vs. Clemson (1934) with Ray Rex in the backfield.
(Agromeck photo.)

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BY TIM PEELER, © 2024

Ray Rex made a split-second decision on the afternoon of Oct. 8, 1932, in the southwest endzone of NC State’s Riddick Stadium.

The burly 6-1, 210-pound fullback and defensive back with the fastest feet on campus couldn’t possibly process all the information in front of him, but he knew that the Wolfpack’s game against Clemson was tied, 0-0, and the Tigers were on the verge of taking the lead in the important Southern Conference contest.

On fourth-and-3 from the 5-yard line, Rex found himself standing between Clemson quarterback Bob Miller’s pass and Tiger receiver Henry Woodward’s hands. If there was ever a need for a big play in front of the hometown crowd of 6,500 spectators, this was it.

If he knocked it down, under football rules of the time, it would have been a touchback and the Wolfpack would take over at the 20-yard-line.

If he caught it and was tackled in the end zone, it would be a safety. Two points might just have been the difference in a game between two evenly matched opponents, coached by College Football Hall of Fame inductees John “Clipper” Smith of State and Jess Neeley of Clemson.

If the caught it and was tackled deep in his own territory, it would have been difficult for Wolfpack quarterback George McQuage and his speedy backfield to get out of such a hole on a day when McQuage did not complete a pass and the offense made only three first downs. (Clemson was hardly any better, as Miller threw 13 passes, had six intercepted, six fall incomplete and three caught for 41 yards.)

What to do?

Rex, a four-sport collegiate standout from Decatur, Illinois, who eventually played three professional sports, was quick with his feet, but he didn’t have time to fully process all of his choices. He let his instincts kick in. He grabbed the ball out of the air—the second of the six interceptions the Wolfpack had that afternoon—and took off down the sidelines.

He sidestepped Woodward and made it through a knot of wandering offensive linemen. He sprinted down the home-team sideline of Riddick’s unlit stadium, with only quarterback Miller on his heels. The two started racing at midfield, but Rex was a certified sprinter with 10-second speed in the 100-yard dash and he ran the final 25 yards completely unopposed.

“As he neared the goal line the big State fullback nonchalantly waved his right hand at the players he’d left behind him,” reported Raleigh’s News & Observer. “Perhaps he was waving at his own mates.”

Perhaps.

The home crowd of white shirts and ties in the stands went as crazy as they could at the small stadium, though they were dampened a bit by a missed extra point.

“The world loves a gambler—when he wins,” N&O sports editor Anthony McKevlin wrote after the game.

Ray Rex won 11 varsity letters in three seasons.

The Wolfpack held its 6-0 lead until nine minutes remaining in the game when Rex’s backfield running mate Mope Cumisky ran the ball in from 1-yard out, a touchdown set up by yet another Clemson interception. The game ended with a 13-0 Wolfpack victory and was an important part of the 6-1-2 overall record and 3-1-1 Southern Conference mark, which put the Wolfpack in sixth place in the unbalanced 23-team league’s final standings.

Rex’s touchdown, even today, doesn’t have an exact measurement. Newspaper accounts of the day had his return at 101 yards. NC State’s records say it was 102 yards, a mark surpassed only by Howard Turner’s 105-yard touchdown return in 1946. His hall-of-fame plaque back home says it was 103 yards.

Since 1941, however, the NCAA has limited return yardage on kickoffs, punts, interceptions, fumbles and missed field goals to 100 yards. The last length-of-the-field interception return by an NC State defender was in 2001, when freshman cornerback Marcus Hudson went 100 yards in a 55-31 victory at Duke.

That didn’t matter to Raymond Roy “Ruby” Rex, who went on to win the 1935 Alumni Athletic Award after a three-year career as running back, basketball guard, baseball outfielder and track-and-field’s shot putter, discus thrower and sprinter. He won eight varsity letters in his final two years, 11 in all. He was named to the SoCon All-Conference football team three consecutive seasons.

"He looked like what you had in mind when you said ‘athlete,’” wrote Furman Bisher of the Atlanta Journal. “He played everything that was legal on campus.”

Rex graduated with a degree in business administration, but immediately returned to the fields of competition. He played one season of professional football with the NFL’s Boston Redskins and three years of minor league baseball in Columbia, South Carolina, and Nova Scotia, Canada. He spent two years playing professional basketball in Norfolk, Virginia.

Rex’s life after sports was similarly remarkable after he returned to Illinois, where he was considered one of the finest athletes in state history. He had been all-state in football and basketball there and helped Decatur High School win its first ever state championship.

He was drafted into the United States Army’s 72^nd Signal Corps Company, beginning his overseas service in Africa before moving on to Italy.

On June 6, 1944, the 31-year-old sergeant was one of the 34,000 American men who stormed the beaches of Normandy, France, the most daring and dangerous 100-yard dash of Rex’s life.

Perhaps he looked back and waved at his mates as he scrambled up the beachhead. Then again, he might have been waving to his opponents.

Rex spent the next 14 months advancing towards Germany before being discharged from the Army in September 1945 after 27 months of intense overseas duty.

After the war, he returned to his hometown, where he served as a city electrician for a while and a patrolman in the city police department for more than two decades. He was a regular in the recreational softball leagues. After an unsuccessful run for sheriff in 1947, he was eventually elected to the position for two terms in 1970-76.

Shortly after his reelection campaign, Rex was diagnosed with colon cancer and died on March 17, 1976, at the age of 63.

He was posthumously elected into the Basketball Museum of Illinois’ Hall of Fame in 1977.