[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 163 (Thursday, November 29, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12154-S12155]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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TRIBUTE TO HAROLD R. ``TUBBY'' RAYMOND, HEAD COACH OF THE UNIVERSITY OF 
                         DELAWARE FOOTBALL TEAM

 Mr. BIDEN. Mr. President, we in Delaware, and especially those 
of us associated with the University of Delaware, engaged in a very 
proud celebration this fall, when on November 10, Harold ``Tubby'' 
Raymond won his 300th game as head coach of the University's Fightin' 
Blue Hens football team.
  The win put Coach Raymond into some very elite company, as he became 
the ninth ranked college coach in all-time wins, fifth among active 
coaches, second among division I-AA coaches, and one of only four 
coaches in the 300-wins club to have won all of his games at one 
school.
  Coach Raymond came to the University of Delaware in 1954; to put that 
in perspective, it means that he had already been coaching at Delaware, 
as an assistant in football and head coach in baseball, for six years 
when I arrived on campus as a college freshman. With apologies to my 
New England colleagues, we stole Tubby from the University of Maine, 
where he had coached

[[Page S12155]]

with his fellow University of Michigan alumnus and later College 
Football Hall of Famer, Dave Nelson. If you've ever seen the University 
of Delaware football helmets, you know that Coaches Nelson and Raymond 
never forgot their Michigan roots.
  After serving as Dave Nelson's backfield coach for 12 years, Tubby 
Raymond took over the head coaching job in 1966, leading that first 
team to a 6-3 record and the first of three Middle Atlantic Conference 
University Division championships. In his 36-year career as Delaware's 
head coach, Tubby has gone on to win three national championships, 
including back-to-back titles in 1971 and '72, and has led Delaware to 
the national playoffs a total of 16 times, five in Division II and 11 
in Division I-AA. His teams have earned 14 Lambert Cup eastern college 
championships, and have won six Atlantic 10/Yankee Conference titles, 
five Boardwalk Bowls and nine ECAC ``Team of the Year'' Awards.
  Tubby Raymond's career record stands at 300-119-3, a winning 
percentage of .714. He is one of only two college division coaches ever 
to win consecutive American Coaches Association Coach of the Year 
Awards. He was named NCAA Division II Coach of the Year by ABC Sports 
and Chevrolet in 1979, following his third national championship 
season. He is all told, a seven-time honoree as AFCA College Division 
District II, now I-AA Region I, Coach of the Year; and he has been 
twice named as the New York Writers Association ECAC I-AA Coach of the 
Year. In 1998, Coach Raymond received the Vince Lombardi Foundation 
Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 2000, he was recognized by Sports 
Illustrated as one of Delaware's top 10 sports figures of the 20th 
Century.
  Most incredibly of all, all the records and championships and 
statistics, as phenomenal as they are, don't tell the full story of 
Tubby Raymond's stature and influence on his players, the University, 
his sport or our State as a whole. Coach Raymond is a leader far beyond 
the walls of Delaware Stadium; he is respected, admired and beloved by 
his fellow Delawareans, even those who like to call their own plays 
from the stands, and even by rival coaches and opposing players. He is 
an institution, in a word, a legend; in fact, I would say that Tubby 
Raymond defines the standard of ``living legend'' in my State.
  To top it off, Tubby is a good golfer, though like most of us not as 
good as he would like to be, and he is also an artist of considerable 
renown. One of the many ways Tubby expresses his bond to his players 
has been by painting a portrait of a senior member of the team each 
week of the season through most of his career. Other Raymond originals 
have benefited charity auctions and decorated Delaware football media 
guides. In fact, Tubby's artistic talents have attracted only slightly 
less national attention than his coaching skills; his paintings have 
been featured on Good Morning America, NBC Nightly News, Sports 
Illustrated, CNN and Fox Sports.
  To save the best for last, Tubby Raymond is a family man. He lives 
with his wife, Diane, and daughter, Michelle, and is also the proud 
father of three grown children from his first marriage to Sue Raymond, 
who died in 1990. His son, Chris, is a former coach made good as an 
officer with J.P. Morgan; his daughter, Debbie, is a psychologist; and 
his son, David, became well known himself to sports fans as the Phillie 
Phanatic, mascot of the Philadelphia Phillies, and now owns Raymond 
Entertainment.
  It is my privilege to share Delaware's pride in Harold ``Tubby'' 
Raymond with the Senate and with the Nation today. He is a legendary 
coach, an inspiring leader, a good friend and a remarkable human being, 
and to put it simply, we love him.

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