And like many Faught Stadium spectators on Sept. 26, 2009, Ray admired how Purichia had pulled off one great play after another.
Ray was happy for his teammate, for whom he had great respect. They’d shared a lot in the football program in their two-plus years as teammates, especially the experience of being sideline backup quarterback buddies behind starter Chad Rupp.
“I remember some of Nick’s throws” in the Trine game, Ray said. “They were great plays by him.”
But Ray was dissatisfied with his own performance against the Thunder. He felt he had not risen to the occasion after coaches entrusted him enough to abandon the two-player rotation used in the first two games of the season.
Ray couldn’t help but wonder what was ahead for him. He acknowledged that he was worried at that point – about his future on the team and his aspirations to be the team’s permanent offensive leader.
“I wanted to be a team-first guy, but I also felt things (his chances to be the guy) slipping away. But Nick deserved it” – the praise, accolades and respect.
Ray said he talked to head coach Mike Leonard the night after the Trine game to hopefully get some answers about his status. He said Leonard told him Purichia would be the starter in the next game against Defiance College, an apparent move to give Nick the same chance he had given Kyle in the Trine game.
Purichia did start at quarterback against Defiance and played the whole first quarter and the early part of the second quarter.
The Grizzlies stalled on their first possession, and Defiance did no better on its first try. But on Franklin’s second offensive series, Purichia marched the Grizzlies downfield in nine plays, completing four passes, including a 15-yard touchdown strike to Mitch Deffner to put Franklin ahead, 7-0.
Franklin benefited from a 29-yard interception return for a touchdown by linebacker Joe Rush on Defiance’s next drive, putting the Grizzlies up 14-0. Defiance and Franklin did nothing on their next possessions, and Defiance was frustrated yet again on its next offensive series.
When the Grizzlies got the ball back at their 34-yard line with 48 seconds left in the first quarter, they began a six-play drive.
Purichia was quarterback for the first four plays, but after a pass completion to Adam Mellencamp for 5 yards to the Defiance 35-yard line, Purichia came off the field and Kyle Ray entered the game in his place. Purichia had opened a cut on the ring finger of his throwing hand when the hand struck the metal clip portion of a defender’s helmet chin strap on the pass to Mellencamp.
After a Nick Mongan run for 6 yards and a 19-yard Ray pass completion to Deffner, Ray went back to pass once more and threw to Sean Walton for a touchdown, putting the Grizzlies up, 21-0.
Ray was still at quarterback for the next offensive series in the quarter, completing three short passes before an incompletion on a second-and-3. But on the next play, a Ray pass was intercepted.
Defiance
scored on the drive after the interception, so when the Franklin offense
returned to the field after the Defiance kickoff with 7:32 to play, it was
Purichia behind center,
The Grizzlies picked up two first downs and were at the Defiance 29-yard line when the Yellow Jackets’ defense sacked Purichia for an 18-yard loss. A third-down incompletion forced the Grizzlies to punt.
Defiance failed to get even one first down on its next possession, so it was the Yellow Jackets’ turn to punt, and when the Franklin offense returned to the field, it was Ray playing quarterback. Ray had two completions to Mellencamp, the first for 9 yards and the second for 50 yards and a touchdown, putting Franklin ahead 28-7, which is how the half ended.
On his first turn in the third quarter, Purichia threw for a 29-yard score to Matt Zmich, while Ray connected with Deffner on a 29-yard TD on the next Franklin possession, giving Franklin a lead of 41-14.
Apparently satisfied that he’d seen enough from his two junior quarterbacks, coach Leonard sent in sophomore Nathan Ellis – the third quarterback to see time on the field in 2009 – to finish the game. There was no more scoring.
The following week at Bluffton, Ray started at quarterback and gave Franklin a 21-0 lead in the first quarter. Purichia came in for one series, leading the Grizzles on a 16-play drive that stalled at the Bluffton 12-yard line. Machy Magdalinos came in to try a 29-yard field but missed it wide right.
Ray was back in for the Grizzlies’ last two drives in the half – there was no scoring – and was at the helm for the team’s three drives in the third quarter, none of which led to any scoring.
Purichia came in with 9:08 left in the fourth quarter and led the Grizzlies on a nine-play drive that ended with a 1-yard keeper for a touchdown. In the drive, Purichia completed three of five passes and rushed four times for 34 yards, including the final touchdown. Franklin won, 28-12.
Purichia would not see action in the following week’s game against Anderson University, however. In the second half of the Bluffton game, he had suffered another shoulder injury – it was diagnosed afterward as a sprained joint between the sternum and collarbone – that was serious enough to warrant rest for at least a week if not more. Purichia said the arm was fine when he lifted it straight up, but he felt sharp pain when he tried to move it forward, a motion he would need to throw passes.
Ray started the game and threw 35 passes, completing 22 for 226 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions. But he struggled throughout the half, and when Anderson took a 17-10 lead late in the second quarter, and after three consecutive Ray-led drives mustered only a missed field goal, an interception and an unsuccessful fourth-down pass play, Leonard decided a change was in order.
With Purichia sidelined trying to heal an injured shoulder, the head coach sent in Nathan Ellis, who had come to the Grizzlies the previous season after a stellar career at Plainfield (Ind.) High School.2 Ellis had sat out the 2008 season while recovering from a serious ankle injury.
Ellis’ first on-field experience at length for Franklin was reminiscent of Purichia’s eye-opening performance just three games earlier against Trine.
With 3 minutes left in the half, Ellis marched the team downfield 63 yards in 12 plays – including five successive pass completions. On his seventh completion of the drive, he connected with Adam Mellencamp for an 8-yard touchdown which, after Machy Magdalinos’ extra-point kick, tied the score at 17 at the halfway point.
Ellis picked up in the second half where he had left off in the first. On the team’s first offensive possession, he threw a touchdown pass to Ethan Cook, putting the Grizzlies ahead, 24-17. Ellis was behind center again when Franklin took over with a short field on its next possession, and this time he needed only two plays to score. On the second play, he connected with Adam Mellencamp on a 33-yard touchdown pass, putting Franklin ahead 30-17 (the extra point kick was missed).
The
sophomore stayed in the game on the next possession as well, and more good
things happened. On the sixth play of that drive, Ellis threw to Ryan
Momberger for a 4-yard touchdown, and Franklin was ahead 37-17. There was
6:47 left in the third quarter.
Anderson finally scored again, but missed the extra point, and the teams went into the fourth quarter with Franklin leading, 37-23.
Kyle Ray returned to the game in the fourth quarter, and he led the Grizzlies into the end zone with touchdown passes at the end of two long drives, giving Franklin a 50-23 lead, and that was the score when the game ended.
Ellis agreed that his shining moments in the Anderson game were the highlights of his football career while at Franklin. He said he had come to Franklin primarily because he would be able to play both football and baseball, and he started on the baseball team all four years. A pitcher, he helped the Grizzlies’ baseball team win their first-ever postseason tournament game in his sophomore year.
In football, he would again play behind Ray and Purichia in 2010. But when it was clear that year that incoming freshman Jonny West was the team’s quarterback of the future, Ellis – reminiscent of Coty Bragdon’s solution to a quarterbacks logjam a few years earlier – asked coach Leonard if he could try out as a wide receiver his senior year, 2011. The coach happily consented. Ellis would rank third on the team in receptions in 2011, catching 22 passes for 281 yards and a touchdown.
Even though Kyle Ray racked up some good stats in the 2009 Anderson game, he still felt unsettled, especially after seeing how well Nathan Ellis had performed in that game.
In an interview back then with The Indianapolis Star in the days leading up to the next game against conference title-contending Mount St. Joseph, head coach Leonard commended his quarterbacking crew for its team-first attitude. What Leonard probably didn’t know, however, was that Kyle Ray felt he was on a short leash with his head coach and that Ray was feeling increasingly uneasy about his future with the team.
Coming into that next game, Mount St. Joseph was 6-0 (4-0 in the HCAC), while Franklin was 5-1 (3-0). Ray got the call to start at quarterback for the Grizzlies. It loomed as an opportunity to help boost his team in a big way against an important conference opponent, and perhaps to clinch his goal to be offensive leader.
But after two Ray-led offensive possessions ended in punts and the Grizzlies trailing, 7-0, Ray went to the sidelines. And for all practical purposes, his stay there became virtually permanent for the rest of 2009.
“I missed two third-down throws, and I was done,” Ray summarized. “And in the last meaningful games, I did not play.”
On the Grizzlies’ next offensive possession, Leonard sent in the previous week’s star, Nathan Ellis, at quarterback. Leonard was hoping to give Purichia another week of rest to recover from the shoulder injury. Purichia had dressed for the game – he had not done so for the Anderson contest – but he said the plan was to give his shoulder another week’s rest unless he had to come in on an emergency basis.
This time, Ellis’ magic carpet ride took off without him aboard. On his first series of downs at the helm, late in the first quarter, receiver Matt Zmich fumbled the ball after catching a 15-yard pass from Ellis on a third-down play, and the Lions recovered.
On his second offensive possession, Ellis had to feel like it was Groundhog Day – the movie. After getting a first down at Franklin’s 48-yard line, Ellis threw to Ryan Momberger, who reached the opponent’s 38-yard line when defender Erik Prosser jarred the ball loose and Lions teammate Juan Helvey recovered it.
The most damaging aspect of the turnovers was that the Lions scored immediately after taking over possession on each one – a field goal on the first, and a touchdown and extra point on the second.
The Grizzlies punted on their next possession, and on a third-and-10 play from their own 47-yard-line, Ellis threw a long pass that Lions’ defensive back Ryan Smithmeyer intercepted in the end zone and returned to the 4-yard line. The Grizzlies went into the locker room at halftime down 17-0.
After mediocre luck with Kyle Ray and Nathan Ellis at quarterback, Leonard decided things had reached emergency status. He elected to cut short Purichia’s recovery period and sent in the Trine-game hero in hopes of turning around Franklin’s fortunes.
On the team’s first possession in the third quarter, Purichia led the Grizzlies downfield to inside the 10-yard line, where the drive stalled. Machy Magdalinos came in and kicked a field goal, making the score 17-3.
Mount St. Joseph’s offense stalled on its next possession, forcing a punt, and the Grizzlies took over at their own 38-yard line. In nine plays, Purichia had the Grizzlies in the end zone, the climax coming on a 28-yard pass to Matt Zmich. After Magdalinos’ extra-point kick, the Grizzlies were within 17-10.
It was possible, at this point, that Grizzlies’ fans with good memories were thinking they were seeing Purichia directing another Trine game miracle after helping his team score 10 points in two drives.
Again, the Lions could not sustain a drive on their next possession, even though they reached Franklin’s 37-yard line. So on fourth down, the Lions tried to pin the Grizzlies deep in their own territory with a short punt, but the kick was too long, and it reached the end zone for a touchback, giving Franklin the ball at the 20-yard line.
On the first play after Franklin took over on offense, the snap from center got away from Purichia and rolled behind him into the end zone, where the Grizzlies fell on the ball, giving the Lions a safety – and a 19-10 lead near the end of the third quarter.
Lost fumbles figured into each team’s next possession, although Franklin’s fumble by Purichia was most hurtful, coming in the red zone at the 17-yard line. After another punt by the Lions, Franklin again reached the opponent’s 17-yard line. Purichia tried to score with a first-down pass into the end zone, but Smithmeyer made his second interception of the day.
Each team scored on its next possession, making the score 26-16 (Franklin failed on a two-point conversion), and that’s how the game ended, putting Mount St. Joseph in the driver’s seat for the HCAC championship.
The Lions won their last two league games and, indeed, clinched the title and earned the HCAC invitation to the Division III postseason tournament. Franklin won its last two league games, too – the “meaningful” games Ray alluded to – but not before the following week’s soul-crushing loss at Rose-Hulman – despite two Nick Purichia long runs from scrimmage.
By this time, Purichia said, the Franklin coaching staff had decided he would lead the offense the rest of the season. It was just unfortunate that he responded with a self-described poor performance – his two long runs from scrimmage notwithstanding – after that vote of confidence, reminiscent of how Ray had responded when he had been given the same vote of confidence at the start of the Trine game.
At Rose-Hulman, Purichia played quarterback all of the first three quarters and for the first possession of the fourth quarter. At that point, with the Grizzlies trailing badly, Leonard sent in Ray because Ray was better at leading the quick-huddle and hurry-up offenses. The coach was hoping Ray could get the team some quick scores and put the Grizzlies back in the game. Ray was behind center for the rest of the game, which encompassed four offensive possessions.
A devastating turn occurred near the start of the second quarter, coming right after the host school had scored a touchdown and taken a 7-0 lead. The Fighting Engineers successfully executed an onside kick and, after their offense took possession on a short field, scored again to go up 13-0.
Later in the quarter, after an offensive possession stalled, the Grizzlies’ Max Woodbury punted an impressive 61 yards, the ball reaching the end zone for a touchback. When the Engineers’ offense took over at their 20-yard line, they needed just two plays to score a touchdown.
Quarterback Derek Eitel threw to Reed Eason for a 42-yard gain, then followed that with a pass of 38 yards to Thomas Reives for the TD, and the Engineers took a 20-0 lead into the lockers at halftime.
The Grizzlies dodged what could have been a game-ending dagger at the start of the third quarter. The Engineers’ took the opening kickoff and marched 80 yards downfield in eight plays to the Franklin 15-yard line. On the ninth play, Derek Eitel completed a pass to Reed Eason at the 2-yard line. But Eason fumbled the ball, which bounced into the end zone and Franklin safety Jesse Mercer fell on it for a touchback.
The Grizzlies took over on their 20-yard line, and in four plays, Purichia had the team on the Grizzlies 42-yard line. On a first-down play from there, Purichia spotted Adam Mellencamp open after the receiver had beaten his defender on a fly pattern along the right sideline. Purichia’s throw to Mellencamp was perfect, and the receiver ran the distance for a 58-yard touchdown, making the score 20-7.
Both teams encountered frustration with their next possessions, although Franklin’s was more demoralizing.
Rose-Hulman punted after a three-and-out, and on the first play of its possession from the Franklin 31 yard-line, Purichia ran for 49 yards, giving the Grizzlies a first down at the Rose-Hulman 20-yard line. Purichia tried passes on the next three downs – all incompletions. The Grizzlies’ offense stayed on the field for fourth down, and Purichia was sacked for 7 yards and fumbled the ball. Franklin’s Taylor Paden fell on the ball, preventing a recovery and possible runback by the Engineers, but the host school took possession after the fourth-down failure.
On that possession, Rose-Hulman finished a 10-play 72-yard drive with a 4-yard touchdown run by quarterback Eitel to lead 27-7.
After the ensuing kick-off, Franklin took over at its 36-yard line, and on the very first play, Purichia faked a handoff to Nick Mongan, who was moving to his right, pulling the defensive pursuit along with him. That left a gaping hole between the left tackle and center, and Purichia sprinted through it untouched running for a career-long 64 yards, angling slightly left along the way before reaching the end zone. The score trimmed Rose-Hulman’s lead to 27-14.
On the Grizzlies’ second possession of the fourth quarter, Kyle Ray entered the game and after earning one new set of downs, Ray and the offense left the field following a fourth-down incompletion. Rose-Hulman scored on a running play on its next possession to widen its lead to 34-14.
Ray had success on his next turn on offense, leading the Grizzlies into the end zone with a 13-yard pass to Mitch Deffner on the eighth play of a 75-yard drive, Ray’s last TD pass of 2009. Franklin now trailed 34-21. But time was running out.
The Franklin defense stopped Rose-Hulman on its next offensive possession. The Engineers’ punt was downed at the Franklin 8-yard line, and Ray came back onto the field with the offense. The Engineers’ Andrew Couch intercepted Ray’s second-down pass at the 17-yard line and returned it to the 10. The host school’s offense took over possession with 2:10 left on the clock and stayed on the field for all four downs, failing to earn a first down. The Franklin offense took over at its 8-yard line with 1:11 remaining.
The Grizzlies got as far as the 38-yard line when Ray was sacked for a loss of 13 yards on a second-and-10 play. After a third-down incompletion, Ray’s fourth-down pass was intercepted by Kyle Stevens at the Franklin 47-yard line. Rose-Hulman ran out the clock and won, 37-21.
For the game, Purichia ran for 119 yards on 11 carries for a 10.8 average yardage per carry. He was, by far, the team’s leading rusher. The Grizzlies gained 193 total rushing yards; next closest to Purichia was Nick Mongan with 27 yards on four carries. Purichia also completed eight of 24 passes for 153 yards; Ray was eight of 20 for 124 yards. Purichia had one pass intercepted, Ray had two. Each also had one touchdown pass.
Franklin’s 28-21 come-from-behind victory over Manchester the following week was a game in which Leonard introduced a new offensive play the team called “The Wild Bill,” named after sophomore running back William Logan Worley, who excelled as an option quarterback for Class 5A Warren Central High School in Indianapolis before coming to Franklin.
The Wild Bill was basically what pros in the NFL refer to as a “wildcat” formation in which a non-quarterback – usually a running back – lines up behind center, most often in the shotgun formation.
Most wildcat plays are designed to give lots of options to whomever takes the center snap. Most often, they just run with the ball immediately. Shorter snap counts make the “surprise” formation more effective because it takes time away from defenses to adapt or respond to the different offensive “look.”
Unfortunately, Worley suffered a concussion in the Manchester game and did not play the remainder of 2009, effectively shelving “The Wild Bill” for the season.
Purichia played the whole Manchester game and most of the season finale, the annual battle with Hanover College for possession of the Victory Bell trophy.
The ultimate blow to Kyle Ray, as identified by both him and his mother, Karen Ray, came at the Victory Bell game. Ray said he did not play for three quarters and almost all of the fourth. Then Leonard sent Ray onto the field on Franklin’s last series of downs, well after the Grizzles had the 42-28 victory safely in hand.
“Basically he sent me in to take a knee” (to run out the clock),” Ray said, something that many quarterbacks who feel they are good enough to start a game (and Ray felt that way about himself) would find insulting.
Leonard, however, didn’t intend for the decision to be a slight. His intent, he said, was to give Ray a chance to say, years later, that he had participated in an important rivalry game given how rivalry games are a popular topic for football-player alumni to discuss years afterward.
Purichia completed 14 of 25 passes for 280 yards and two touchdowns against Hanover, while teammate Ethan Cook rushed for 142 yards on 25 carries. The biggest story of the game, however, was an accomplishment by a player on the other team.
Hanover sophomore wide receiver Daniel Passafiume caught 25 passes from Panthers quarterback C.J. Croft, besting by one reception an NCAA all-division record that had been shared by NFL Hall of Famer Jerry Rice (when playing for Mississippi Valley State) and Brown University’s Chas Gessner. As of summer 2023, those 25 receptions remain an all-level NCAA record.
Franklin linebacker Nick Cochran said the Passafiume record should not reflect adversely on the Grizzlies’ defense because Passafiume gained only 153 yards on his 25 catchers, an average of 6.12 yards per reception.
“A lot of those were on bubble passes,” short throws, Cochran said. Franklin had a significant lead most of the game, so its defense was willing to give up short completions, he said. The Grizzlies’ defense concentrated on preventing long-yardage completions.
Afterward, Cochran said, it became a running joke among team members that Franklin offensive lineman Seth Qualls, who had caught a pass for 10 yards on a lineman-eligible play in the game, had a per-catch average yardage (10 yards) greater than the 6.12 average yardage per catch by NCAA reception record-holder Passafiume.
At the end of the season, Kyle Ray was feeling miserable about how the season had gotten away from him. But he also knew that he was the only person responsible for his uneven performance.
He couldn’t stop thinking about how, just five months before, he had committed to dedicating the 2009 season to his father. And how, with the golden opportunity to start as Franklin College quarterback as early as the Trine game, he had failed to rise to the challenge.
Yes, he was miserable. And he was entertaining thoughts of quitting football altogether.
A poll of teammates interviewed for this story revealed that some didn’t notice how unhappy Ray was at the time. Among those were Nick Cochran and Luke Floyd.
“I know that if he was (feeling miserable), it probably was his mentality to hide it,” Cochran said.
“I didn’t notice it,” Floyd said. His recollection is that Purichia and Ray took the quarterback rotation in stride, “very maturely.” But he added that if either one of them did go through some down periods because of it, he could understand. “I could see how it would take a lot out of them.”
Cochran acknowledged that the process determining who would direct the offense in 2009 was different.
“Kyle was charismatic, always a smile on his face, clean cut,” Cochran said. “Nick was the guy who was a ‘by any means necessary’ guy. So in my time there, when I saw him (Purichia) running with the ball and going for it instead of falling to the ground, well, as a defensive guy, I can’t tell you how much I appreciated that.
As for the quarterback rotation used through most of the 2009 season, Cochran said he is sure coaches did that because neither quarterback could get into a rhythm for any extended period of time. But he said he felt both quarterbacks were quality offensive leaders.
Nathan Ellis said he did sense that something wasn’t right with Ray, but he thought it could be that Kyle was still struggling with the loss of his father.
In general, Ellis said, “both Kyle and Nick were supportive of each other. But they also were both competitors. They wanted to play. And both were capable of leading the team’s offensive team.”
Purichia said he definitely noticed that Kyle was not his usual self, but he said he first noticed it at the end of the season. Up until the last few games, he explained, “when both of us played, it was great” because they both were getting chances to contribute. That changed once Purichia was given full control of the team, he said.
And because there were so few games left, “I decided to keep my space. My mindset was that he’ll be that way only for a few weeks. It was the end of the season, and we knew we were not going to win the conference. My thing was just to give him space. If it had happened early in the season,” Purichia said, he might have been inclined to try a different approach, such as talking to Ray to help get him through his funk.
Coty Bragdon, who was much closer to Ray than other teammates because Kyle was his roommate on campus, said Kyle came back to Franklin College in fall 2009 thinking “he was going to be the guy (at quarterback).”
When that didn’t materialize, Ray’s disappointment seemed to have an adverse effect on his quality of play on the field and, eventually, on his emotions, Bragdon said, although Coty acknowledged, as Nick Cochran had theorized, that Ray did his best not to show it.
Plus, Bragdon said again, Ray was dealing with the loss of his father.
Bragdon said he and his roommate discussed Ray’s low spirits on a few occasions.
“I had a bird’s-eye view of how it was affecting him,” said Bragdon, shown at right in a 2008 Ralph Greenslade photo taken on annual Senior Day. “But I sensed that it was a tough subject for him to talk about.”
To underscore that his roommate’s inner torment was real, Bragdon, at one point in his interview, described the usual Kyle Ray as “hard-working, very much a joker, fun-loving, easy to talk to. Someone you could lean on in a pinch. An all-around good guy.” Many other people interviewed for this project used similar descriptions of the typical Kyle Ray they saw and knew.
At the point where the 2009 summer camp and football season was discussed, Bragdon said: “When that stuff was going down, he was not as jovial and upbeat as he usually was.”
Justin Ray said he, too, was aware that his brother was struggling in 2009. “You know, he could have been pushing too hard from an emotional standpoint because of a new life without Dad, and some of it that year could have been him pushing too hard to make Dad proud.”
When the Ray family made the trip to Hanover for the Victory Bell game in 2009, it booked a room in a hotel in nearby Madison, Ind., so that the next day, they could drive to and attend an exhibition basketball game at the University of Kentucky in Lexington. Kyle’s girlfriend, Claire Freeman, a freshman on the Butler University women’s basketball team, was to play in the game.
When Ray and his mom were alone in the motel room after the Hanover game, a game in which he was sent in to play only the last few downs, Karen said, her son broke down.
“He had these expectations to honor his dad,” she said. With the next words that came out of Kyle’s mouth in the motel room, she surmised that he was harkening back to all that his father had taught him, by word and deed, in those years when Rob would play with and coach Kyle and Justin in backyard competitions, in Bantam ball as youths, and even during the boys’ years playing interscholastic sports at Indian Creek Middle and High Schools.
“He said, ‘I won’t ever forget how I feel right now, because I am going to use this to make myself better,” she said, noting that Kyle’s quote repeated a refrain his father often used with his children to help them deal with adversity.
Another person who noticed Kyle’s change was Claire Freeman. She attended all of his football games in 2009, and she said she noticed that Rob’s death affected Kyle emotions, demeanor and his play on the football field. His play wasn’t coming close to how he had envisioned it should be to properly honor his father, she said.
She told Kyle on several occasions that his father would be more concerned about his well-being – his physical and emotional health – and not how he played on the football field, but it never seemed to register with him. She said things seemed to get worse once Nick Purichia became the starter during the season.
Claire also noticed that whatever was bothering Kyle also was beginning to test their relationship. After Franklin’s football season, which was when her basketball season at Butler got into full swing, Kyle was not attending Claire’s games regularly and he was distancing himself emotionally from her.
Like most college football teams, the Grizzlies have an annual postseason banquet and team awards program for players and coaches. The banquet is an opportunity for everyone on the team to enjoy camaraderie and to celebrate the upsides of the recent season. It also allows coaches to honor a dozen or so players whose performances stood out during the year.
Franklin College holds its annual team banquets in the Branigin Room of the Napolitan Student Center on campus (the side of the center facing Dame Mall is shown below in a 2009 Joe Konz photo). At the end of the 2009 season, the event was held on Saturday, Dec. 5.
When it was time to attend, Kyle Ray was as emotionally close to rock bottom about football as one could imagine. In his state of mind, attending a festive event after what he went through in 2009 was one of the last things he wanted to do.
Nevertheless, Kyle and his mother did go, although Kyle’s mood did not improve at any point during the event.
“It was tough, but it’s life,” said Karen Ray, who said she knew what her son was going through. “I went with him and put a smile on my face, but it was tough.”
As part of the banquet program, like he does every year, head coach Mike Leonard addressed attendees to announce team awards. Coaches decided that senior offensive lineman Seth Qualls was the Stewart “Red” Faught Most Valuable Player, the first lineman to be named such since 1958, Faught’s second year as head coach.
Among other award winners were senior outside linebacker Teddy Henkle, Mental Attitude award; split end Adam Mellencamp, the Craig Lawson Memorial Scholar Athlete award as well as Receiver of the Year award. David O’Rourke and Rex Olds were Co-Defensive Linemen of the Year; Ethan Cook the Freshman Running Back of the Year; Ross Tierney the Defensive Back of the Year and Most Improved Defensive Player of the Year; Nick Cochran, Linebacker of the Year; and Michael Spillman, Raider Force (special teams) Player of the Year.
Ray hadn’t heard his name called for any accolades at this point, and his mood sunk a little lower when Leonard next announced that the annual award for the “Most Improved Offensive Player” was going to Nick Purichia, Ray’s cohort in rotation quarterbacking.
Ray and Purichia never stopped supporting each other during the uncertain, up-and-down 2009 season. But in the heat of competition – even among teammates, and even though the on-field “rivalry” was over for the year – the announcement hit Ray like an anvil.
Years later, Ray acknowledged how petty his thought process was at the time, and he praised Nick for every break the Ritter alumnus earned in their season-long, back-and-forth journey sharing the starting quarterback job in a most peculiar way.
After announcing the award for Purichia, Leonard surprised everyone by announcing an unexpected award, one he had never issued previously. He said it was going to the player who was most inspirational to the team that season.
The recipient, he said, was Kyle Ray.
Ray had no time to process the whys and wherefores of this unexpected development. There was too much “victim mode” interference blocking his ability to conjure a sense of appreciation, a response that most people would consider normal in this situation. So when he walked up to accept the award, his face was expressionless.
“I felt (then) like it was a pity award,” he said years later. “But (today), I do appreciate coach Leonard showing me some love and honoring me in some way.”
Karen Ray used the term “stoic” to describe her son’s facial expression when the award was announced. And stoic it remained, she said, when her son walked over to accept it.
“I think he hid – we both did – our disappointment” – not about the award, but about how the season had unfolded and had ended, she said. And, in Kyle’s mind, how it had unraveled.
Almost anyone who was aware of what Ray was going through would have thought something so deeply personal as a public tribute for inspiring his teammates would be just what the doctor ordered to boost his morale.
That didn’t happen at that moment, but an on-switch of some sort did get flipped – even if only slightly – moments later.
A quick search on the Internet will show that Chiarotti also was vice president and treasurer of the board of directors of the Elba L. and Gene Portteus Branigin Foundation, which has donated millions of dollars to non-profit organizations in Johnson County.
He was a member (and founder) of several Franklin College organizations, including the Board of Trustees, the Alumni Council and the Touchdown Club, as well as some Johnson County community organizations. He was a 1993 inductee into the Franklin College Athletics Hall of Fame.
So John Chiarotti had strong ties to Franklin College and its athletics program – and to Kyle Ray’s father.
Kyle surmised that Chiarotti might have noticed the young athlete’s sullen demeanor that night. Or maybe Chiarotti was puzzled by the indifferent expression on Ray’s face when the player went up to accept the inspiration award from his head coach.
Or just maybe Chiarotti knew a lot more. Perhaps he had known for a while, via the grapevine, or because of keen observation throughout the season.
“He apparently could tell how the chaos (from the just ended season) had disappointed me,” Ray said. “He shook my hand and gave me a bro hug.”
Ray confirmed that Chiarotti also whispered something in the athlete’s ear during the embrace
Chiarotti told him: “You work your ass off and win the job next year!”
The remark got Kyle’s attention, and it perked up his spirits.
“That was a key moment in my life,” Ray said. “I needed someone in my life – someone who wasn’t family – rooting for me. It was a pivotal point for me. John is a huge part of my story.”
Six years later, in 2015, Chiarotti would be the individual most responsible for nominating Rob Ray for induction into the Franklin College Athletics Hall of Fame.
Although Chiarotti’s remark did provide a spark that Kyle Ray needed, it took another several months – well into 2010 – for the student-athlete to fully buy into what his father’s coach had exhorted.
Ray spent the offseason thinking. Much of the reflection centered on the cherished attributes of his father, attributes from which he had always wanted to draw inspiration and motivation.
He remembered how his father was someone who didn’t complain. Someone who didn’t play victim. Someone who worked hard … and, as both Kyle and his mother attested, someone who never quit.
But in the interim, Claire Freeman wasn’t going to let whatever was happening to her and Kyle's relationship
drag on much longer.
_______________________________________________________________________
Footnotes
1 - Trainers had put bandages on Purichia’s hand
multiple times the rest of the game because one bandage after another would
slip off. In fact, on the very first play after coming back in, Purichia said
the bandage fell off during the center snap, so he had to execute the handoff
awkwardly using the other hand. After the game, Purichia went to Johnson County
Memorial Hospital in Franklin and had five stitches sewn on the inside
portion of the finger.
2 - Nathan Ellis is one of 17 Indiana High School football players who share a state record for throwing the longest touchdown pass (99 yards) in a game. He connected with teammate Tyran Fakes in 2005.
Tomorrow in Chapter 14: A Quarterback's Prayer
Previously in "On Hoosier Gridirons":
Chapter 2: Mastering the Spread
Chapter 3: The Kicker With the Ever-Present Smile
Chapter 4: Like Father, Like Son
Chapter 5: Where Legends Played
Chapter 6: A Moonlight Graham Moment
Chapter 7: 'Clearly the Best' Small-School Teams in Indiana
Chapter 9: Farewell, Levi ... and Welcome, Pup!
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