Ray Soldan

September 18, 1929 - December 1, 2020

RAY SOLDAN The final buzzer sounded for sportswriter Ray Soldan on Dec. 1, 2020. He was 91. Ray was born on Sept. 18, 1929 in Manhattan, Kan. (the stock market crash came 41 days later, so Ray may not have been responsible). And he knew by age 9 that he wanted to be a sportswriter. In 1952, he was hired over the phone by The Daily Oklahoman, and he spent the next 33 years covering games, compiling stats, ranking teams and picking All-Staters. Much of Oklahoma's high school sports history could have been lost if not for the efforts of Ray. He was at the helm of state high school basketball coverage from 1952 to 1965 and again from 1975 to 1985. He researched and compiled comprehensive records dating back to 1919 and is considered Oklahoma’s foremost historian of high school sports. Some even refer to him as the “Tsar of Oklahoma prep sports.” (NOTE: when the Daily Oklahoman converted from typewriters to computers for filing stories, Ray’s first password was “tsar”). For the 10-year span between 1965 and 1975, Ray was assigned to cover college sports. And during that time, he was one of only two sportswriters nationwide to cover the 20th century’s “Big Three” college football games — the Notre Dame and Michigan State 10-10 tie for the 1966 National Championship; Texas at Arkansas for the 1960 National Championship; and the 1971 Oklahoma vs. Nebraska “Game of the Century.” Other choice assignments during Ray’s 10 years away from from prep sports included: the 1968 Mexico City Olympics; NCAA Basketball Final Fours at Louisville, Ky., and College Park, Md. (UCLA won both); Orange and Sugar Bowl games; and a Dallas Cowboys Thanksgiving Day NFL football game. Ray would return to the preps by his own choosing in time for the start of the 1975 basketball season. Early in his career, he established the first-ever ranking system for Oklahoma High School basketball. He later established the first rating system for high school track and expanded the high school football rating system to provide public attention for more teams. Ray also selected players for All-State teams in football, basketball and baseball, and during his career he picked teams for a total of 32 All-Star games. His high school sports coverage not only recorded the history of each sport, but the added attention helped motivate Oklahoma’s young athletes to even greater achievement. Ray was named Oklahoma Sportswriter of the Year in 1959 by the National Sportscaster/Sportswriter Association - the first year the awards were given by the association. In the Sportscasters/Sportswriters Golf Tournament held in conjunction with the event Ray played as well as he ever had and finished 94th in a field of 98. He also equalled a Salisbury (N.C.) Country Club record by playing the entire 18 holes with one tee. And, in 1994, he became the first sports writer inducted into the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame. Also inducted that year were Billy Sims (OU football player and 1978 Heisman Trophy winner); Steve Largent (NFL record setter in 14 years as a Seattle Seahawks wide receiver; Danny Hodge (three-time NCAA wrestling champion and two-time Olympic medalist); and Labron Harris (Oklahoma State golf coach from 1946-73). Ray also posted a Guinness Record-like feat by covering 1,017 high school and college football games between 1953 and 1993 — that’s more than 25 games a year for 40 years. Ray traveled the world with wife LeClaire, visiting 60+ countries on six continents (Antarctica is the only one they missed). And with daughter Angela, Ray trekked through some eastern states to complete his list of visiting all 50 states. He is survived by his children Tim, Nannette, Angela and Penny, 8 grandchildren, 11 great grandchildren and a great-great grandchild. Ray took Tim, a musician, to get his first bass guitar at Uncle Sam’s Pawn Shop on New Years Eve. He took Nannette, a music and dance teacher, to her first national twirling competition in Kansas. For the last nine years, he travelled and lived with Angela, who called him her “best bud.” And Penny followed in her dad’s footsteps as a sportswriter for The Oklahoman from 1988-1999. Ray was preceded in death by wife LeClaire (who ran LeClaire’s Dance Studio for 50 years) and brother Les. Other honors Ray earned: — 1966, 1988, 2020: Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association (Special Recognition) — he received the 2020 plaque on March 7 in between games at the small school state basketball tournament at State Fair Arena — 1976: Oklahoma Coaches Association Hall of Fame (special recognition) — 1985: Oklahoma Basketball Coaches Asscoiation’s first “Ray Soldan Award” (presented annually to a member of the media) — 1987: National High School Athletic Association (National Distinguished Service Award) — 1988: Lindsay All-Girls Basketball Tournament Hall of Fame — 1988: National Football Foundation Hall of Fame, Oklahoma Chapter (contribution to Amateur Football Award) — 1992: Oklahoma Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (Distinguished Service Award) — 2003: Oklahoma Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame — 2009: Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame Career Data — 1951: Graduated from the University of Kansas (William Allen White School of Journalism) — 1951-52: Nine months as Wire Editor at Beatrice (Neb.) Daily Sun — 1952: Six months as Sports Editor at Lawton Morning Sun — 1952 to 1985: Thirty-three years as Sports Reporter at The Daily Oklahoman (officially retired Dec. 31, 1985, but served as a special correspondent for two decades after that) Early Years: — In 1947 as a Salina High School senior, named to Top 10 in the National Quill and Scroll Spring contest (winning sports writing entry was titled, “Do Nicknames Signify Anything?”) — Sports Editor of the weekly Salina High News his senior year — Sports Editor of the Daily Kansan (5-times-a-week campus newspaper at the University of Kansas) his junior and senior year at KU — Sports Editor of the KU yearbook, the Jayhawker, his senior year — Hired by telephone to join The Daily Oklahoman sports staff — First writing assignment for The Daily Oklahoman was the OKC Kennel Club all-breed dog show at Stockyards Coliseum — On Nov. 29, 1952, Daily Oklahoman desk chief Frank Reece suggested Ray cover the boys basketball season opener between Northeast and Tulsa Rogers. After that, he was named the “Prep Parade” columnist for the Oklahoman. — Met his wife of 48 years, LeClaire, on a blind date set up by the wife of Sand Springs Football Coach Charles Prigmore. He took her to the 1960 Sand Springs vs. Tulsa Webster football game. Sportswriter Years: — Interviewed almost every sports figure in recent history, including extensive one-on-one conversations with Mickey Mantle, Billie Jean King and O.J. Simpson. — During the 1970 season, Ray led the weekly college football predictions contest by the Oklahoman/Times sports staff with a .750 percentage (picked 177 games correctly and 59 wrong). -- In 1974, the Oklahoma State Senate Resolution 114 commended Ray for providing “a valuable service by acquainting his fellow Oklahomans with the achievements of our native athletes,” said Sen. James F. Howell (D-Midwest City). -- Manager, coach, statistician and public relations man for The Daily Oklahoman’s softball team playing in the City Softball League in the 1970s and 1980s. The team finished first in the Fall League and second in the Spring League in 1980. Team members, who called Ray “Skipper,” included Skip Bayless, Ed Kelley, George Tomek, Lynn Garland, Bob Colon and Dean Bailey. — One of the Founding Fathers of the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame. Others were Mick Cornett, Abe Lemons, Stanley Draper Jr., Allie Reynolds, Volney Meece, Glenn Dobbs and Jim Lassiter. — If you saw Ray at a sporting event, he was more than likely covering it. The last football game he went to that he did not cover was the 1976 OU-OSU game (he was on his way to Ardmore to cover a night game between Langston and Southeastern State. — Attended every Oklahoma high school basketball state tournament in some officially capacity from 1953 to 2009.