Throughout the course of the 2008-2009 academic year, we will seek to recognize some of the great names of the past to highlight the heritage of the North Carolina High School Athletic Association in honor of the Association’s 95th anniversary. In this edition we are pleased to recognize Ray Oxendine of Pembroke.

Ray has been an athlete, teacher/coach and administrator during his years of involvement with the NCHSAA.

A graduate of Pembroke High School, Ray went on to Catawba College where he captained both the football and baseball teams, graduating in 1962. He taught and coached at Greensboro Grimsley and then did the same thing at the college level for a decade at Catawba, where he was the Carolinas Conference baseball coach of the year twice.

He wound up serving as principal at a number of NCHSAA member schools, including East Montgomery, West Montgomery, Purnell Swett, South Robeson and Scotland. And besides his involvement with the NCHSAA in that capacity, he continued to work during his career as an outstanding baseball umpire, working a number of state championship series.

Oxendine is a member of both the North Carolina American Legion Baseball Hall of Fame and the Catawba College Sports Hall of Fame. Ray was inducted into the NCHSAA Hall of Fame in 2002.