Place of birth Mendota, Illinois Name Ray Jauch CFL status International Role American football player | College Iowa Education University of Iowa AFL draft 1960 / Round: 1 Positions Running back | |
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Date of birth (1938-02-11) February 11, 1938 (age 77) 1977 Edmonton Eskimos (Director of Football Operations) | ||
Ray Jauch (born February 11, 1938) is a former coach in the Canadian Football League, USFL, and the Arena Football League. He won 127 regular season games in the CFL, the sixth highest win total by a head coach in the league's history.
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Early life
A star high school athlete, Jauch played running back for the 1958 National Champion University of Iowa Hawkeyes, leading the nation in yards per carry. He played in the 1959 Rose Bowl against California. Despite being drafted by the Buffalo Bills in the 1960 American Football League Draft, he went to Winnipeg to launch his pro career in the CFL. His career came to an abrupt halt when he suffered a torn Achilles tendon in the 49th Grey Cup. A year later, Jauch entered coaching and in 1964 returned to Iowa as an assistant on Jerry Burns' staff. Two years later, it was back to Canada where Jauch accepted a position on Neill Armstrong's Edmonton Eskimos staff. When Armstrong left in 1970 to join Bud Grant in Minnesota, Jauch was elevated to head coach.
Coaching
Jauch coached football in the CFL from 1970-1982. He coached the Edmonton Eskimos from 1970-76. He had a 64-43-4 record, appearing in three Grey Cups, winning in 1975 and won the Annis Stukus Trophy for coach of the year in 1970. He stepped down as head coach following the 1976 season to become director of football operations.
From 1978-82 as coach of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, Jauch had a 45-35 record and was coach of the year in 1980.
After the 1982 season, Jauch returned to the U.S. as coach of the USFL's Washington Federals. In the Federals expansion season, the team had a 4-14 record. Jauch was fired after the first game of the 1984 season, a 53-14 loss to the expansion Jacksonville Bulls. Offensive coordinator Dick Bielski replaced Jauch for the final 17 games.
In 1986 and 1987, Jauch coached the Washington-Lee Generals Virginia High School league [VHSL] team in Arlington, Virginia. He was assisted by ex-U.VA RB David Hall, who played one year for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
In 1987 Jauch was hired to coach the Chicago Bruisers of the new Arena Football League. His team, which include future NFL head coach Sean Payton, finished with a 2-4 record.
After being fired by the Bruisers, Jauch served as the head coach of Madison High School (1988) and Saint Ambrose University (1990) and the Arena Football League's director of operations (1989) before returning to the CFL as the offensive coordinator of the Saskatchewan Roughriders. He served as acting head coach for two games while Don Matthews was in the hospital following emergency appendectomy. In 1994, he was promoted to head coach. In his two seasons as Roughriders head coach, he had an 18-20 record.
In 1996, he coached the AFL's Minnesota Fighting Pike to a 4-10 record. One of his "finds" was signing a college free agent in West Virginia kicker Mike Vanderjagt. He released Vanderjagt after just two games.
His sons Jim Jauch (currently a College Scout for the San Diego Chargers) and Joey Jauch (now most famous for being the regional director of production for J. G. Wentworth Home Lending LLC) both played college football at the University of North Carolina and are themselves former CFL players. A third son, Jeff Jauch, is the owner of the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders of the United States Hockey League.
Jauch is currently the defensive coordinator for Metrolina Christian Academy.