football team. Riddick soon built up the Lowell High Red Raider's as a nationally recognized power house. By 1949, Lowell high football was drawing crowds of 16,000 fans to watch their first undefeated Class A championship team, capped by a 55–0 thrashing of rival Lawrence. According to a The Harvard Crimson article titled "No Coach Till Early March" published February 21, 1950, there was a buzz around Harvard University that Ray would succeed Arthur Valpey as head coach, but Riddick declined saying "You can't be interested in something you don't know anything about." Lowell went undefeated for the next four years, with Julien LaCourse as quarterback, and, Lowell football continued to dominate of the Merrimack Valley Conference through the 1950s and 1960s. Ray stayed as the head coach of Lowell High School until 1976, where he brought Lowell High to three national football championship playoffs, and became known as one of the America's greatest high school football coaches. In his 28-year career, he coached 10 teams to undefeated seasons. He also coached many kids who went on to play great college and professional football, including; his son Ray Jr. who went on to play for Yale, and Menil Mavraides Guard for Notre Dame and the Philadelphia Eagles. In 1976, Riddick died at the age of 58. Honors In 1977, Fordham University inducted Riddick into its Hall of Fame for Football. In 1986 Lowell High School opened the Raymond E. Riddick Field House in his honor, the same year he was inducted into the Lowell High School Athletic Hall of Fame. Many of Riddick's personal papers, photographs, scrapbooks, and playbook are stored in the Riddick Collection housed by the University of Lowell's Special Collections References 1917 births 1976 deaths American football ends Fordham Rams football players Green Bay Packers players Saint Mary's Pre-Flight Air Devils football players High school football coaches in Massachusetts Sportspeople from Lowell, Massachusetts Players of American football from Massachusetts United States Navy personnel of World War II