Living a purpose driven life
Back in the mid to late 60’s, it was hard to imagine a young football player, living two blocks away from Roger Bacon High School, in the shadows of Bron Bacevich Stadium, seriously considering St. Xavier High School. But then there was Ray Watkins.
A newly inducted member of St. Xavier’s 2022 Athletic Hall of Fame, Ray took some time to sit down with the St. X FAM to discuss the St. Xavier journey that started almost 60 years ago.
Raymon L. Watkins was born in the West End of Cincinnati, Ohio near John Street in 1950. He eventually moved to Avondale his freshman year of high school, went to St. Xavier where he played football and ran track, graduated and moved on to the University of Dayton where he continued his academic and athletic career on a football scholarship. After graduation, he had two children, Rana (Watkins) Hoffbauer and Josh '98, and initially worked in retail management then transitioned to a long career in management at General Electric. While there, he met and married his wife of 32 years, Rachel. That would be the abridged version of a life well lived, or, in Ray’s own words, “the way a man lives a purpose driven life.” In Ray’s world, “that’s the question I ask when I reflect on life.” However, as with most stories, the abridged version never does justice.
During our brief time together, Ray reflected on his younger days when he argued that he would have “put money on Roger Bacon beating the University of Cincinnati in football” back in those days and can still “remember hearing the fans cheering on Roger Bacon on Friday evenings.” So how does a young kid from the West End find his way to 600 West North Bend Road?
Ray’s oldest brother, William was the valedictorian of his senior class at St. Martin De Porres in 1964. Unfortunately, that was the same year the school closed and converted into a recreation center. As a result, several De Porres students ended up transferring to St. Xavier. Ray’s other brother, Larry, graduated from St. Xavier two years later in 1966. So, in many ways, the table had been set for Ray, but it took a friend of Larry’s, Michael Walker (one of the first African Americans to graduate from St. Xavier along with Phil Cox) to convince Larry. Larry convinced Ray. A smile crossed Ray’s face when he reflected on Michael’s comment that “St. X had more holidays that gave the students days off” being one of the selling points for Larry. Ray, like Michael Walker and Phil Cox, were a few of the pioneers, the difference makers, that led to social change and acceptance chronicled in X-Changes. 50 years of Racial Diversity-St. Xavier High School.
So, Ray left a place he knew very well, with one of the legendary coaches in the game of high school football (Bron Bacevich) to attend St. Xavier High School. He went on to play football and run track, but every year he found himself asking his mother if he could transfer to Roger Bacon. Every year she would say no until his senior year, when he quit asking, she, ironically, asked him if he wanted to transfer to Roger Bacon. As Ray thoughtfully stated, “I look back and realize how much input she had in keeping me at St. X knowing it was the right decision.” The tuition was roughly $300 a year and Ray worked a number of different jobs to help pay during his high school years. Strangely enough, his first love in sports was baseball and he would hone his catching skills retrieving golf balls at a local park when he was ten years old. He also worked a paper route from the 6th through 10th grade in the area now occupied by FC Cincinnati’s TQL Stadium. He gave the money he earned throughout his high school years to his parents to help pay the tuition.
Ray’s journey through St. Xavier was anything but easy. He found it “very tough and challenging.” The academic load was “demanding and adjusting to studying three hours a night after practice, work and an hour bus ride home was a struggle. Yet, St. X knew exactly what kids needed to know to be successful at the next level.” Ray played four years of football for Bomber legend, Coach Tom Ballaban, and reflected on those days mentioning “a coach and player need to understand one another, and we learned to trust one another.” The '67 season ended 5-5, but Ray felt that season provided the junior class with a lot of playing time when he mentioned, “the following year the '68 team won the title. They received a lot of experience with the '67 seniors.” Sometimes purpose is simply a matter of perspective.
During Ray’s playing career, he started on the varsity football team for two seasons (1966 and 1967), earned WSAI Radio’s Back of the Week for his performance in St. X’s 19 to 7 victory over Covington Holmes (177 rushing yards), and during the 1967 season was the team’s leading rusher, receiver and scorer, voted most valuable player by his teammates, was selected first team All-GCL and first team All-City as well as honorable mention All-Southwest Ohio. Quite a resume, but when asked what he remembered most about his playing career, Ray talked about being called up to the varsity during his sophomore year. Although he was “surprised when Coach Ballaban actually called me up,” to Ray, it wasn’t about playing on the varsity as much as it was having the opportunity to not only suit up for the varsity, but also to line up in the backfield, for one play, with his older brother, Larry. Relational memories carry so much more weight than that of single trophy. Again, perspective is everything.
After graduation, Ray travelled north up interstate 75 to attend the University of Dayton on a football scholarship. The Dayton coach at the time was the legendary John McVay, who went on to great success in the NFL, particularly in the San Francisco 49’ers front office during their Super Bowl seasons. A two-year letterman in football, Ray “loved” his Dayton experience even though an injury cut his senior season short after the fifth game of the year.
After graduating from Dayton, he went into a management trainee program with Sears and Roebuck, moved on to management in Radio Shack, later worked for General Electric in their Electric Division before moving on to their Financial Services Division, G.E. Capital. He retired from General Electric in 2006.
Sixteen years later, Ray was inducted into St. Xavier’s Athletic Hall of Fame. I asked Ray about his initial reaction to the phone call from President Tim Reilly '76 relaying the information that he was inducted to which Ray replied, “I’m not great, I’m just an ordinary person. I’ve never wanted to read my name on the internet, but this is for the right reasons. I was thrilled in a sense that in life, we must find our purpose. I’d like to think that I’ve lived a purpose driven life and maybe this is a part of my legacy.”
The hall of fame induction may be a part of Ray’s legacy, but it didn’t take long for me to understand the impact Ray has had on the city of Cincinnati and St. Xavier High School in particular. It didn’t take long to understand the legacy Ray leaves with his two children, Rana and Josh.
Rana graduated from Withrow High School and went on to play scholarship soccer at Marion University in Indianapolis, Indiana earning All-Academic/All-American honors. She received a BS in Accounting and Finance and an MS in Sport and Recreational Science and has spent most of her adult life working with young athletes as a coach, and, most recently, as the Founder/President of Futsal Indy Academy (Futsal is like soccer but played indoors on a hard surface with a smaller, heavier size 3-4 ball. There are no walls in play. There are four field players and a goalkeeper who protects a 6 ½ by 10-foot goal. The game teaches tremendous ball control skills and presents incredible opportunities to get numerous touches on the ball. Futsal is the game world class soccer players around the globe play to refine and maintain their ball control skills, footwork, and touch.) Rana married Michael Hoffbauer and they have three children, Robert (27), Micah (23), and Marc (16).
Josh graduated from St. Xavier in 1998 where he played football, wrestled, and ran track. Like his father, his speed and quickness gave him an opportunity to be a walk-on the track team for the Blue Devils while he earned a Duke University education. He graduated with distinction on his senior thesis with a BA in Computer Science, went into software engineering and currently lives and works in the United Kingdom. In retirement, Ray has been “enjoying life and traveling,” one of the trips being to London to help Josh get established in his new career abroad. Josh married Ola and they have two children, Aleks (14) and Ignatius (6).
Part of the Bomber Football Mission Statement reads, “keep in mind that we were not put on this earth to amuse ourselves or simply enjoy the fruits of the labors of others. We shall endeavor to be of service to our fellow man and leave the world a better place than we found it.” On Thursday, February 10th, 2022, Raymon L. Watkins was inducted into the St. Xavier Athletic Hall of Fame. He said his journey has been about living a purpose driven life, about creating a legacy. I believe he has done just that. He is leaving it better than he found it.