{"id":1180,"date":"2024-04-06T16:08:19","date_gmt":"2024-04-06T22:08:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artofofficiating.com\/?page_id=1180"},"modified":"2024-04-29T21:58:55","modified_gmt":"2024-04-30T03:58:55","slug":"a-tribute-to-ray-lutz","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/artofofficiating.com\/a-tribute-to-ray-lutz\/","title":{"rendered":"A Tribute to Ray Lutz"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A Tribute to Ray Lutz<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
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Ray Lutz was a significant football mentor from my rookie year in 2007 until his death in December 2017. I was blessed to participate in many of his crew meetings and video reviews and enjoyed multiple personal conversations. Ray\u2019s tutelage helped establish much of my football officiating foundation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ray\u2019s \u201cForward Progress\u201d posts to the Colorado Springs Football Officials Association were the inspiration for my own \u201cReady for Play\u201d posts to my crew. The Ready for Play posts are the source for many of this website\u2019s articles.
 
Ray was a well-known sports official for over five decades. He aided in many capacities and officiated several football, basketball, and track and field contests at all levels \u2013 high school, junior college, NCAA Division I, II, and III.
 
At the high school level, Ray officiated over 2,400 varsity contests, 1,000 sub-varsity games, and nearly 500 playoff games in football and basketball. He worked six football and 12 basketball championship games and was a state meet official in track more than 20 times.
 
From 1981-1997, he was a Division I women\u2019s basketball official in the High Country Athletic Conference (HCAC), which later became today\u2019s Western Athletic Conference (WAC). He also officiated in the Colorado Athletic Conference (CAC) from 1991-1993, before the conference dissolved in 1996.

Ray served as a Division II Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) official for nearly two decades (1980-1999), and for the last four years, he was the conference\u2019s video observer. He officiated in hundreds of games including the RMAC Tournaments.
 
With over 50 years of officiating experience, his knowledge, passion, and perspective of the game became extremely valuable to newcomers and veterans alike. Since 1999, Ray spent a lot of his spare time working at summer camps for officials. His dedication to cultivating officials and his impact on sports did not go unnoticed.

Ray was inducted into the Colorado High School Activities Association (CHSAA) Hall of Fame and received the Colonel F. Don Miller Sports Service Award in 2004. The award honors people who have left a lasting contribution to Colorado Springs sports and is presented to those locally dedicated to the importance of sports in building young lives.

In 2016, Ray was one of five recipients to receive the RMAC Women\u2019s Basketball Officiating Legacy Lifetime Achievement Award. This award is presented to those who have shown passion, dedication, and steadfast allegiance to women\u2019s basketball and officiating during their lifetime.The majority of this tribute is derived from an RMAC sports article<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This picture was taken on December 7, 2017; shortly after Ray’s passing. Many of Ray\u2019s officiating brothers gathered to honor Ray and share memories of their mentor. If you want to talk about Ray’s influence on officiating and his officiating family tree, look no further than the gentleman second from the right–Greg Burks. Greg enjoyed great success as a sports official. He rose to the Division I college ranks in basketball and football and is currently the Big 12 Supervisor of Football Officials. In his officiating journey, Greg has influenced thousands of officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Here is a testimonial from Greg: \u201cRay was my first mentor and the most influential. Ray set my foundation in my approach to officiating and the things he shared with me I find myself sharing with officials at all levels. Ray’s insights and his dedication to officiating and the individual official was unmatched. I am forever grateful for having had Ray and his instruction in my officiating career.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ray and Nancy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Ray holding court as a Basketball teacher and mentor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Members of Ray\u2019s crew \u2013 2008<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Tribute to Ray Lutz Ray Lutz was a significant football mentor from my rookie year in 2007 until his death in December 2017. I was blessed to participate in many of his crew meetings and video reviews and enjoyed multiple personal conversations. Ray\u2019s tutelage helped establish much of my football officiating foundation.  Ray\u2019s \u201cForward […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"blocksy_meta":{"has_hero_section":"default","page_structure_type":"type-3","styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":6}},"featured_image_urls":{"full":"","thumbnail":"","medium":"","medium_large":"","large":"","1536x1536":"","2048x2048":""},"post_excerpt_stackable":"

A Tribute to Ray Lutz Ray Lutz was a significant football mentor from my rookie year in 2007 until his death in December 2017. I was blessed to participate in many of his crew meetings and video reviews and enjoyed multiple personal conversations. Ray\u2019s tutelage helped establish much of my football officiating foundation.  Ray\u2019s \u201cForward Progress\u201d posts to the Colorado Springs Football Officials Association were the inspiration for my own \u201cReady for Play\u201d posts to my crew. The Ready for Play posts are the source for many of this website\u2019s articles. Ray was a well-known sports official for over five decades.…<\/p>\n","category_list":"","author_info":{"name":"Paul","url":"https:\/\/artofofficiating.com\/author\/officebradtechsolutions-com\/"},"comments_num":"0 comments","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artofofficiating.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1180"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artofofficiating.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artofofficiating.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artofofficiating.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artofofficiating.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1180"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/artofofficiating.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1180\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1227,"href":"https:\/\/artofofficiating.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1180\/revisions\/1227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artofofficiating.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}