Ducky Pond
 |
|
| Sport(s) | Football, baseball |
|---|---|
| Biographical details | |
| Born |
February 17, 1902 Torrington, Connecticut |
| Died | August 25, 1982 (aged 80) Torrington, Connecticut |
| Playing career | |
| Football | |
| 1922–1924 | Yale |
| Baseball | |
| 1923–1925 | Yale |
| Position(s) |
Halfback (football) Pitcher (baseball) |
| Coaching career (HC unless noted) | |
| Football | |
| 1934–1940 | Yale |
| 1941 | Bates |
| 1946–1951 | Bates |
| Head coaching record | |
| Overall | 52–55–3 |
| Bowls | 0–1 |
| Accomplishments and honors | |
| Awards | |
| All-American, 1924 | |
Raymond W. "Ducky" Pond (February 17, 1902 – August 25, 1982) was an American football and baseball player and football coach. He was the head football coach at Yale University from 1934 to 1940, and at Bates College in 1941 and from 1946 to 1951, compiling career college football record of 52–55–3. Pond's record at Yale was 30–25–2 record, including a 4–3 mark versus Harvard. He mentored two of the first three winners of the Heisman Trophy, Larry Kelley and Clint Frank. At Bates, Pond led the undefeated and untied 1946 Bobcats squad to the inaugural Glass Bowl.
Pond was a public relations executive after his career in athletics.
Pond, after attending high school in Torrington, Connecticut, his birthplace, and the Hotchkiss School, was a member of the Yale Class of 1925, and a 1924 first-team All-American at halfback. Pond starred in the 1923 edition of The Game. He was nicknamed "Ducky" by Grantland Rice for returning a fumble 63 yards that afternoon against Harvard on a field that resembled "seventeen lakes, five quagmires and a water hazard". Yale hadn't scored a touchdown versus Harvard since the end of World War I.
An uproar engulfed Pond's hiring at head football coach at Yale in 1934. Though he had been head scout and an assistant for his predecessor, Mal Stevens, who coached from 1928 to 1932, and an alumnus like every head coach before him, Time magazine reported that the "New York City alumni, who had waged a furious fight to end Yale's policy of graduate coaches and demanded a proven winner from outside" were enraged that Michigan's Harry Kipke had not been invited to coach the team. Kipke had coached Michigan to consecutive national championships in 1932 and 1933. The alumni probably desired a reversal of the program's decline versus Harvard. Yale led The Game series 22–6–5 from 1875 to 1912; however, from 1913-33, Harvard led the series 11–7–1. Pond, whose head coaching experience had been two seasons at Hotchkiss, was the last alumnus head coach of football at Yale. Reginald Root, head coach for the 1933 season and an alumnus, had a .500 record and lost to Harvard.
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