Ray Whipple

Whipple played college football for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team in Indiana. In December 1915, The Notre Dame Scholastic wrote: "The stocky little end played the style of game that the rooters like. Always ready for a hard struggle, he put forth his every effort. 'Whip' is a deadly tackler and a terror to the opposition. At the end position, he has been a most valuable adjunct to Harper's great machine . . ."^[3]

After graduating from Notre Dame, Whipple worked as a cooper at the Elgin Butter Tub Co. in Elgin, Illinois.^[4] That fall, he also played professional football for the Detroit Heralds, a team that played opponents in the Ohio State League before the formation of the National Football League. After the 1917 season, the Toledo News-Bee selected Whipple and Greasy Neale as the ends for its "All-Western Team of Professional Football Players".^[5]

In September 1920, the NFL (called the American Professional Football Association during the 1920 and 1921 seasons) was founded at a meeting in the Hupmobile auto showroom of the owner of the Canton Bulldogs.^[6] In the inaugural season of the NFL, Whipple played for the Detroit Heralds.^[1][7]

After retiring from football, Whipple had a number of different occupations. In 1930, he was living in Elgin, Illinois with his wife, Genevieve, and was working as a golf pro at the Wing Park Golf Course.^[8] In 1940, Whipple was living in Elgin, Illinois, and working as an auditor's clerk for the Illinois State Auditor.^[9] In 1942, Whipple was employed by Sanderson-Porter in Joliet, Illinois.^[10] Whipple died in December 1973 in Joliet at age 80.^[11]