UNCP honors No. 13, Ray Brayboy

PEMBROKE — The stories recalled on Saturday told the tale of a very effective leadoff hitter, a consummate leader and a man of high character who went on to enjoy a successful four-decade career in public education. The payoff came in the form of a long-awaited honor, as UNC Pembroke retired the No. 13 baseball jersey of Ray Brayboy, who starred on the diamond for the Braves from 1965-69.

“Baseball was my passion, and I consider myself to be awfully skilled out here along the way, but I owe a lot of stuff, and again this is kind of reflecting things, but I’m just so grateful and humbled at the support that I had from mentors along the way that really made a difference in my life,” Brayboy told The Robesonian after Saturday’s ceremony. “I had an accomplished career, but baseball being a team sport like it is, you just have to depend on each other and then go up there and seize the opportunity and have at it.”

Brayboy becomes the fifth UNCP baseball player to have his jersey retired (fourth from the 1969 Braves, a team with nine school Hall of Famers) and just the eighth such athlete at the school in any sport. Saturday’s ceremony marked the first jersey retirement at UNCP in about 40 years.

“When you look at a retired uniform, a uniform no longer in service and a number no longer to be worn, you’re talking about 3% of 3%, fractional, minuscule, unbelievable accomplishments,” UNCP Athletic Director Dick Christy said. “That is fitting to the uniqueness of your skill set, Ray.”

Brayboy was remembered as a strong hitter who helped set the table for the potent offense that the 1969 team exhibited, hitting .390 in his senior season.

“That (.390) batting average, you’re talking about, if you go to bat 10 times, you get four hits,” said Ronnie Chavis, a teammate. “Today, they’re giving people millions of dollars for getting two hits out of 10. Ray would’ve probably been a millionaire, because he’s getting four out of 10.”

“I always considered a pitcher at very much of a disadvantage when I stepped up to the plate,” Brayboy said. “That’s cocky, but that’s just the way it works.”

He was also remembered as a hard-nosed player who never took a play off.

“He had a high batting average, great defensive ballplayer, and he just had that vitality and vigor about him and really played hard,” said Tim Brayboy, Ray’s brother who is also a UNCP Hall of Famer himself; all four Brayboy brothers played baseball at UNCP. “At the end of each game you’d see him coming off the field with his uniform wet with sweat, just hanging on to his body, with grass stains and mud on his uniform from where he was playing and diving and sliding and every once in a while, there’d be a red stain down the side of his leg where he’d been sliding.”

As each speaker at Saturday’s ceremony came to the podium, he was remembered most as a leader, both on and off the diamond. That included non-baseball roles in UNCP student government and as a writer for the Pine Needle student newspaper.

“The thing that really amazed me was watching Ray every day,” Chavis said. “He never changed, he was always the same. He wasn’t a rah-rah guy and get in your face and all that stuff, but you watch what Ray Brayboy did on the field, how he did calisthenics, during practice he was always killing himself, never slowing down. I tried to emulate him during my four years here.”

“Being in professional baseball all my life, I had an opportunity to see the best players in the world,” said teammate Preston Douglas. “I can compare those guys I played with. … All these players were really good players, but Ray stood out with his leadership, above all the rest of us. He was a role model for me, and that’s why I get emotional, because he was a positive role model for me. When my father passed away, that year in ‘69, Ray was there, as a friend. We’d go out and run three or four miles every day, cross country, and then we’d go to practice.”

Brayboy batted approximately .325 to .330 over his four-year career with the Braves, twice earning honors as an NAIA All-American. He signed professionally with the Minnesota Twins organization and played a brief stint with the class-A team in Red Springs.

He went on to earn a master’s from the University of North Carolina and a doctorate from Penn State before a long career in public education, serving as superintendent in Bladen, Wayne and Marlboro counties. Brayboy, 78, is now retired and currently resides in Pinehurst. He remains very involved in UNCP athletics.

“Once they moved to Pinehurst, he’s been a lot more engaged, particularly on supporting other Hall of Fame nominations and making sure that records that maybe the university didn’t have, helping to cull some of that, both him and Tim (Brayboy) have done a great job of that,” Christy said.

Brayboy, a 1975 Pembroke High graduate, became the first Lumbee with a retired jersey in the UNCP baseball program, a point not taken lightly by Brayboy or many of the other speakers at Saturday’s ceremony. Tribal Chairman John Lowery presented Brayboy with eagle feathers, a sign of high honor in American Indian culture.

“Chairman (John Lowery), I want you to know, this award is dedicated to our people,” Brayboy said. “Make no bones about it, and I want you to, if you will, very honorably, and I’m addressing you as such, I want you to spread the word far and wide this this award is for my people.”

That extended to Kelvin Sampson, the University of Houston basketball coach who sent a congratulatory video message to be played Saturday, just hours before he led the Cougars to a comeback win over Duke to reach the national championship game for the first time in his coaching career.

“Congratulations to one of the great Lumbee legends from Pembroke, North Carolina, our very own, Dr. Ray Brayboy. No. 13, Pembroke State College, helmet with no flaps. An inspiration to the generation that I came up in. Everybody wanted to be like Ray Brayboy,” said Sampson, who Brayboy coached at Pembroke High School in the 1970s. “The lessons that my mother and father taught me were very much the same lessons that the entire Brayboy family represented. Being a good person, being nice to others and honor your elders. There’s nobody that I think represented athletics for the Lumbee people at that university better than Dr. Brayboy.”

Chancellor Robin Cummings, who was in San Antonio to cheer on Sampson in the Final Four, also sent a video message to congratulate Brayboy.

“Ray’s journey is one of excellence, it’s one of perseverance and leadership,” Cummings said. “He no doubt has inspired countless individuals throughout his life, serving as a role model for future generations of students and student-athletes. Ray, your legacy is a vital part of our university’s history. On behalf of Brave Nation, congratulations on this milestone achievement, thank you for being an inspiration, thank you for your unwavering leadership and thank you for your lifelong dedication to excellence.”

Saturday’s ceremony included the announcement of the establishment of the Dr. L. Ray Brayboy No. 13 Baseball Endowed Scholarship, funded by donations from the Brayboy family.

“Daddy built a tradition, one of high expectations and resilience, faithfulness and an unshakable belief in the power of hard work and family,” his daughter Shannon Brayboy said. “Through this scholarship, that tradition will live on, supporting student-athletes who will walk the same campus and play on the same field where he made history.”

Brayboy says he doesn’t remember how he came to wear jersey No. 13 but that he modeled his game after baseball icon Roberto Clemente. Brayboy’s jersey retirement is the first since UNCP’s Hall of Fame committee took responsibility for jersey retirements in 2019. The committee’s approval was unanimous last year after going through the vetting process.

“This process has been one of just unbelievable, synergy, good will and everything that goes with that, so I want to thank you for that,” Brayboy said.

While Saturday’s event could not be held as part of a baseball game at Sammy Cox Field, where renovations remain ongoing, the Brayboy family and athletic officials walked the facility following the ceremony, and the signage commemorating Brayboy’s No. 13 was unveiled.

“Obviously we wish that the ballpark was open for kind of the synergy of that, but in some ways it’s fitting, getting the signage and getting the finishing touches on it, knowing the legacy the guys will stand on,” Christy said. “Getting these things out, getting it public, so as they come into a new facility and head into our future, they know who built it.”