In Ricky Ray’s last semester at Sacramento State, he never thought he would become a professional football player.

Ray played for the Hornets in the 1999-2000 seasons as the starting quarterback and carried the nickname “Ray Gun”. He still holds the school record with a 61.9 career completion percentage and is ranked third in touchdown passes. Now Ray plays for the Edmonton Eskimos in the Canadian Football league and has kept the same completion percentage since his time with the Hornets. He recently broke the record for the most career touchdown passes in Eskimo history.

Before the Eskimos, Ray played for the San Francisco 49ers in 2001 and also for the New York Jets in 2004.

“It’s every kids’ dream to play sports as a professional and I loved the 49ers growing up. I tried to emulate them,” Ray said.

According to Ray, none of the scouts ever approached him and he didn’t seem to care. After graduating from Sac State, he took a job with Frito Lay, but was recommended to an agent by his coach John Volek, who is now the dean of physical education and athletics director at Sierra College. His agent got a call from the 49ers when their quarterback got injured and asked him to come to the training camp in Stockton. His family watched him practice and cheered him on. To his surprise, the team gave him the position and a chance to play in the pros.

“It was great knowing that all the great 49ers like Steve Young and Joe Montana had been in that locker room,” Ray said.

This was the start of his career in professional football.

“I got my foot in the door and created more opportunities for myself,” Ray said.

After he dressed for three pre-season games as the quarterback for the 49ers, he played for the Fresno Arena Football team: Frenzy – due to the lack of playing time with the 49ers. The coach of that team became one of the coaches for the Eskimos and gave Ray the opportunity to play for them. He had never heard of the Canadian league until then and thought he should give it a try.

“It gave me more opportunities to keep playing,” Ray said.

During his first season in 2002, he led the Eskimos to the Grey Cup title. He then received an offer to play for the Jets in 2004, but decided to go back to the CFL in 2005 because he never saw playing time. In the 2005 season, the Eskimos actually won the Grey Cup.

“Being an American kid, the NFL is where the idols come from. The CFL [Canadian Football League] is like a second chance for NFL players to play and there’s still good talent here,” Ray said.

Ray was known by many for being a great leader for the Hornets and always did well thinking on his feet.

“Overall he’s been the best quarterback at Sac State and is a smart player with good instincts,” said Hornets radio sports broadcaster Steve McElroy.

Jon Osterhout, who is now the defensive line coach for the Hornets, was an offensive lineman while Ray was on the team and remembers him well.

“He’s a great quarterback to block for and is a genuine teammate. He brought a cool, calm sense to the huddles and has the structure you look for in a pro player,” Osterhout said.

Ray said he had some great memories playing for Sac State. One of his favorite memories was playing against University of California, Davis in the 1999 Causeway Classic with a huge crowd cheering them on. That was a great game for the team because that was the last time the Hornets beat Davis 48 to 27 against the Davis quarterback J.T. O’Sullivan.

“I knew they were going to beat Davis when Ricky threw a bomb to Lamont Webb for a 65-yard touchdown pass,” McElroy said.

Ray also thought it was great to play for the Hornets when Charles Roberts was there. Roberts is also in the CFL but could not be reached for an interview.

“He [Roberts] had the record for the most yards when I was there,” Ray said.

Ray still follows the Hornet football games on hornetsports.com and had some advice for the current players.

“Try to take advantage of any opportunity and knock on every door until you get your foot in the door,” Ray said.

He decided to take a job instead of pursue his football career in the beginning, but got a second chance with the tryouts. It seems like perseverance is key in his case.

“I had one chance and I stuck with it,” Ray said.

Taylor Collis can be reached at [email protected]