Ray Eliot
Raymond Eliot "Butch" Nusspickel was an American football and baseball player, coach, and college athletics administrator.
Early life
Eliot lettered as a guard for Illinois three times: twice for football and once for baseball.Coaching career
He served as the head football coach at Illinois College from 1934 to 1936 and at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign from 1942 to 1959, compiling a career college football record of 98–80–12. Eliot was also the head baseball coach at Illinois College from 1933 to 1937. His Illinois Fighting Illini football teams won three Big Ten Conference championships and two Rose Bowls.Notable players during Eliot's tenure included Bobby Mitchell and Ray Nitschke. Eliot stepped down in 1959 and was succeeded by Pete Elliott. Eliot, who spent almost his entire career at the University of Illinois—he was a student athlete, an assistant football coach, head football coach, associate athletic director, and finally the interim athletic director for the university—was nicknamed "Mr. Illini." He attended the University of Illinois, played as a guard on the football team in 1930 and 1931, and was a member of Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity.
Eliot was also the first head coach of the Illini hockey team in 1937.