All-Time American List: Ray Lehner
All-Time American List: Ray Lehner
Ray Lehner was the first in a long line of players who played for Jesuit of Sacramento, Cal, and the USA.
It wasn't a varsity Jesuit team when Lehner suited up, but he remains the trailblazer. A gruff, broad-shouldered prop who was described in the 2002 Sports Illustrated profile of Cal Head Coach Jack Clark as the team "loudmouth." It was intended as a compliment, and certainly Lehner was a powerful personality on the field.
A physical prop who embraced the scrum like few others, Lehner helped lead Cal to national D1 championships in 1991, 1992, and 1993, eventually captaining the Golden Bears. He was an All American and then after his time at Cal he moved on to attend Oxford University, where he studied and earned four Oxford Blues from 1997 to 2001.
By then Lehner had already been capped by the USA; following his debut against Canada in 1995, he went on to be capped 37 times. He was part of the some of the very best USA teams in that period, and never, ever took a backward step.
He embraced coaching and has coached at all levels during his post-playing career. We are judging him as a player, but his coaching history is just more evidence that Lehner was a thinking rugby player, and a very, very good one at that.
