Raymond Robert "Gaumy" Neal was another outstanding Wingate athlete in the middle teens.

An artist's portrait of Gaumy Neal in a DePauw jacket hanging in the DePauw fieldhouse

This is a picture of the 1915 Wingate High School baseball team.  Pete Thorn is the first player on the left and Gaumy Neal is the second player on the left.  The basketball picture below is the 1915-16 team.  Pete Thorn is seated in the middle with the ball between his feet and Gaumy Neal is standing second from right.

Gaumy Neal

            Born Raymond Robert Neal in Mellott, IN, Gaumy graduated from Wingate High School in 1916.  He was an outstanding athlete and graduated in the same class with Pete Thorn.  After graduation, he and Pete went to Wabash College where Gaumy starred on the football team even though he had not had the opportunity to play in HS.  He was a four year letterman and captained the football team in his last year, 1919.  He transferred to Washington and Jefferson after his last year of football and played on the W and J team that went to the Rose Bowl and played the University of California in 1922.  There was no explanation of the fact that he played four years of football at Wabash then a year at Washington and Jefferson.  At any rate, he returned to Wabash and graduated in 1920 after lettering in basketball in 1918, 1919, and 1920.   He played professional football with the Akron Pros in 1922 and the Hammond Pros in 1924, 1925, and 1926.  He became head football coach at DePauw University in 1930 and coached until 1945 and had a career record of 79 wins, 34 losses and 7 ties. He coached a DePauw football team in 1933 that was undefeated, untied and unscored on.  The Tigers outscored their opponents 136-0 that year.

           

Gaumy Neal was inducted into the Indiana Football Hall of Fame in 1977, the Wabash College Hall of Fame in 1984, the DePauw University Hall of Fame in 1986, and the Washington and Jefferson Hall of Fame in 2002.  When Chet Elson, a four year starter in football at DPU and a member of the 1933 undefeated team was inducted into the DePauw Hall of Fame, he paid Robert Raymond Neal the ultimate compliment.  He said, “Gaumy Neal fed me when I was hungry, housed me when I had no place to live, and helped me when I had no money.”  Elson who came to DePauw with $7 in his pocket considered Neal a principal influence in his life.

                         Coach Neal is shown below diagramming a play for his DePauw football team.

Shelter house at the south edge of Wingate dedicated to the memory of Raymond Robert "Gaumy" Neal.