Inducted 2010
Ron Gray has been associated with Dowling Catholic since the late 1960’s. He was a member of the first graduating class of the “new” Dowling in 1973. Other than his years in college, he has been a Dowling student, athlete or coach for the past 37 years.
As a Dowling junior in 1972, he placed 6th at 98 pounds at the State Wrestling Tournament, becoming one of the first Dowling wrestler to earn place winning honors. In 1975, he placed 3rd at the NJCAA National Tournament, achieving All-American status, a first for a Dowling wrestler. As a coach, he spent nearly 30 years with the Dowling Wrestling program, 17 as Head Coach. During his tenure, Ron led five state championship teams, one state runner-up team, nine top-ten finishes, and ten individual state champions. He coach four Dowling High School All-Americans and seven wrestlers went on to become Collegiate All-Americans. He was Conference Coach of the Year three times and compiled a career dual meet record of 229-115-5. He led the Maroons when the state dual meet record for consecutive victories of 89 wins was broken in 1989. The first 79 victories came under former Dowling coach Bob Darrah. The victory string reached 136 before being snapped. Under coaches Darrah & Gray, Dowling’s dual meet record was 210-1 from 1979-1991.
Coach Gray was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2009 and the Dowling Wrestling Hall of Fame in 1988. Numerous other awards and honors have also been bestowed upon Coach Gray. Over Coach Gray’s career, he has also coached boy’s track and girl’s golf at Dowling. Currently, he leads the Dowling boy’s golf team and has achieved continuing success. His golf teams have won six state championships and two others have been runners-up. Four individuals have been state medalists and four have been runners-up. He has led 11 top-three teams in 21 years.
When not busy with coaching and social studies duties, Coach Gray enjoys golf and fishing.
Coach Gray's connection with the Dowling Catholic program started as a prep. In 1972 he was the school's first ever place winner at the State Tournament and later was a collegiate All-American. Following college he coached 29 years at Dowling, with 12 years as an assistant and 17 years as the head coach starting in 1989. As a head coach his teams posted a dual meet record for consecutive wins at 136. His teams won two traditional state titles (1990 and 1991) and three State Dual Tem crowns (1990, 91 and 92) and as an assistant he was part of two more traditional state championship clubs and three other state dual team title bearers. He coached 86 state meet qualifiers as a head coach and the number runs to 234 when his years as an assistant are included. Forth two of his qualifiers were place winners with nine individuals winning 10 championships. Four of his wrestlers went on to be prep All-Americans and three were collegiate All-Americans.