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So who was Ray "Scooter" McLean?
By JIM HAGGERTY news@woburnonline.com

WOBURN - He's the answer to a lot of trivia connections, including a Woburn High School head football coaching job.

Questions arise like:

Who was the last person before Doug Flutie to drop-kick a football for a point in the National Football League?

Who was the coach just before the legendary Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi at Green Bay?

Who was one of former Woburn Athletic Director Richie Qualey's last football coaches in the 1960's?

Who coached Woburn before the legendary Paul Dorrington?

Answer, Ray "Scooter" McLean, a New Hampshire native, who managed to coach Woburn H.S. football on Saturday afternoons and then fly to Chicago to play for the Chicago Bears on Sunday - a Hurculean task considering the flying time in a DC-3 from Boston in the mid-1940s.

Flutie's kicking of a point after against the Miami Dolphins on Sunday brought the focus back on McLean, who was the last person by National Football League records to drop-kick for a point in the December 27, 1941 game just three weeks after Pearl Harbor. The Bears won the game 37-9 over the New York Giants in the NFL championship game.

The NFL and college went to a more slimmed down, passer-friendly football after 1941, as the balloon-styled pigskin went into the history books.

Over the last few days, several telephone calls have come from ardent Woburn sports fans, who had recollections of the athletic-looking McLean, who was succeeded in 1946 by another Woburn legend, coach Paul Dorrington - the last of the good ol' single wing football style of football.

McLean finished his only season with the Tanners with a 2-6-1 record in 1945 (the graduating Class of '46). The Tanners in '45 had some offensive power outages, scoring just 58 points while allowing 180. And, it was a 24-7 loss to Winchester on Thanksgiving Day. Joe Giffune captained the Woburn team and tossed the only score to John Fields in this one-sided contest.

McLean moved on to Green Bay and was the head coach in 1958. He had served as an interim coach with Hugh Devore after Gene Ronzani resigned in 1953 with two games remaining.

McLean became the fourth head coach in Packer's history in 1958 when he was promoted from an assistant's role to head coach when Lisle Blackbourn departed.

At Green Bay, McLean had no more luck than he did with Woburn High School. He finished the season 1-10-1 - a season which is still the worst in Green Bay Packer history.

As for a field goal by way of the awkward-looking drop-kick, a bit of history remains this week as the last person to kick a field goal via the drop kick, Earl "Dutch" Clark of the Detroit Lions, who still holds the field goal record after 69 years.

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