Faculty Feature - Dr. Ryan Gray

What do a can of corn, a battery, and a dying quail have in common? Have you ever been told you need to unhitch your trailer?  Maybe someone has thrown you a cookie. If these words make sense but the context is foreign, you’re not alone. The words and phrases have their own definitions and meanings within another language. The hidden language of baseball.

If you spend much time around A&M-Texarkana Assistant Professor of Kinesiology Dr. Ryan Gray, you’ll figure out pretty quickly that he’s a baseball guy. He played four years of college ball. He’s coached at both the high school and college levels. Ryan knows the language of baseball. He knows it so well he wrote the book on it. In fact, he’s written it twice. “The Language of Baseball” second edition is a complete dictionary of slang terms, clichés, and nicknames from America’s pastime.

Born in Southern Illinois, Dr. Gray is a lifelong St. Louis Cardinals fan. He played collegiate baseball at Southeastern Illinois College and Union University where he was a catcher.  He earned both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Union University, and earned his doctorate at Middle Tennessee State University, which is where he first coached at the collegiate level. He was the head baseball coach at Trevecca Nazarene University and Emmanual College where he was also an assistant professor, and he coached at Southeastern Illinois College, where he also served as the Athletic Director.

Dr. Gray currently teaches a number of classes in the kinesiology department at Texas A&M University-Texarkana, including Physical Activity Skills II, Sports Officiating, Sports Coaching Methodology, and Sports Injury and Protection. Prior to joining the faculty at A&M-Texarkana Dr. Gray spent eight years as an assistant and associate professor at the University of Arkansas-Monticello. Dr. Gray has been married to his wife Danica for 35 years. They have three grown daughters and one grandchild.

Fun facts about Dr. Gray:

• Favorite Baseball Team: St. Louis Cardinals
• Favorite Baseball Player: Hall of Fame catcher Ted Simmons, St. Louis Cardinals
• Best Baseball Movie: Bull Durham
• Worst Baseball Movie: Major League II
• Favorite quote from a baseball movie: Bull Durham (Skip to Larry):

Skip: “You guys, you lollygag the ball around the infield. You lollygag your way down to first. You lollygag in and out of the dugout. You know what that makes you? Larry?”
Larry: “Lollygaggers.”
Skip: “Lollygaggers.”