The Trigg County High School Athletic Hall of Fame inducted its 13th class on Saturday. This year’s class includes Benji Glunt (football), Ray Torian (basketball/baseball), Tom Patterson (archery coach), and the 1999 girls’ region championship golf team.
Ray was a multi-sport athlete who was a definite late bloomer in both his high school and college careers.
He was a four-year starter on the baseball team at a time when the program played less than 10 games a season.
Among his baseball highlights were a shutout win as a freshman and getting the starting nod in the district tournament opener in both his junior and senior seasons.
Ray also played for the Wildcat basketball team as a junior and senior.
As a senior, he was the team’s second-leading scorer at 15 points a game. He was named to the All-5th District Team and the All-Second Region Tournament Team after a 21-point, 11-rebound performance against Christian County in the region opener.
Three years out of high school, Ray attended a tryout conducted by the Montreal Expos in Madisonville and attended their summer camp in Florida where he played for two months against several future Major Leaguers.
The following year, he was recruited by Cumberland Junior College (now Cumberland University) in Lebanon, Tennessee.
The 6-3 submarine-throwing Torian, who featured a fastball in the low 90s, played for Cumberland in 1980 when the Bulldogs were the No. 1 ranked team in the National Junior College Athletic Association. Ray pitched a one-hitter against Aquinas College that season as a member of the starting rotation.
After college, Ray entered the U.S. Army where he served his country for 30 years, retiring as a Sgt. First Class. He spent most of his time stationed at Fort Hood, Texas, and served in Germany and Korea as well as in Iraq during Operation Desert Storm.
While in the Army, he also won several national over-40 and 50 softball championships.
Ray currently lives in Hopkinsville.
You can listen to some of Ray’s acceptance speech here.
