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Ray Schulte on going out on his own –
“Once I said that to myself I go ‘What am I doing? What am I doing? What am I doing?’ I was just so focused. I just said, ‘I’m going to do it.’ I had no idea that Don Mattingly was going to be the 1984 batting champion.”
A Ockershausen: This is Andy Ockershausen and this Our Town, and we have the great pleasure today to talk to the president, owner, chief medical officer, chief boss of Schulte Sports founded in New York City in 1984. Ray, welcome to our town.
Ray Schulte: It’s my pleasure to be part of Our Town.
A Ockershausen: Our Town, right Ray. You knew that.
Ray Schulte: Yes, I did.
A Ockershausen: I wish it was my town, but it’s not. It’s Our Town, everybody has it. Ray, I found out about a lot of things about you, and knowing you personally of course makes a big difference, but to find out about your early years in New York. I thought you were from up New York State but you tell me Westchester.
Ray Schulte: That’s where I was born. I was born and raised in Westchester up near Peekskill, West Point.
A Ockershausen: Big bucks.
Ray Schulte: You keep saying that.
A Ockershausen: They’re building a new bridge. Is that the Tapan Zee Bridge across the Hudson?
Ray Schulte: It’s an old bridge.
A Ockershausen: Goes over to West Point?
Ray Schulte: Close to it, yes.
A Ockershausen: It’s a big, huge bridge. It’s going to be eight lanes or something. It’s probably a public works project.
Ray Schulte: Have you ever been to West Point?
A Ockershausen: I love it. Absolutely.
Ray Schulte: It’s one of my favorite places.
A Ockershausen: We took Janice up there. My wife Janice, of course. We were guests of the Commandant of Cadets, and they were playing football. They were playing Harvard. I went to the football game and I called my friend Henry, the bookie, and said, “Henry, I’m betting. Harvard, they got the worst looking uniforms. Nothing looks alike. They’re awful. I’m betting on Army.” Harvard decimated them, beat the hell out of Army, but that’s away from West Point. Isn’t that a fabulous post, isn’t it?
Weschester, NY | SUNY Cortland State | Tampa
Ray Schulte: It’s fantastic. I was born and raise in Westchester. Then I went to school in Cortland State. That’s up near Ithaca, Cornell.
A Ockershausen: It’s SUNY?
Ray Schulte: That’s a SUNY school. Yes. Spent four years up there.
A Ockershausen: That’s close to Rochester? Cold country?
Ray Schulte: No, it’s actually in between Ithaca and Syracuse.
A Ockershausen: Oh, I see. Cold country, right?
Ray Schulte: Cold country.
A Ockershausen: The finger lakes?
Ray Schulte: Close.
A Ockershausen: What did you do in the winter in Cortland besides drink? You told me a story about the bars.
Ray Schulte: Remember, we were college kids. We spent a lot of time downtown just mingling and getting to know other people. You know how it is.
A Ockershausen: 10,000 for SUNY. They’re six campuses all over the state of New York?
Ray Schulte: Yes. I loved it. I went up there to play football and lacrosse and baseball. It was fun for me, and then I graduated there and went down to Florida in Tampa.
A Ockershausen: How do you go from Westchester … Did you go to Miami first or Tampa first?
Ray Schulte: After I graduated, my whole deal was I was going to go down and visit my brother who went to the University of South Florida, and my uncle who worked in Tampa he had just started a radio station in Tampa, WRBQ.
A Ockershausen: Is he still alive? Is the station still on the air?
Ray Schulte: Yes. It’s changed formats.
A Ockershausen: Oh, I’m sure. The whole world has changed.
Ray Schulte: It’s still down there. I went down there. My intent was just go down and visit and then go cross country. Ended up going down there, spent all my money, ended up having to get a job, but it was good. I wanted to work for my uncle but there was a nepotism clause so I couldn’t, but one of the larger ad agencies in the area said, “Hey, would you come work for us,” and I said, “Sure.”
A Ockershausen: Was it a local agency?
Ray Schulte: Yes, it was a local. It was the largest local agency in Tampa. Enslen and Hall. They did some great work. I was really fascinated.
A Ockershausen: That was your basic agency to get started.
Ray Schulte: Yes.
A Ockershausen: It was a bottom start, which is the best way to do it. You learn it, learn the business.
Ray Schulte: I spent a few years there. One day I went in to ask for a raise and the owner, who actually was a good friend of mine said, “Ray, we can’t just jump you up like that. They’ll bring somebody in from Houston, somebody else much higher up.” I said, “What do I have to do?” He goes, “You have to go out and get experience. You have to go to a larger market.” I said, “Oh, okay. Great.” I had a friend that worked on the McDonald’s account in Tampa, who had actually went down to Miami to work on Burger King. We had a conversation and he says, “Ray, come on down to Miami.” I said-
A Ockershausen: You were saying, “Well, I’m ready to go.”
Ray Schulte: I was okay with that except that I said, “I want to go to New York. I want to get the New York experience and then come back down to Tampa.” He goes, “Listen, maybe I could talk to them,” and thank God they worked out a deal where if I went down to Miami to work one year in Burger King they would take me and transfer me up to New York. I said, “All right, done.”
Back to New York | J. Walter Thompson | SSC&B
A Ockershausen: That’s a good way to get back to Westchester County, but you lived in the city. They were the “Mad Men” years, right?
Ray Schulte: I think it was just at the end of the mad men years. I went up there, and it was all about gaining experience with all the resources they had. I went and stayed for one year, but then I realized, “Hey, you know what? There’s so much to learn up here.” I was just so engaged and so involved. We had 3,000 people in our office.
A Ockershausen: At one time they were the largest agency.
Ray Schulte: J. Walter Thompson.
A Ockershausen: I remember that. Huge, worldwide.
Ray Schulte: I was enjoying myself. Long story, I ended up staying up another … Ended up staying 12 years in New York. It was a great experience for me. Then I had the opportunity, I changed agencies. I went to another agency called SSC&B Worldwide.
A Ockershausen: SSC&B, I remember that.
Ray Schulte: They were another large agency in New York, and they dealt mostly with package goods. That’s what I wanted to do. I wanted to get packaged goods experience. I worked on this one account, Carnation. They were based out of LA, we were based in New York. I dealt-
A Ockershausen: Aren’t they in Saint Louis? I thought they were the Saint Louis . . . Carnations.
Ray Schulte: No, they’re out at LA. The corporate headquarters, LA. I dealt with their brand managers.
A Ockershausen: You were getting a varied background in agency, which helped you then the next step in your career, but that was more or less an accident. Was it not?
Ray Schulte: You’re talking about from SSC&B?
A Ockershausen: Right.
Sugar Ray Leonard | Pete Maravich | Jim Kirvacs | New Beginnings
Ray Schulte: Yes. It was kind of planned. I knew what I wanted in terms of the package goods experience. What I learned there was that I was assigned an account to find somebody, a spokesperson, that would cut through the clutter, or somebody who would be recognizable, all of the above. I came to find Sugar Ray Leonard. Sugar Ray at the time, he was very popular. He was doing the 7UP commercials, and basically he was like the king of endorsements.
A Ockershausen: He was just a kid too then wasn’t he?
Ray Schulte: Yes. He was extremely popular, but I had gone and his attorney, Mike Trainer, down here in Baltimore. As an account executive, I went to them. I said, “Listen, can you give me some background information?” I got a black and white and a one page bio. I got it and the first thing I said, “Oh my gosh. This is kind of what I want to do.” It ended up that I wanted to package … You remember, this is back in the late 70’s, early 80’s. I want to package a ball player just like I do a box of hot cocoa. From the start to the finish, the whole process.
A Ockershausen: That was all your experience in agency that aided you. That correct?
Ray Schulte: Yes. At that point I knew what I wanted to do, and then I had the great fortune, through the friend of mine who’s living in Clearwater and working at Pete Maravich’s basketball camp, I got the opportunity to meet with Pete Maravich.
A Ockershausen: Pistol Pete.
Ray Schulte: Yes. The timing was good because I knew what I wanted to do. Pete and I sat down for four hours in his house and we were talking and he was more enamored with what I was saying, and I couldn’t even get him to talk because he kept asking, “What about this? What about this?” I come to find out, he said at end of the conversation he said, “I wish I had someone like you at the end of my playing career because I didn’t have a shoe contract the last five years,” and I said, “Pete that’s exactly what I want to do. I want to package you.”
A Ockershausen: A little bit of everything.
Ray Schulte: Yes. Here’s a guy that’s obviously Mr. Basketball, Mr. Entertainment, had the socks, the whole image. I said, “How come you didn’t?” He goes, “Think about where I came from. My dad, press was …” He didn’t care about these outside elements. All he cared about was the game itself. They had an attorney in Baton Rouge who basically knew nothing about off the field. You’ve heard stories about Pete taking basketballs into movie theaters. He was just so focused, and that’s all he cared-
A Ockershausen: He lived with it.
Ray Schulte: Yes. He was all basketball. I don’t know if it’d be different now. I guess in today’s world it may be a little bit different.
A Ockershausen: All about money now.
Ray Schulte: It’s all about money. He said, “I want to introduce you to somebody. There’s a synergy here.” I said, “Great.” The next morning I had breakfast with a guy name Jim Krivacs. Jim was a partner with Pete and his basketball camp in Clearwater, but he also had about 30 ball players who were A, AA, AAA. He was an upstart agent. Major league baseball, for major league baseball players. He goes, “I want you to talk to Jim and see what you guys can do to work this out.” He set it up. Next morning I had a conversation with Jim. I said, “Jim, listen. This is what I can do. I can handle all the activities off the field for you so you can concentrate just on the field, contracts, and we can provide-
A Ockershausen: Playing ability.
Ray Schulte: We can provide more expertise, more category expertise, and all that.” He got it. He got it right away. He goes, “All right.” He goes, “Go back and create a plan and bring it down here and we’ll present it to …his little company –
A Ockershausen: Were you working in New York at the time?
Ray Schulte: I was still in New York, yes. You remember back then we didn’t have the computers like we did today.
A Ockershausen: Tell me about it.
Ray Schulte: It took me six months to write a business plan because again, the information was readily available. I had to dig, and dig, and dig. I had a stack about 1,000 pages.
A Ockershausen: A handwritten job.
Ray Schulte: I went down there and made a … I got halfway through my presentation. There was six people, they said, “Okay, we’re going to fund you.” I said, “Great.” I said, “This is great.” I went back to New York. I quit my job. It was really surreal because I knew what I wanted to do, but you walk through these halls at SSC&B, and you being a media maven, you know … You look at these people and you go, “Gosh, these people, I know they’re much smarter than I am. I know they are. Why am I doing this and not them?”
A Ockershausen: They can do it themselves but they’re not smart enough.
Ray Schulte: Once I said that to myself I go, “What am I doing? What am I doing? What am I doing?” I was just so focused. I just said, “I’m going to do it.” I had no idea that Don Mattingly was going to be the 1984 batting champion.
A Ockershausen: Was he one of Krivacs people?
Ray Schulte: Yes. He was AAA at the time.
A Ockershausen: He was young, of course.
Ray Schulte: Yes. He was playing in New York. It made sense.
A Ockershausen: Oh my God, New York. When you can make it there, you can make it anywhere. That’s a lyric, isn’t it?
Ray Schulte: Donnie was one of my first clients. Harold Reynolds and Howard Johnson who played for the Mets.
A Ockershausen: You had so many good people. What did you do? You did something for the Clemente Estate.
Ray Schulte: That was later on.
A Ockershausen: That was later, right. I didn’t know about Sugar Ray Leonard until you told me. Did you know Charlie was representing him? Charlie was his flack for Mike Trainer. He did both. You know that Trainer was not is agent, he was his lawyer. Charlie worked for Trainer. We’re going to take a break here Ray, but that’s the beginning of Schulte Sports, and that’s been great. We’ll take a break here now. This is Our Town and we’re talking to a new resident of Our Town, Ray Schulte.
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Announcer: You’re listening to Our team. With Andy Ockershausen, brought to you by Best Bark Communications.
A Ockershausen: Talking to Ray Schulte, the owner of Schulte Sports and we finally got from Ray where his transition from an advertising maven to a sports representative, and he brought this to Our Town, but you made some stops along the way before you got here, Ray. You were going to represent people in sports that were involved with charities. Wasn’t that a good business, for athlete to be involved in a charity?
Don Mattingly – Manager, Miami Dolphins – Former MLB Player and Coach
Ray Schulte: Sure. Actually, part of what I do in working with athletes is looking at their strengths and their opportunities off the field, which includes endorsements, speaking engagements, but also very important are the non-profit relationships that they have or may want to have. I did get very involved with a number of them. With Mattingly in New York, we started with Paul Simon’s charity, the Children’s Health Fund.
A Ockershausen: I just read something about Paul Simon. Was he from Brooklyn, right? A local boy.
Ray Schulte: It was four of us that started that back in the early 80’s.
A Ockershausen: That must be extremely successful.
Ray Schulte: Yes. Today it’s great and they do great work. They have mobile units, medical units that go out into the areas that obviously need that help and guidance. You look at working with an athlete in all the respects, all the off the field activities.
A Ockershausen: You give them guidance and show them what works and what doesn’t work. Everything’s great with Mattingly. You still represent him in some things, but he’s moved on. That’s a lateral move from California to Florida. What a lucky guy. Is he from upstate New York too?
Ray Schulte: He’s from Indiana. Evansville, Indiana.
A Ockershausen: I’ll tell you, Miami and Los Angeles are better than Indiana.
Ray Schulte: There’s reason why these players move. He had a good situation in LA, but he thought, and I agree with him, he had a better situation in Miami because he enjoyed working with the younger players.
A Ockershausen: Miami was building.
Buck Showalter – Manager, Baltimore Orioles
Ray Schulte: He had more interaction there. Like with Buck Showalter, I started working with Buck in the early 80’s too.
A Ockershausen: Wow, where was he? Living in Arizona some place?
Ray Schulte: No. He was the third base coach for the Yankees.
A Ockershausen: Buck was?
Ray Schulte: Sure, at one time. Actually before that he was what they call-
A Ockershausen: Was he a manager before Baltimore? Out west somewhere.
Ray Schulte: If you step back and you look it from his … He was with the Yankees in their minor league system as a manger. Then they brought him up to the big league team. He was the eye in the sky, and then he was the third base coach. That’s when I started working with them.
A Ockershausen: Wow, that’s in the early age.
Ray Schulte: Yes. Then he was offered the job in Arizona.
A Ockershausen: I thought it was Arizona.
Ray Schulte: With the Diamondbacks, and he actually went out there before the team was on the field. He went out there a year before, which is really interesting because here’s a guy going to work in a suit versus a manager’s outfit for one year.
A Ockershausen: When they were building the team.
Ray Schulte: Yes. Then at that point I was still in New York and he said, “Ray, why don’t you come out and check out Arizona.” He knew I was renting in New York. He goes, “Buy a house out here. I’ll help rent it to the players and you can build some equity.” I said, “Hey, that’s a great idea.”
A Ockershausen: He lured you to Arizona.
Ray Schulte: I went out there and I started looking around. Within two days I found a house and I say, “Buck, you know what, I’m just going to move out here.”
A Ockershausen: What’s not to like?
Ray Schulte: By that time we were using computers to a degree.
A Ockershausen: You were learning in the age, the modern age. Buck, then was successful in Arizona, of course. He started the team.
Ray Schulte: He not only started the team-
A Ockershausen: Was that Colangelo? He did own the team?
Ray Schulte: Yes, but Buck was involved in everything from spring training, development, to the ballpark, to the uniforms. They asked him to do an awful lot because he had that experience.
A Ockershausen: He brought a lot of knowledge to the table. Coming out of the Yankee organization, he worked for the boss, of course. Is that where you met the lovely and talented Rebecca O’Sullivan?
Ray Schulte: A little later. Actually, from-
A Ockershausen: In Arizona?
Ray Schulte: Yes, in Arizona. I was in Arizona for about eight years. Buck had gotten fired, and he had went on to work with ESPN at the time, and then eventually he went to Texas. When he had gone, this was about 2002, I started working with Cal Ripken.
A Ockershausen: Did he connect you with Ripken, or did that happen through your agency contacts?
Cal Ripken – Former MLB player
Ray Schulte: No, I had some contacts with a guy named Ira Rainess who was actually working with Cal for a number of years. We had a relationship and he wanted to start an agency west of, what they at that time called, Tufton Sports. I knew Cal I knew him to say hello and all that, but obviously never did business with him. Make a long story short, he asked me to come out, would I come to Baltimore to work with him. Obviously he was going to get deeply involved with camps, clinics, his foundation, and minor league team and all that.
A Ockershausen: Stadium and everything. He was going places, right?
Ray Schulte: I made that decision. I said from a marketing perspective … To me, it was like the World Series, NFL, Stanley Cup, all wrapped up in one.
A Ockershausen: Cal Ripken, oh my God. That’s the mother load.
Ray Schulte: I had the opportunity to not only represent Cal, but also I was looking at taking him through his Hall of Fame induction.
A Ockershausen: I remember that. That was a huge, huge thing. For Our Town, Cal Ripken was part of us because we did the games. There was no baseball team. The Orioles were our team, and Cal was our guy. That must have been a great thing for you to take Ripken because he’s world class. It’ll never happen again. Nobody will ever break that record.
Meeting Rebecca O’Sullivan
Ray Schulte: Before the Hall of Fame induction, the couple years there, we were out on a commercial shoot in LA and that’s when I met Rebecca.
A Ockershausen: Oh, you met her in Los Angeles.
Ray Schulte: We were on a commercial shoot with Cal, and she came to visit the set and we hit it off, and then we kept in contact.
A Ockershausen: You were there on business?
Ray Schulte: I was there in business.
A Ockershausen: Did you know you’d run into Showalter back in Baltimore?
Ray Schulte: No.
A Ockershausen: Same thing comes around goes around.
Ray Schulte: I was with Cal from 2002-2009. When Buck came full circle, it felt like it.
A Ockershausen: All your buds are there. I should have said that Rebecca O’Sullivan Schulte is the President of NBC Universal Comcast Sports Network, and that’s our connection, and it’s been a great, great relationship with you, and now to find out all the things, Ray, just blows my mind. That how it happen, that you go with Buck West, and Buck comes East. You came East before Buck did, didn’t you?
Ray Schulte: I’ve got to thank you because you’re the one who actually help me get introduce to this market. When Rebecca was commuting down here . . .we lived in Baltimore she was commuting down here to Wisconsin Avenue for what, I think a year and a half, two years. Finally, we made the decision to move from Baltimore and come down here. You were so gracious because you took me under your wing and introduced me to some of your friends.
A Ockershausen: My cronies.
Ray Schulte: Your cronies.
A Ockershausen: I’m just so happy, Ray, that you’re here and you brought all these names, so important to Our Town. Again, I say Cal Ripken, to me, was a Washington ball player because we didn’t have a team, and everything he did and everything the Orioles did were very important to us. We’re so happy for that. What’s in the future for the … What is that word I’m looking for? What in your future? What do you want to do? What’s the word I’m looking for? What’s on your bucket list?
Ray Schulte: What’s on my bucket list? You mean besides this?
What’s Sports Memorabilia Got to do With It?
A Ockershausen: Yes. You’re going to continue with this. I want to ask you about the memorabilia. I was stunned by visiting you in your home to see the posters that you have. To me, they are just fabulous about the motion picture industry. That was something that you did, but in addition to that, you had a memorabilia business. You had a show, and you put on a show.
Ray Schulte: That goes back to when I was working with Cal. We were trying to maximize his being in the market place. We started a memorabilia company called Iron Clad, and then we started an auction component as well, and I got just fascinated by that. I just loved that. One of the things that, I guess, I’ve been fortunate in working with players like Mattingly, and Buck, and Dick Fosbury, and Cal, I got to really know the memorabilia side of it from a collector’s perspective. At the very beginning you collect all the small little trinkets and stuff like that, and then after a while you figure, “I don’t have a place to but this.” I made a decision earlier on that yes, I do love collecting something because I love the intrinsic memories and all that. Again, back in New York women didn’t really care for all this baseball memorabilia hanging out in the-
A Ockershausen: It didn’t mean anything.
Ray Schulte: No, but I did find out that they did love movie posters, whether it was sports or whatever related. I was intrigued too, but I started collecting movie posters.
A Ockershausen: They’re authentic.
Ray Schulte: Yes. They had some requirements, considerations too. They had to be pre 1960. They had to be in pristine condition. They had to be sports related. There you have your guideline for what you want to collect, and you go out and you go through all the contacts that you-
A Ockershausen: You weren’t collecting to resell. You were collecting for yourself?
Ray Schulte: Yes. I was just collecting because I enjoy collecting. Now, if you come into our house you’ll see that many of them are up on the walls.
A Ockershausen: You must have taught that to Eric Schuster papered his house with pictures and jerseys and so forth. Ray, how about the national convention? I attended two of your shows in Baltimore of national memorabilia. It was a fascinating experience for me.
Ray Schulte: With my background, my experience and my contacts with media and with players and all that, again, I’ve been with Mattingly for 30 years now, Buck for 25 years. I don’t have, I guess, the desire to go back into more players. What I’ve done is I’ve taken all my contacts, my networking and I’ve gone more into a public relations, marketing-
A Ockershausen: A PR business.
Ray Schulte: Yes. With the National Sports Collectors Convention, it’s an annual event. It’s a multimillion dollar business.
A Ockershausen: It’s huge.
Ray Schulte: It’s huge. Over 100 players come to sign, 800 booths and all that. It’s once a year. This year is in Atlantic City. I handle all the marketing, PR, media, buying, and all that.
A Ockershausen: You’ve had them in Baltimore and the Midwest. We’re going to take another break here. We’re talking to Ray Schulte, and this is Our Town.
[Commercial]This is Andy Ockershausen talking to Tommy Jacomo and bragging about his restaurant, The Palm
Commercial: Hi. I’m Tommy Jacomo. Why don’t you come down and see me at The Palm restaurant. I’ve been here for 43 years. We have great steaks, great lobsters, great food, caricatures on the wall. It’s just a fun place to eat and drink. We’re located at 19th and N, just below DuPont Circle. For reservations call 202-293-9091. That’s 202-293-9091. www.thepalm.com [End Commercial]
A Ockershausen: This is Our Town. It’s Andy Ockershausen and we’re talking to Ray Schulte who has a story that I’m dying to hear about Jane Fonda. That’s not sports related but somewhere you’ll work it in. What is with you and Jane Fonda?
Ray Schulte: It’s not a big deal. I have some friends that live out in Sun Valley, Idaho. A good friend of mine was married to Mariel Hemingway.
A Ockershausen: Wow!
Ray Schulte: We were out there one Easter. The joke was that she made breakfast for me. I don’t go into telling that there was like 12 or 13 other people there too.
A Ockershausen: Was Ted Turner with her?
Ray Schulte: No, Ted wasn’t there.
A Ockershausen: That was before he bought Colorado or Wyoming, whereever he owns.
Speaker 1: Montana.
Ray Schulte: That also connects him because Dick Fosbury, Fosbury track and field hall of famer, he lives out there, and I was out there to see him too as my client. That’s one aspect of the business I do enjoy because Dick is probably more known internationally than he is even known nationally. I’ve got him going to Shanghai and Australia. For me, that’s a fascinating aspect of what I do.
A Ockershausen: I’m watching the Olympics, the jumpers because I love the high jump, and he mentioned Fosbury’s name that started the whole thing was the [Fosbury flop]. He showed him how to get over that bar. When he started jumping it was bamboo too. I don’t know what they use now.
Ray Schulte: He revolutionized the sport, and he’s such a great guy. He does quite a bit of traveling for me.
A Ockershausen: If he lives in Idaho that ain’t bad.
Ray Schulte: No, he’s got a good life.
A Ockershausen: Ray, you’re a country music fan, but you’ve never been in the music business have you?
Ray Schulte: No.
A Ockershausen: Never represented any musicians?
Ray Schulte: No. I got to hang out with Meatloaf. Meatloaf is a good friend. He was a big Yankee fan, and I use to go play golf with him.
A Ockershausen: Where did you play? Westchester?
Ray Schulte: Yes, upstate there. In this business, obviously, you get to meet a lot of music people, very fortunate. Especially with the non-profits. Toby Keith was at Mattingly’s event last year.
A Ockershausen: Spiderman. You’ve stayed with athletes for the most part?
Ray Schulte: Athletes and now I’m getting more and more involved with the corporations, more of the consulting, more of the media and PR aspect of it.
A Ockershausen: Your clients are becoming world class. Buck has done such a great job with the Orioles. I hope that Angelos appreciates him.
Ray Schulte: Sure. That’s a good example. We just did a 5K race up in Orioles park at Camden cards benefited-
A Ockershausen: That was this weekend, right?
Ray Schulte: Yes, a non-profit called KidsPeace. I help run that. That’s exciting because not only are your creating and managing an event, but you’re also doing it for-
A Ockershausen: A good charity.
Ray Schulte: Good for the youth of Maryland.
Country Music Fan | 5X New York Marathon Runner
A Ockershausen: I can’t tell you how much we enjoy talking to you about these things. Then, your love of country music, is it still a big high profile for you?
Ray Schulte: Oh yes, absolutely. We enjoy country music, sure.
A Ockershausen: You were a marathon runner?
Ray Schulte: In the early days, yes. When I lived in New York … Actually, I have ran five New York marathons.
A Ockershausen: Is that right? Five?
Ray Schulte: Five, yes.
A Ockershausen: You’ve never run the Marines here?
Ray Schulte: No. The only other marathon outside of New York, I ran Disney. I did it only because living in New York it was a challenge.
A Ockershausen: You lived at 84th Street you said?
Ray Schulte: 84th, yes, between 1st and 2nd. I enjoyed running out there in the park.
Ray Schulte: Yes.
Speaker 1: Did you have good times running out?
Ray Schulte: I was about 345, and for me that was great.
A Ockershausen: That’s a very good time. That’s finishing.
Ray Schulte: I got to the point where they took the bus over to the Verrazzano and you’re standing on the starting line and you go, “Oh my gosh, that’s where I have to go?” It’s kind of scary.
A Ockershausen: Just crossing that bridge is tough.
Ray Schulte: Oh yes. Then you go out about two or three miles and a little old lady looks at you and says, “I don’t think he’s going to make it.” Those things, you have to be up to the challenge.
A Ockershausen: Did you make it to Central Park? Obviously you did, for the finish.
Ray Schulte: Yes, but that’s the 17 mile mark. That’s when you hit the wall.
A Ockershausen: This thing is Washington, the Marine, I was privy to the first one because we were WMAL radio at the time. We were involved with the Marine Corps, and one of our guys name Bill Mayhew was tight was the commandant. We were involved and Janice was involved. It was a big thing for us and Our Town to get it started. I think the first year we might have had 1500 runners, maybe 2000 and something. Now it’s huge. What did they have, 28,000 this weekend. It just goes on and on. It’s gotten so big. It’s far bigger than Washington. The New York was this weekend too, wasn’t it?
Ray Schulte: I think it’s coming up. I’m not sure. When you were head of all the media here in Washington, you played tennis, right?
A Ockershausen: Yes, right.
Ray Schulte: Tennis must have been a great social-
A Ockershausen: I did, and I loved it. I still play, Ray. I don’t play very well anymore, but I still got some guys I play with and it’s a lot of fun. We’re going to continue to do it because I’m going to do it as long as I can stand up and hit the ball. I found a ball machine I can beat. It changed my life.
Ray Schulte: I’d like to see that.
A Ockershausen: Ray Schulte, this has been great. I learned so many things. I’m so happy you came to Our Town and brought Rebecca, or maybe even reverse, but having you two here has been a great thing for Our Town, and we thank you, and we thank Rebecca. We thank Ryan, the young Schulte. Nothing but great luck to you and to Schulte Sports Marketing.
Ray Schulte: We want to thank you and Janice for your hospitality. Since we’ve come down here it’s just been fantastic.
A Ockershausen: It’s been great. It’s a wonderful relationship that will continue. This has been Ray Schulte. This is Our Town. This is Any Ockershausen, and we look toward to talking to you again in the future.
Speaker 1: You’ve been listening to Our Town season one, with your host Andy Ockershausen. New Our Town podcast episodes are released each Tuesday and Thursday. We welcome your comments and suggestions on how you like the show or who you’d like to hear from next. Catch us on Facebook at Our Town DC, or visit our website at ourtowndc.com. Our special thanks to WMAL radio in Washington DC or hosting our podcasts.
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