Ray McLean Ray " Scooter " McLean ( December 6 , 1915 - March 4 , 1964 ) was a football player and coach at both the collegiate and professional levels , He was a Four Time NFL champion for the Chicago bears Teams of 1940 , 1941 , 1943 & 1946 . He may be best remembered for preceding Vince Lombardi as head coach of the Green Bay Packers in 1958 . McLean was a native of Lowell , Massachusetts and Concord , New Hampshire who played both football and basketball at St . Anselm College in New Hampshire . He was drafted by the Chicago Bears in 1940 and played eight years with the team , and also found time during the offseason to play semipro baseball . Though his name is listed as Ray McLean his real last name is MacLean , and was changed because the press would always spell it wrong . During his time with the Bears , McLean played on both sides of the ball , catching 103 passes for over 2 , 200 yards and 21 touchdowns , while also gaining 412 yards via the running game . On defense , he intercepted 18 opponent tosses , while his special teams work also sparkled with three punt returns for touchdowns , one an 89 - yard dash against the crosstown Chicago Cardinals . In his final season ( 1947 ) , he served as the team ' s kicker . On March 3 , 1948 , McLean signed a contract to serve as head coach of Lewis College in Lockport , Illinois . To supplement his income during that first year , he also served as an assistant coach with the All - America Football Conference ' s Chicago Rockets . During his first two seasons at Lewis , McLean ' s teams completely dominated , outscoring opponents 548 - 80 while compiling a 14 - 2 record . In 1950 , the school moved to the much stronger Midlands Intercollegiate Athletic Conference , but McLean left after that campaign to become an assistant with the Packers . Working under head coach Gene Ronzani , McLean watched the Packers struggle with a 3 - 9 mark in 1951 , but then improve by three games the following year . However , after winning just twice in 10 games , Ronzani was fired on November 27 , 1953 with two games remaining . McLean and fellow Packer assistant Hugh Devore then finished the season as co - head coaches . McLean returned to his role as an assistant under new head coach Lisle Blackbourn , but a 17 - 31 record over the next four years meant another coaching change was in the works for Green Bay . On January 6 , 1958 , the 42 - year - old McLean was elevated to the position of Packers ' head coach , but the team bottomed - out under his leadership , which included players deciding how they should discipline themselves . The Packers finished the 1958 season with a franchise - worst 1 - 10 - 1 record . McLean resigned at the conclusion of the season , which opened the way for the hiring of Lombardi in January 1959 . McLean found work as an assistant with the Detroit Lions under former Bears teammate George Wilson , and served in that role for the next five years . Midway through the 1963 NFL season , he entered an Ann Arbor hospital and was diagnosed with cancer . Scooter McLean died four months later , at the age of 48 . McLean is also remembered as being one of the last players to perform a drop - kick , in 1941 . It would be more than six decades later before another occurrence of this feat would be seen , when on January 1 , 2006 , the New England Patriots ' Doug Flutie kicked one against the Miami Dolphins . ( The last time a drop kick was successfully attempted for a field goal was by Earl " Dutch " Clark . )