At Norfolk State, Ray Jarvis became a receiver defined by distance: 2,211 career yards and a 30.8-yard average per catch in 1970, a single-season school record. Leon Raeminton "Ray" Jarvis, the deep threat who carried that skill into a nine-season NFL career, died peacefully on August 3, 2026, in Waukesha, Wisconsin, at 77, according to the family notice on Legacy.com.

Born on February 2, 1949, in Chesapeake, Virginia, Jarvis was the son of Dewotha and Walter Jarvis. At Norfolk State, he developed into the kind of receiver who could change the field with one catch. He played for the Spartans from 1967 through 1970, and Norfolk State University Athletics later cited both his 2,211 receiving yards and the 30.8 yards per reception he averaged as a senior. The school placed him in its Athletics Hall of Fame class of 2023.

Atlanta chose Jarvis in the fifth round of the 1971 NFL Draft, 111th overall. His route through professional football took him from the Falcons to Buffalo, then to the Detroit Lions, where his ability to stretch a defense finally found its fullest statistical expression. In 1975 he caught 29 passes for 501 yards and four touchdowns. A year later, he reached 822 yards on 39 catches, an average of 21.1 yards each, with five touchdowns and a 74-yard long gain.

That 1976 season stood at the center of Jarvis's NFL career, but it did not stand alone. The NFL's career record credits him with 104 receptions, 1,832 receiving yards, and 11 touchdowns across 82 games. After five seasons in Detroit, he joined New England in 1979 and added one final touchdown in seven games for the Patriots.

The move to New England also joined two chapters of his football life. The Patriots' 1979 media guide said the club signed Jarvis on April 23 at the recommendation of receivers coach Raymond Berry, who had coached him in Detroit. The same guide recorded a quieter part of his Detroit years: during the offseason, he worked to connect disadvantaged young people with job opportunities.

Football supplied the public record, while Jarvis's family supplied the daily measure of him. The family notice said he and Diane Ahdea Jarvis were married for 39 years and had daughters Rahdea and Shani. It also described the care he and his household gave his brother-in-law Jeffrey Abraham, his steady presence at Rahdea's gymnastics meets, and his willingness to make another grocery run when an ingredient had been forgotten. Those small errands and seats in the stands made devotion visible.

Jarvis's place in football rests on measurable distance: 2,211 yards at Norfolk State, 1,832 more in the NFL, and a 74-yard reception at the height of his Detroit run. Beyond those ledgers, his family's account preserves a different set of images: a husband shopping for the ingredient everyone forgot, a father following a gymnastics career, and a household that made caregiving part of daily life. The school record, Hall of Fame honor, and those family stories carry the clearest outline of Ray Jarvis.