Ray Carnelly was born August 11, 1916, in Beaver Falls, PA. Ray was an all-around high school athlete at Beaver Falls, starring in football, basketball, and track, and winning the Beaver Falls Athletic Prize his senior year.

In 1935, Ray started at the Carnegie Institute of Technology (nka Carnegie Mellon University) in Pittsburgh, PA, where he earned a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering and played on the Tartans football team, for which he was versatile as a quarterback, a halfback, a kicker, and on defense.

On October 15, 1938, Holy Cross came to Pitt Stadium to take on the Tartans. Carnegie Tech played Holy Cross the three previous years, losing 7-0 twice, and tying the 1937 game 0-0. Ray put an end to that scoreless streak when he ran for 42 yards and scored the Tartans' only touchdown to take the lead 7-0. The Tartans held on and won 7-6, ending Holy Cross's 14-game winning streak. The Tartans finished with a 7-1 regular season record and ranked sixth in the final AP Poll. Carnegie Tech was named the Eastern College champions and received the third ever Lambert Trophy.

In 1939, Ray was named to the College All-Star team. The All-Star game was played in August at Temple Stadium under the floodlights, with 25,000 fans in attendance watching the Philadelphia Eagles defeat the All-Stars 17-0. Ray was captain of the Carnegie Tech Tartans in their 1939 Sugar Bowl loss to Texas Christian at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans.

Ray was drafted in the 14th round of the 1939 NFL Draft by the Brooklyn Dodgers of the Eastern Division. The Dodgers would play eleven games that year, with a record of 4-6-1. Ray played halfback nine games, starting three games. On October 22, 1939, the NFL made history when the Brooklyn Dodgers defeated the Philadelphia Eagles 23-14 in the first ever televised NFL game. Ray was on the field that game.

After playing one season, Ray become a member of the West Virginia University Mountaineers football coaching staff, where he coached the freshmen team and halfbacks from 1940 to 1943.
Carnegie Tech awarded Ray the Walter Burns Football Trophy in 1938, recognized him at a Testimonial Dinner in 1939, and inducted him into the Carnegie Mellon University Athletics Hall of Fame in 2021.

Raymond "Ray" Harry Carnelly died November 14, 2002, at age 86, in Orange, TX.