Playing as "Ray Culp"[1] for unclear contract-related reasons,[2] he was a pitcher and shortstop for the Akron Numatics in 1920 in the minor's International League with famous teammate Jim Thorpe.

[3] In March 1921, Kolp was invited to a St. Louis Browns' tryout camp for pitchers and made the team to start his major league career.

On the field, he was cocky and vociferous, often taunting and scoffing at opposing players and advising umpires from both the pitching mound and dugout.

[8] That evening, the two teams met up again at the train station, where Hack Wilson punched Ray's teammate Pete Donnohue.

He was the manager of the Williamsport Grays in Pennsylvania for two seasons, 1944[12] and 1945, handling a mostly Cuban team playing as replacements for the GIs at war.

Ray and his wife Bertha Willett Kolp[14] of Coalport, Pennsylvania, are buried in St. Stephen Cemetery in Fort Thomas, Kentucky.