Garo Yepremian
Garo Yepremian 
| |
|---|---|
| Birthplace | Larnaca |
| Birth date | 2 June 1944 |
| Death date | 2015/05/15 |
| Death year | 2015 |
| Education | Indiana University |
| Profession | Athlete |
| Ethnicities | Armenian |
Garo Yepremian (born June 2, 1944 in Larnaca, Cyprus) is a former National Football League placekicker. Yepremian played for the Detroit Lions, Miami Dolphins, New Orleans Saints and Tampa Bay Buccaneers during a career that spanned from 1966 to 1981.
Yepremian was born in Cyprus to Armenian parents. At the age of sixteen, he moved to London, England with the hope of someday attending college. He later moved to Indianapolis, Indiana, hoping to earn a college scholarship playing football.
Yepremian had no prior knowledge of American football, and his brief experience as a professional soccer player prevented him from playing college football per NCAA rules. Nevertheless, he continued to practice his kicking at Butler University, where he was discovered and signed by the Detroit Lions.
In his rookie year, he broke a record by kicking six field goals in a single game for the Lions against the Minnesota Vikings.
During one of his early games with the Lions, they were losing but scored a touchdown in the last 10 seconds of the game. Garo was sent in to kick the extra point, and he was so excited after converting the point that he went running off the field with his arms raised up celebrating. His teammate Alex Karras asked him in Greek, since Garo barely spoke any English back then, "What the four-letter-word are you celebrating?" Garo replied with the catch phrase made famous on the Johnny Carson show "I keek a touchdown."[1].
In 1968, Yepremian left football to enlist in the U.S. Army. The Lions chose not to re-sign him when he returned the following year, and he sat out the 1969 season.
In 1970, Yepremian earned a spot on the Dolphins roster. He led the league in points with 117 in 1971. He was a key member of the 1972 Miami Dolphins unbeaten team and appeared in three Super Bowls (VI, VII and VIII).
Yepremian is best known for two feats — one famous, one infamous. In a divisional playoff game against the Kansas City Chiefs on Christmas 1971, he kicked a 37-yard field goal 7 minutes and 40 seconds into double overtime, ending the longest game in NFL history.
Despite all of Yepremian's success, many people remember him for an embarrassing incident in Super Bowl VII. With his team leading the game 14-0, Yepremian was sent on to the field to kick a field goal with less then 2 minutes left, which would have put the game out of reach. The field goal attempt was blocked by Bill Brundige, and Yepremian managed to get to the ball before any other player did. Instead of just falling on the ball to preserve the Dolphins' 14-0 lead, he picked it up and attempted to throw a pass. The ball slipped from his hands, tipped by Brundige and went right into the arms of Washington Redskins cornerback Mike Bass, who returned it for a touchdown. The Dolphins managed to hold on to win, 14-7 to preserve their perfect season, but Yepremian was widely denounced by fans and the press for the incident, many of whom pointed out that Miami likely would have been the first team ever to win the Super Bowl without allowing any points from their opponent if not for his error.
In the 1974 Pro Bowl Yepremian kicked five field goals to lead the AFC to a win, and was voted Most Valuable Player in that game. He was elected to another Pro Bowl in 1979 after a season in which he kicked twenty consecutive field goals without a miss.
Over his career, Yepremian was successful on 210 of 313 field goals and 444 of 464 extra points for a total of 1,074 points. He led the league in field-goal accuracy three times.
He was voted Kicker of the Decade by the Pro Football Hall of Fame between 1970 and 1980 and in 1981 was elected to the Florida Sports Hall of Fame. Yepremian is currently a motivational speaker and the author of several books including an autobiography titled I Keek a Touchdown, published in 1995.