Garo Yepremian obit

Former Dolphins kicker Garo Yepremian dies at 70

 

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Yepremian, the former NFL kicker who helped the Dolphins win consecutive NFL championships but is best remembered for a Super Bowl blooper, died Friday, May 15, 2015, of cancer. He was 70. Yepremian's wife, Maritza, said he died at a hospital in Media, Pennsylvania. His illness was diagnosed in May 2014, she said. (AP Photo/File) MIAMI (AP) Garo Yepremian, the former NFL kicker who helped the Miami Dolphins win consecutive NFL championships but is best remembered for a Super Bowl blooper, died Friday of cancer. He was 70.

Yepremian's wife, Maritza, said he died at a hospital in Media, Pennsylvania. His illness was diagnosed in May 2014, she said.

Yepremian (ya-PREM-ee-an) played from 1966 to 1981. The native of Cyprus came to the United States at age 22 and kicked in the first NFL game he ever saw.

His 37-yard field goal in the second overtime ended the longest game in NFL history, a Dolphins' playoff victory over Kansas City on Christmas 1971, and he helped Miami win back-to-back NFL titles in 1972-73. But Yepremian's gaffe in the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl in January 1973 nearly spoiled the Dolphins' bid to complete a perfect season.

With Miami leading 14-0 and on the verge of finishing the season 17-0, the Washington Redskins blocked Yepremian's field-goal attempt. He picked up the ball and tried to throw it but fumbled, and the Redskins' Mike Bass ran it 49 yards for a touchdown.

''Every airport you go to, people point to you and say, `Here's the guy who screwed up in the Super Bowl,''' Yepremian said in a 2007 interview. ''After a while it bothers you. If it was anybody else he would go crazy, but fortunately I'm a happy-go-lucky guy.''

Decades later, Pro Football Hall of Fame coach Don Shula was able to laugh as he reminisced about the play - perhaps the weirdest in Super Bowl history.

''I thought, `Boy, this will be great if Garo kicks this field goal and we go ahead 17-0 in a 17-0 season. What a great way that would be to remember the game,''' Shula said. ''And then Garo did what he did, and it's 14-7 with still a couple of minutes to go. I'm looking for Garo, and I'm ready to kill Garo, and I couldn't find him. He went down to one end of the bench, and I haven't seen him since.''

Despite Yepremian's mistake, Miami won to complete the NFL's only perfect season. Yepremian also kicked for the Dolphins when they repeated as champions in 1973. Prematurely bald and only 5-foot-8, the left-legged Yepremian hardly looked like an NFL star.

He broke in with the Detroit Lions, who signed him as their first soccer-style kicker when that approach was a novelty. As a rookie in 1966 he broke a league record with six field goals in a game at Minnesota. He joined the Dolphins in 1970, made the Pro Bowl twice with them and led the league in field-goal accuracy three times. He also kicked for the New Orleans Saints and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Private funeral arrangements are pending. A viewing is planned Wednesday in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania.

During one of his early games with the Lions, they were losing but scored a touchdown in the last 10 seconds of the game. Yepremian 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 in celebration. Teammate Alex Karras asked Yepremian, "What the hell are you celebrating?" Yepremian replied with a phrase made famous on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson: "I keek (kick) a touchdown". Yepremian later stated that he never actually said the line, but was made up by Karras.

After the 1967 season, Yepremian left football to enlist in the United States Army, even though he was not yet a citizen of the United States. When he returned to the Detroit area in 1968, however, the Lions chose not to re-sign him, so Yepremian signed a contract to be a kicker/punter for the Michigan Arrows of the Continental Football League.[6] The Arrows, however, were a disaster on the field (1–11) and at the gate (drawing barely 4,000 fans a game in Detroit) and folded at season's end.

Yepremian went to the New Orleans Saints for the 1979 season, signed after their 1979 first round draft choice, Russell Erxleben (who was handling all kicking chores), suffered a season-ending injury prior to the Saints' week two game with the Green Bay Packers. In 14 games, he made 12 of 16 attempts, with his longest being from 44 yards.[15] He spent his final two years with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He made 16 of 23 in 1980, his lowest field goal rate since making only 45% in 1977.[16] For 1981, he went 2-for-4 to end his career as he was replaced by Bill Capece

Career history

Detroit Lions (1966–1967)

Michigan Arrows (1969)

Miami Dolphins (1970–1978)

New Orleans Saints (1979)

Tampa Bay Buccaneers (1980–1981)

Awards and highlights

2× Super Bowl champion (VII, VIII)

2× First-team All-Pro (1971, 1973)

2× Pro Bowl (1973, 1978)

NFL scoring leader (1971)

NFL 1970s All-Decade Team

Career NFL statistics

Field goals attempted  313

Field goals made         210

Field goal percentage  67.1%

Longest field goal       54

Extra points attempted            464

Extra points made       444

Extra point percentage            95.7%

Points scored   1,074