Garo Yepremian
Yepremian in 2013
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| Position: | Placekicker | ||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||
| Date of birth: | June 2, 1944 | ||||||||
| Place of birth: | Larnaca, Cyprus | ||||||||
| Date of death: | May 15, 2015 (aged 70) | ||||||||
| Place of death: | Media, Pennsylvania | ||||||||
| Height: | 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m) | ||||||||
| Weight: | 175 lb (79 kg) | ||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||
| College: | none | ||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||
| Career highlights and awards | |||||||||
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| Career NFL statistics | |||||||||
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| Player stats at PFR | |||||||||
| Field goals: | 210 |
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| Field goal attempts: | 313 |
| Percentage: | 67.1 |
| Player stats at NFL.com | |
Garabed Sarkis "Garo" Yepremian (June 2, 1944 – May 15, 2015) was an American football placekicker in the National Football League 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 Larnaca, Cyprus to Armenian parents.
Yepremian and his brother Krikor, who attended Indiana University on a soccer scholarship, emigrated to the United States. Garo, who had earlier played professional soccer in London, was not eligible to play NCAA soccer. After watching some of a football game on television, he decided to pursue an NFL career. With Krikor acting as his agent, he earned a contract with the Detroit Lions.
Yepremian signed with the Detroit Lions on October 13, 1966.
In his rookie year, he broke an American football record by kicking six field goals in a single game against the Minnesota Vikings. His talent aside, Yepremian was, nonetheless, at a loss regarding football vernacular and custom. In his first game his coach told him that their team had lost the coin toss, at which point Yepremian ran to midfield and dropped to his knees looking for the coin.
Yepremian was an immediate target to NFL players who considered American football the exclusive realm of Americans. Players were looking to take Yepremian's head off, and before his first kickoff his coach told him to run to the bench as soon as he kicked before his opponents could lay into him. Yepremian kicked off, then in a harried state ran to the wrong bench, finding himself sitting with the opposing team. Yepremian had never worn a helmet and at first decided not to use one with a face mask, but that changed during Week 4 of the 1966 season, when he was knocked to the ground and badly injured by Green Bay Packers linebacker Ray Nitschke. Afterwards, he started using a single-bar mask. He was the last player in the NFL to not wear a facemask on his helmet.
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