Gary Anderson (placekicker)
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| Position: | Placekicker | ||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||
| Date of birth: | 16 July 1959 | ||||||||||
| Place of birth: | Parys, Orange Free State, South Africa | ||||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||||
| College: | Syracuse | ||||||||||
| NFL Draft: | 1982 / Round: 7 / Pick: 171 | ||||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||||
| * Offseason and/or practice squad member only | |||||||||||
| Career highlights and awards | |||||||||||
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| Career NFL statistics | |||||||||||
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| Field goals attempted: | 672 |
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| Field goals made: | 538 |
| Field goal percentage: | 80.1 |
| Points scored: | 2,434 |
| Player stats at NFL.com | |
Gary Allan Anderson (born 16 July 1959) is a former National Football League (NFL) placekicker. The first South African to appear in a NFL regular season game, Anderson played in the league for 23 seasons with six teams. He spent the majority of his career with the Pittsburgh Steelers, but is also known for tenure with the Minnesota Vikings.
As a member of the Vikings in 1998, Anderson became the first NFL kicker to have a perfect regular season, successfully making every field goal and point after touchdown during regular season play. However, Anderson's accomplishment was overshadowed by a missed field goal in that year's NFC Championship Game against the Atlanta Falcons, which is regarded as a primary factor in the Vikings' subsequent defeat. Nevertheless, Anderson continued to play in the NFL for six more seasons before retiring.
Anderson was born in Parys, South Africa and grew up in Durban. His father, the Reverend Douglas Anderson, played professional soccer in England. His mother was South African. Shortly after Gary graduated from high school at Brettonwood High, Reverend Anderson left South Africa and moved his family to the United States.
Anderson had hoped to follow in his father's footsteps and become a professional soccer player in Europe. On his third day after immigrating to the United States, Anderson had been given a few American footballs to kick. He went to a local high school football field in Downingtown, Pennsylvania to see what kicking this type of ball was like. Anderson grew up playing Rugby and was drop kicking them from the 50-yard line. A high school football coach and personal friend of Dick Vermeil watched Anderson and arranged a tryout with the Philadelphia Eagles the next day. Anderson was just 18 having just graduated high school, so after the tryout there were University scouts present, all four scouts offered scholarships to Anderson on the spot. Anderson chose Syracuse after they promised him that he would also be able to play on the school's soccer team. He played for the Syracuse soccer team in 1978 and 1979, scoring nineteen goals, before devoting himself to football his junior and senior seasons.
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