Garo Yepremian
| Garo Yepremian | |
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Position (s): Kicker |
Jersey number (s): 1 |
| born on June 2, 1944 in Larnaka , Cyprus | |
| died on May 15, 2015 in Media , Pennsylvania | |
| Career information | |
| Active : 1966 - 1981 | |
| Teams | |
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| Career statistics | |
| Games | 177 |
| points scored | 1074 |
| Field goals | 210 |
| Stats at NFL.com | |
| Stats at pro-football-reference.com | |
| Career highlights and awards | |
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Garabed Sarkis "Garo" Yepremian (* 2 June 1944 in Larnaca , Cyprus ; † 15. May 2015 in Media , Pennsylvania ) was an American American football poker players with Armenian descent. He played as a kicker in the National Football League (NFL), including with the Miami Dolphins .
youth
Garo Yepremian was born to Armenian parents in Cyprus. At the age of 16 he moved to London and worked in a department store there . On weekends he played football semi-professionally . His brother Krikor Yepremian received a soccer scholarship from the University of Indiana . Garo followed him. Both were able to watch the Hungarian-born Buffalo Bills kicker , Pete Gogolak , on television at a football game. They assumed that Garo can achieve his services. Krikor reached out to those in charge of the Atlanta Falcons and Detroit Lions and asked them to invite Garo for a trial session. Krikor remained the manager of his brother until 1978 and then took over the position of general manager at the football club New York Cosmos .
Player career
Garo Yepremian was able to convince during a trial training session in Detroit . He received a professional contract on October 13, 1966 and three days later he played for his first game against the Baltimore Colts . At that point his cash was only 10 US dollars , he spoke poor English himself and he did not know how to put on the playing attire. However, the Lions had a top player in their ranks in Alex Karras , who himself spoke Greek and helped Yepremian with his language problems.
A week after his debut, Yepremian got his first time in a game against the San Francisco 49ers . He scored three extra points , but three of his four field goal attempts failed and his team lost 24:27. On November 13, 1966, Yepremian was able to achieve his first victory with the Lions. For his team's 32:31 victory over the Minnesota Vikings , he contributed six field goals and two extra points. The 1966 season did not go well for the Detroit team and the 1967 season under the new head coach of the Lions, Joe Schmidt , brought no improvement. Garo Yepremian joined the United States Army after that season and received no new contract with the Lions after serving in the military. The Miami Dolphins trained by Don Shula did not miss the opportunity. After a trial session, they fired their German kicker Karl Kremser and hired Yepremian. The following years were very successful for the Dolphins and Yepremian.
While the Dolphins failed prematurely in the play-offs in 1970 , they moved into the AFC Championship Game with a 27:24 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs the following year . Yepremian played a major role in the victory. The game was balanced for a long time and had to go into extra time twice. Seven minutes and 40 seconds before the end of the second extra time, Yepremian scored the decisive field goal for his team.
With a 21-0 win over the Baltimore Colts , the Dolphins finally won the championship in the American Football Conference (AFC). Yepremian scored three extra points in the game, but then failed in the following Super Bowl VI to the Dallas Cowboys coached by Tom Landry with 3:24. Yepremian scored a field goal in the game.
In 1972 Yepremian won his second AFC title. In the AFC Championship Game, the Pittsburgh Steelers lost to the Dolphins with 17:21, Yepremian scored three extra points, which means they also moved into Super Bowl VII , where they met the Washington Redskins . The Redskins were beaten 7:14, but were able to score a touchdown shortly before the end of the game due to a mistake by Yepremian . A field goal was blocked by Yepremian and his attempt to pass the ball into his arms to a teammate ended in the arms of an opposing cornerback . However, the mistake wasn't decisive. Despite his mistake, Yepremian, who had never been trained as a football player, had won his first Super Bowl . The success story of Garo Yepremian continued in 1973. Again the team from Miami reached the AFC Championship Game, where they met the Oakland Raiders , supervised by John Madden . With nine points scored Yepremian could contribute to the 27:10 victory of his Dolphins over the team from Oakland . With a 24: 7 victory over the Minnesota Vikings , in the game Yepremian scored a total of six points, he achieved his second Super Bowl success.
Garo Yepremian played for the Dolphins for five more years. Although the team won more games than they lost in four seasons, Yepremian was no longer able to move into a final with his team. In 1979 he played for one season with the New Orleans Saints to end his professional career after two more rounds with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers .
Outside of the playing career
Garo Yepremian was married and had two sons. His daughter-in-law died of a brain tumor in 2004 . To support the fight against this disease, he founded the Garo Yepremian Foundation in 2001 . In 2002 he wrote a book about his season in Miami. Yepremian died on May 15, 2015 at a hospital in Media, Pennsylvania, at the age of 70 of complications from a brain tumor. He is buried in Oaklands Cemetery in West Chester , Pennsylvania.
Honors
Garabed Yepremian played twice in the Pro Bowl and was named Pro Bowl MVP in 1973. He was voted All Pro twice . He became a member of the 1970s NFL All-Decade Team and the Florida Sports Hall of Fame .
literature
- Garo Yepremian, Skip Clayton, Garo Yepremian's Tales from the Miami Dolphins , Sports Publishing LLC, 2002, ISBN 9781582615509
- Rick Gonsalves, Placekicking in the NFL: A History and Analysis , McFarland, 2013, ISBN 9781476600512
Web links
- Biography of Garo Yepremian
- Garo Yepremian's Foundation
- Garo Yepremian in the Florida Sports Hall of Fame
Individual evidence
- ^ First use of Garo Yepremian, game statistics
- ↑ Garo Yepremian's first victory, game statistics
- ↑ Statistics play-off game Miami Dolphins against Kansas City Chiefs in 1971
- ↑ Statistics AFC Championship Game 1971
- ↑ Statistics Super Bowl VI
- ↑ Statistics AFC Championship Game 1972
- ↑ Statistics Super Bowl VII
- ↑ Statistics AFC Championship Game 1973
- ↑ Statistics Super Bowl VIII
- ↑ David Stout: Garo Yepremian, 70, Dies; His kicks outshined a pass. In: The New York Times, May 16, 2015 (accessed May 17, 2015).
- ↑ Garo Yepremian's grave in the Find a Grave database
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Yepremian, Garo |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Yepremian, Garabed Sarkis (real name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American football player |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 2, 1944 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Larnaka , Cyprus |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 15, 2015 |
| Place of death | Media , Pennsylvania |