Toe Kicking

In high school in the mid-70's I was a straight-on kicker, at Central High of Macon, Georgia. The Big Orange Chargers. As a sophomore backup, in 1974 the first string senior kicker “tied up” his kicking shoe – and was named high school all-America. In 1976 David Taylor broke the Brigham Young record for the longest field goal, while still tying up his shoe.

Back in those days linemen wore all sorts of arm pads on their elbows, forearms, and hands. Some were made by Bike, as I recall. Taylor also played center and defensive tackle. He would pull one of these hand pads over his ankle and taped it to his sock, and looped the shoestring around his front cleat. The string was then pulled up and supported by the top of the pad. As a “60 minute man” David wore his kicking shoe the entire game.

The advantages of the string were obvious: it secured the ankle into the optimal 90 degree kicking position. One less thing to go wrong in the kicking process. 

As a ninth-grader in 1973, I was the kicker for the undefeated 9th grade team (we beat one team 66-0, then won the rematch 96-0). I never “tied up” my shoe, a regular rubber cleated soccer cleat (adidas, as I recall). The next year I joined the varsity, and was issued my first square-toed shoe.

After Taylor graduated, one day the coach took me in his old pickup truck downtown to little Charlie Wood Sporting Goods – an old time store similar to the sporting goods store in downtown Nashville, whose attic was highlighted in Uni Watch several years ago. We climbed the dusty stairs in the back, and I was fitted with my very own brand new black Spot-Bilt square toed kicking shoe.

Side note: I always remember seeing a face mask up there for the first time, that I’d never seen any player wear in high school, college, or pro. Years later Deion Sanders popularized the style. As a kicker I had no need for such a protective facemask, but it would’ve been cool to be unique. Instead I uncovered an old suspension style helmet in my high school’s football equipment room – with a single bar face mask. By then (1975) most players were wearing air-padded helmets with caged facemasks. Very few double bars were seen any more. Only pro kickers wore single bars, and a few quarterbacks. I proudly wore the single bar in practice, and still kick myself for not keeping that old helmet.

Back to kicking. Now a high school junior, I started the season kicking off and handling extra points and field goals. My buddy Ricky Kurtz won the offensive tackle job as a 10th grader. As my backup at kicker, Ricky tied up his kicking shoe like Taylor did. One day in practice one of his kickoffs reached the goal line, and the coaches awarded him the kickoff job on the spot. Kurtz never reached the end zone in a game, and weary from his offensive line play, became more inconsistent as the game wore on. After a couple of games I earned back the kickoff job.

My kickoffs never reached the end zone, but usually made it to the ten yard line. One thing I could do was direct my kicks left or right. This came in handy in our last regular season game against Northside of Warner Robins, who featured a dangerous all-region running back. Tony Dazvan lined up deep and to the left on kickoffs, where most right-footed kickers like be boomed the ball. We lost that game 27-14, but Dazvan never touched the ball on a kickoff. The next week we faced Northside in the first round of the playoffs, and again I kicked left, away from Tony. Eventually the two deep men switched places, so I kicked right, away from Dazvan. I made all three of my extra points, and we won the game 21-19 on a last second QB sneak. The game was called the most exciting in middle-Georgia history. We went on to win the state championship.

Taylor eventually returned to Macon, though I haven’t seen him since high school. In 2015 we had a team reunion, and I saw Ricky there.