Louis Roy Groza (January 25, 1924 â November 29, 2000), nicknamed “the Toe”, was an American professional football player who was a placekicker and offensive tackle while playing his entire career for the Cleveland Browns in the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) and National Football League (NFL). Groza was professional football’s career kicking and points leader when he retired after the 1967 season. He played in 21 seasons for the Browns, helping the team to win eight league championships in that span. Groza’s accuracy and strength as a kicker influenced the development of place-kicking as a specialty; he could kick field goals from beyond 50 yards (46 m) at a time when attempts from that distance were a rarity. He set numerous records for distance and number of field goals kicked during his career.
Groza graduated from high school in 1942 and enrolled on an athletic scholarship at the Ohio State University in Columbus, where he played as a tackle and placekicker on the Buckeyes’ freshman team. Groza played in three games and kicked five field goals, including one from 45 yards away.[5] In 1943, he enlisted in the U.S. Army as World War II intensified. He first went for basic training to Abilene, Texas, and then to the Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio.
After a stint with the short-lived Army Service Training Program, Groza was sent with the 96th Infantry Division to serve as a surgical technician in Leyte, Okinawa, and other places in the Pacific theater in 1945. The day he landed in the Philippines, Groza saw a soldier shot in the face. He was stationed in a bank of tents about five miles from the front lines and helped doctors tend to the wounded. “I saw a lot of men wounded with severe injuries”, he later said. “Lose legs, guts hanging out, stuff like that. It’s a tough thing, but you get hardened to it, and you accept it as part of your being there.”
While he was in the Army, he received a package from Paul Brown, the Ohio State football coach. It contained footballs and a contract for him to sign to play on a team Brown was coaching in the new All-America Football Conference (AAFC). He signed the contract in May 1945 and agreed to join the team, called the Cleveland Browns, after the war ended in 1946. Groza got $500 a month stipend until the end of the war and a $7,500 annual salary.
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