The First Barefoot Placekicker

[nicefellow31]

I've seen barefoot kickers in major college football somewhat recently, and lower divisions this year. Have seen it in high school football in recent years also (also usually a story about a HS kid every kicking barefoot every other year - same with straight-on kickers) ...

Best guess as to why it's 'disappeared' from the NFL, the advancement in shoes/cleats.

Funny you should mention that. I officiate high school football and worked a JV game last night. Team lines up for th PAT, holder gets in place, and I'm expecting the kicker to step to the side and get ready. Nope. He lined up like Lou Groza and kicked it straight. I haven't seen a kid kick like that in years. BTW, made all 5 of his PAT's which is something you don't see a lot of in JV games too.

[Reaser]

Funny you should mention that. I officiate high school football and worked a JV game last night. Team lines up for th PAT, holder gets in place, and I'm expecting the kicker to step to the side and get ready. Nope. He lined up like Lou Groza and kicked it straight. I haven't seen a kid kick like that in years. BTW, made all 5 of his PAT's which is something you don't see a lot of in JV games too.

The Newport v. Mount Si game was the WA High School televised game tonight and after a Newport TD early 2nd quarter they lined up for the PAT normal - well left-footed kicker but normal enough - then the holder shifted to the left side of the line and direct snap to the kicker who drop kicked the XP. Nailed it, pretty easily. Can't remember the last time I saw a left-footed drop-kick 'live' (on TV) ...

[rhickok1109]

Funny you should mention that. I officiate high school football and worked a JV game last night. Team lines up for th PAT, holder gets in place, and I'm expecting the kicker to step to the side and get ready. Nope. He lined up like Lou Groza and kicked it straight. I haven't seen a kid kick like that in years. BTW, made all 5 of his PAT's which is something you don't see a lot of in JV games too.

The Newport v. Mount Si game was the WA High School televised game tonight and after a Newport TD early 2nd quarter they lined up for the PAT normal - well left-footed kicker but normal enough - then the holder shifted to the left side of the line and direct snap to the kicker who drop kicked the XP. Nailed it, pretty easily. Can't remember the last time I saw a left-footed drop-kick 'live' (on TV) ...

I have yet to see it for the first time

[superbowlfanatic]

Watching Tony Franklin kick barefoot on TV inspired me to try it during my quest to become a placekicker for my high school football team. I went out to the backyard where I had built a crossbar/goalpost on a large tree and had been training and tried to kick barefoot when it was freezing with snow on the ground. The ball went farther than I had ever kicked it before. While I made the team as a Senior, our state rules required all players had to wear two shoes, so I was not able to kick barefoot until I did a post-graduate year at a prep school. Then I played at Division III Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, PA. Our team won 3 Centennial Conference titles, and I even earned all-Conference honors as a placekicker. I still share the school mark for most FG's in a career.

I can tell you this (for me, and other barefoot kickers, at least): the ball goes farther off the bare foot because for the naked top of the arch that strikes the sweet spot of the football, the bone in the foot is a harder surface striking the football than when a sock and shoe covers that bone. Kicking barefoot correctly does not hurt at all. I could and can still kick about 10 yards farther barefoot then when I wear a shoe. Plus, barefoot kickers have a better "feel" for making the exact sweet spot on top of the foot directly meet the sweet spot on the football, hence resulting in much greater accuracy. We could almost put the ball wherever we want.

So where as it seems to be a novelty of the 80's, maybe no one does it because kicking/soccer shoes are made of different/thinner leather, that results in the same distance? Maybe kickers never think to try it? The Rams Jeff Wilkins tried it briefly with an ace bandage wrapped around his foot, but gave that up shortly thereafter and put his shoe back on.

As far as a uniform violation, all of the barefoot kickers in this thread had to adhere to the two sock rule by wearing only the top, colored portion of the sock high on the calf, with no white below.

[rhickok1109]

Watching Tony Franklin kick barefoot on TV inspired me to try it during my quest to become a placekicker for my high school football team. I went out to the backyard where I had built a crossbar/goalpost on a large tree and had been training and tried to kick barefoot when it was freezing with snow on the ground. The ball went farther than I had ever kicked it before. While I made the team as a Senior, our state rules required all players had to wear two shoes, so I was not able to kick barefoot until I did a post-graduate year at a prep school. Then I played at Division III Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, PA. Our team won 3 Centennial Conference titles, and I even earned all-Conference honors as a placekicker. I still share the school mark for most FG's in a career.

I can tell you this (for me, and other barefoot kickers, at least): the ball goes farther off the bare foot because for the naked top of the arch that strikes the sweet spot of the football, the bone in the foot is a harder surface striking the football than when a sock and shoe covers that bone. Kicking barefoot correctly does not hurt at all. I could and can still kick about 10 yards farther barefoot then when I wear a shoe. Plus, barefoot kickers have a better "feel" for making the exact sweet spot on top of the foot directly meet the sweet spot on the football, hence resulting in much greater accuracy. We could almost put the ball wherever we want.

So where as it seems to be a novelty of the 80's, maybe no one does it because kicking/soccer shoes are made of different/thinner leather, that results in the same distance? Maybe kickers never think to try it? The Rams Jeff Wilkins tried it briefly with an ace bandage wrapped around his foot, but gave that up shortly thereafter and put his shoe back on.

As far as a uniform violation, all of the barefoot kickers in this thread had to adhere to the two sock rule by wearing only the top, colored portion of the sock high on the calf, with no white below.

That's really interesting! Thanks for sharing your firsthand experience.

[Reaser]

That's really interesting! Thanks for sharing your firsthand experience.

Seconded.

superbowlfanatic has posted before (old forums) about being a D3 kicker and has given excellent info/explanations on kicking in the past. I always trust things more when it comes from someone who's done it, it makes sense to me.

I like that kind of stuff, some of the best and my favorite posts on the old forums were firsthand experiences and/or the stories from forums members; about Derrick Fenner in high school, playing against Ken Anderson in college, when everyone went over how they were taught to tackle in youth/high school/college, starting 9 for 9 passing 250 yards 3 TD's in just the first half playing against Jonathan Stewart's team in high school (okay, this one was me), etc ...

[Reaser]

maybe no one does it because kicking/soccer shoes are made of different/thinner leathe

That's what Ron and I went with in previous posts. I'm thinking because of how thin a soccer shoe is now (my friend played college soccer, the material even in the early 00's was pretty thin, can only imagine now) ... Would assume it has the 'feel' of almost not wearing a cleat/shoe at all?

[Bryan]

Off-topic since its not NFL-related, but Duffy Daugherty's kicker for his 1965 Michigan State team was a recruit from Hawaii named Dick Kenney. Kenney kicked barefoot, which is the earliest I have heard of a barefoot kicker. Kenney also kicked with the straight-on "toe punch" style, which is the only time I've heard of a non-soccer style barefoot kicker. Kind of a weird story all around.

[Ronfitch]

Off-topic since its not NFL-related, but Duffy Daugherty's kicker for his 1965 Michigan State team was a recruit from Hawaii named Dick Kenney. Kenney kicked barefoot, which is the earliest I have heard of a barefoot kicker. Kenney also kicked with the straight-on "toe punch" style, which is the only time I've heard of a non-soccer style barefoot kicker. Kind of a weird story all around.

No chin strap, either. One tuff S.O.B., I tell you what.

(I love this forum)

[Gary Najman]

Watching Tony Franklin kick barefoot on TV inspired me to try it during my quest to become a placekicker for my high school football team. I went out to the backyard where I had built a crossbar/goalpost on a large tree and had been training and tried to kick barefoot when it was freezing with snow on the ground. The ball went farther than I had ever kicked it before. While I made the team as a Senior, our state rules required all players had to wear two shoes, so I was not able to kick barefoot until I did a post-graduate year at a prep school. Then I played at Division III Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, PA. Our team won 3 Centennial Conference titles, and I even earned all-Conference honors as a placekicker. I still share the school mark for most FG's in a career.

I can tell you this (for me, and other barefoot kickers, at least): the ball goes farther off the bare foot because for the naked top of the arch that strikes the sweet spot of the football, the bone in the foot is a harder surface striking the football than when a sock and shoe covers that bone. Kicking barefoot correctly does not hurt at all. I could and can still kick about 10 yards farther barefoot then when I wear a shoe. Plus, barefoot kickers have a better "feel" for making the exact sweet spot on top of the foot directly meet the sweet spot on the football, hence resulting in much greater accuracy. We could almost put the ball wherever we want.

So where as it seems to be a novelty of the 80's, maybe no one does it because kicking/soccer shoes are made of different/thinner leather, that results in the same distance? Maybe kickers never think to try it? The Rams Jeff Wilkins tried it briefly with an ace bandage wrapped around his foot, but gave that up shortly thereafter and put his shoe back on.

As far as a uniform violation, all of the barefoot kickers in this thread had to adhere to the two sock rule by wearing only the top, colored portion of the sock high on the calf, with no white below.

That's really interesting! Thanks for sharing your firsthand experience.

I also want to thank you for your memories and explanation. Very interesting,