Louis Roy Groza (January 25, 1924 – November 29, 2000), nicknamed "the Toe", was an American professional football player. An offensive tackle and placekicker, he spent 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 grew up in an athletic family in Martins Ferry, Ohio. He enrolled at The Ohio State University on a scholarship in 1942, but after just one year in college, he enlisted in the U.S. Army and was sent to serve in World War II. Groza deployed as an army surgical technician in the Pacific theater, where he stayed until returning in 1946 to play for the Browns. Helped by Groza's kicking and play at offensive tackle, the Browns won the AAFC championship every year between 1946 and 1949, when the league disbanded and the Browns were absorbed by the more established NFL. Cleveland won the NFL championship in its first year in the league on a last-minute field goal by Groza. Groza set NFL records for field goals made in 1950, 1952 and 1953. Sporting News named him the league's Most Valuable Player in 1954, when the Browns won another championship. The team repeated as NFL champions in 1955.
Groza retired briefly after the 1959 season due to a back injury, but returned in 1961. He was part of a 1964 team that won another NFL championship. Groza retired for good after the 1967 season. Later in life, he ran an insurance business and served as a team ambassador for the Browns. He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1974. In 1992, the Palm Beach County Sports Commission named the Lou Groza Award after him. The award is given annually to the country's best college placekicker. Groza died in 2000 of a heart attack.
Born in eastern Ohio in Martins Ferry, just north and across the Ohio River from Wheeling, West Virginia, Groza's parents were immigrants from Transylvania (today in Romania). His Hungarian mother Mary and Romanian father John (Ioan) Groza owned and ran Groza's Tavern on Main Street. Lou was the smallest in stature of four boys in an athletic family; his brother Alex became a star basketball player at the University of Kentucky, a member of two national championship teams.
Groza lettered in football, basketball, and baseball at Martins Ferry High School. The Purple Riders won the state basketball championship in 1941, when Groza was its captain. He was also captain of the baseball team. Groza learned placekicking from his older brother Frank, and practiced by trying to kick footballs over telephone wires when he and his friends played touch football in the street.
College career and military service
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 (41 m) away. 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.
Following his discharge from military service, Groza reported to the Browns' training camp in Bowling Green, Ohio. He showed up in army fatigues carrying all his clothes in a duffel bag. There, he joined quarterback Otto Graham, fullback Marion Motley and receivers Dante Lavelli and Mac Speedie to form the core of the new team's offense. Groza was mainly a placekicker in his first two years with the Browns, but he played a big part in the team's early success. In his first season, he set a professional football record for both field goals and extra points. The Browns, meanwhile, advanced to the AAFC championship against the New York Yankees. Groza sprained his ankle in the game and missed three field goals, but Cleveland won 14–9. Behind a powerful offense led by Graham, Motley and Lavelli, the Browns finished the 1947 season with a 12–1–1 record and made it back to the championship game. Groza, however, was injured and could only watch as the team won its second championship in a row.
Further success followed for the Browns and Groza, who was nicknamed "the Toe" by a sportswriter for his kicking abilities. Groza led the league in field goals and the team won all of its games in 1948, recording professional football's first perfect season. As he grew into a star placekicker, Groza began playing regularly at offensive tackle beginning in 1948. One highlight of that year for Groza was a 53-yard field goal against the AAFC's Brooklyn Dodgers that was then the longest kick in pro football history. With Groza, the Browns could attempt field goals at a range many other teams could not. "Anywhere from 40 to 50 yards (37 to 46 m), he was a weapon", Tommy James, Groza's holder for eight years, later said. Another championship win followed in 1949, but the AAFC dissolved after the season, and the Browns were among three teams absorbed by the more established National Football League (NFL).
The war had shortened Groza's college career, so he continued to study at Ohio State in the offseason in his early years with the Browns. He graduated with a degree in business in 1949. Groza married that year, to Jackie Lou Robbins, a girl from Martins Ferry who was working as a model in New York City when they first dated.
The Browns' debut in the NFL in the 1950 season was closely watched; while the team dominated the AAFC in its short existence, some sportswriters, NFL owners and coaches considered the league inferior. Cleveland put all doubts to rest in its first game against the two-time defending champion Philadelphia Eagles, winning 35–10. In a game against the Washington Redskins later in the season, Groza broke a 24-year-old NFL record by kicking his 13th field goal of the season. He also scored the only touchdown of his career in that game on a reception from Graham. The Browns ended the regular season with a 10–2 record in the American Conference, tied with the New York Giants. That forced a playoff against the Giants in which Groza kicked the winning field goal for the Browns with under a minute to play.
The Browns next faced the Los Angeles Rams in the championship game. Groza came into the game as the NFL's leading kicker, both in terms of points scored and accuracy. He had a success rate of 68.4% in an era when most teams made fewer than half of their attempts. The Rams went ahead early in the game on a touchdown pass from star quarterback Bob Waterfield and a scoring run by Dick Hoerner. But Graham and the Browns came back with four touchdowns, two to receiver Dante Lavelli. As time wound down in the fourth quarter, however, the Rams were ahead 28–27, and Cleveland had a final chance to win the game. Graham drove the offense to the Rams' nine-yard line and set up a Groza field goal attempt. The 16-yard try sailed through the uprights with 28 seconds left, giving the Browns a 30–28 victory. It was the biggest kick of Groza's career. "I never thought I would miss", he said later. After the season, Groza was named to the first-ever Pro Bowl, the NFL's all-star game.