November 8, 1970: The New Orleans Saints are playing the Detroit Lions at Tulane Stadium, and trail 17-16 with time for one more play.
The early Saints were terrible: They had debuted in 1967, and were 13-34-2 in their brief history, including 1-5-1 that season. Tom Fears, the Hall of Fame receiver for the Los Angeles Rams who had been named their 1st head coach, had just been fired, and this was their 1st game under J.D. Roberts, who finished out that season and lasted just 2 more.
At this point, the NFL had the goalposts on the goal line. And the record for the longest field goal was 56 yards, by Bert Rechichar of the Baltimore Colts in 1953. In the 17 years since, no one had even attempted a field goal longer than that. It was the kind of stunt that could only be done at the end of the 1st half or the end of the game, for fear of giving the opposition great field position.
The Saints were on their own 44-yard line. Their quarterback was Billy Kilmer. Two years later, Kilmer would take the Washington Redskins to the NFC Championship and Super Bowl VII. But, at this point, he was best remembered as a single-wing quarterback at UCLA, and not a great passer. The idea of Kilmer flinging the ball 55 yards for a touchdown did not fill Roberts with confidence.
But they had a placekicker named Tom Dempsey. Despite being born with no right hand and half of a right foot, requiring him to wear a special shoe, he had kicked a 55-yarder the year before. He thought he could make it from 62 yards, and convinced Roberts to let him try a field goal from a distance far beyond that from which anyone had yet had the guts to try. Not even in the freewheeling, recently wrapped-up AFL.
This was in New Orleans, a city below sea level. It was on real grass, not artificial turf, and this was the middle of the season, so the field was in bad shape. (Tulane Stadium would get artificial turf the next season.) There was no kicking tee: In the NFL, that's only legal for kickoffs. There was game-winning pressure. Years later, a scientist hired by ESPN determined that the flat front of Dempsey's half-shoe may actually have made the kick less likely to be good. His only advantage was a slight wind behind him.
What's more, he decided he'd actually have a better chance if the placement were an additional yard back, 8 yards instead of the legally-mandated minimum of 7, making the kick 63 yards.
Dempsey faced the enclosed north end of Tulane Stadium's semicircle. Jackie Burkett snapped the ball, and it was low. Holder Joe Scarpati had trouble with it, but set it down properly. Dempsey sent the ball straight on, and it flew, and flew, and flew...
There is surviving videotape of the kick, but it's in bad shape. You're better off looking at NFL Films' version. Unfortunately, both are from the press box on the west side of the stadium, so the view is sideways. There appears to be no surviving footage that shows the kick straight-on, either from the front or the rear.
"I was more concerned about kicking it straight, because I felt I could handle the distance," Dempsey said. "I hit it sweet."
The next season, 1971, Dempsey was traded to the Philadelphia Eagles, and he led the NFL in field goal percentage, 70.4 percent, kicking a 54-yarder. He spent 4 seasons with them, the 1st 3 with those awful white helmets with green wings, before they went back to the traditional white (or silver) wings with green helmets for 1974. He spent the 1975 and 1976 seasons with the Los Angeles Rams, 1977 with the Houston Oilers, and 1978 and 1979 with the Buffalo Bills, before retiring.
In 1974, the NFL moved the goal posts from the goal line to the end line, at the back of the end zone. From that point onward, a 63-yard field goal would be made not at your own 37, but your own 47. In 1977, the NFL added the "Tom Dempsey Rule": "Any shoe that is worn by a player with an artificial limb on his kicking leg must have a kicking surface that conforms to that of a normal kicking shoe." Dempsey was still active, so he was "grandfathered in," and allowed to continue using his flat-fronted shoe.
He finished his career making 252 out of 282 extra points, or 89.4 percent; and 159 of 258 field goals, or 61.6 percent. (Maybe 63 would have been appropriate, but he wasn't quite that good.) He tried 39 field goals from 50 yards or longer, and made 12 of them, an astounding percentage for the time.
He was elected to the Saints' team Hall of Fame. He has never been elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio -- only 2 pure kickers, as opposed to pre-1970 kickers who also played other positions, have been: Jan Stenerud, and another Saint, Morten Andersen -- but the shoe he wore for the record-setting kick is on display there.
Dempsey's record stood alone until October 25, 1998, when Jason Elam of the Denver Broncos tied it. It was tied again on September 12, 2011, by Sebastian Janikowski of the Oakland Raiders. Both of these kicks came in the mile-high air of Denver. On September 28, 2008, at the end of a 1st half, Janikowski was sent in for the most ridiculous field goal attempt ever: 76 yards, on grass, into the wind, at the Oakland Coliseum, just 43 feet above sea level. It was 18 yards short (58 yards), and wide right.
On September 9, 2012, David Akers, then with the San Francisco 49ers, hit a 63-yarder against the Green Bay Packers. Green Bay is 581 feet above sea level.
On December 8, 2013, 43 years after Dempsey set the record, Matt Prater of the Broncos broke it, kicking a 64-yard field goal to end a half against the Tennessee Titans. This, too, was in Denver. I remind you that Dempsey kicked his 63-yarder below sea level.
On October 7, 2018, in Charlotte, North Carolina, 761 feet above sea level, Graham Gano did something no kicker had done since Dempsey: Kick a game-winning field goal 63 yards or more. He did so to give the Carolina Panthers a 33-31 win against the New York Giants. Afterward, he told the media that he always wanted to kick one that far to win a game, just like Dempsey had. Dempsey heard about it, and sent him an autographed kicking tee.
Following his career, Dempsey returned to New Orleans, worked as a salesman for an oil company, and then Saints owner Tom Benson, who owned a string of car dealerships, hired him to run one.
In 2013, he revealed he was suffering from dementia. He was eventually taken to a senior residence in New Orleans, and he was 1 of 15 residents who tested positive for the coronavirus. He died on April 4, 2020, at the age of 73.
On September 26, 2021, Justin Tucker of the Baltimore Ravens, at Ford Field in Detroit, 656 feet above sea level, kicked a 66-yard field goal, for a new record. It was well above sea level, on turf, indoors. But, like Dempsey, it was a game-winner. Also like Dempsey, it gave his team a 19-17 win over the Lions.
Before kicking tees were outlawed by the NCAA, 3 college players had kicked 67-yard field goals. The national high school record is 69 yards.
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November 8, 1970 was a Sunday. These other NFL games were played on that historic day:
* The New York Giants beat the Dallas Cowboys, 23-20 at Yankee Stadium.
* The New York Jets lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers, 21-17 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh.
* The Philadelphia Eagles beat the Miami Dolphins, 24-17 at Franklin Field in Philadelphia.
* The Minnesota Vikings beat the Washington Redskins, 19-10 at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in Washington.
* The Cincinnati Bengals beat the Buffalo Bills, 43-14 at War Memorial Stadium in Buffalo.
* The San Francisco 49ers beat the Chicago Bears, 37-16 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.
* The football version of the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Boston Patriots, 31-0 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis.
* The Kansas City Chiefs beat the Houston Oilers, 24-9 at Kansas City Municipal Stadium.
* The San Diego Chargers beat the Denver Broncos, 24-21 at San Diego Stadium.
* The Atlanta Falcons and the Los Angeles Rams played to a tie 10-10 at the Los Angeles Coliseum.
* And the Oakland Raiders beat the Cleveland Browns, 23-20 at the Oakland Coliseum.
* The next day, on Monday Night Football, the Baltimore Colts beat the Green Bay Packers, 13-10 at Lambeau Field in Green Bay.
There were 4 games played that day in the NBA:
* The New York Knicks beat the expansion Portland Trail Blazers, 125-113 at the Portland Memorial Coliseum. Jim Barnett scored 40 points for the Blazers, but Captain Willis Reed had 28 points and 26 rebounds for the defending NBA Champion Knickerbockers.
* The Seattle SuperSonics beat the expansion Cleveland Cavaliers, 111-105 at the Cleveland Arena.
* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Phoenix Suns, 125-105 at the Milwaukee Arena. In 1974, it was renamed the Milwaukee Exposition, Convention Center and Arena, or "The MECCA." Since 2014, it has been named the UW-Panther Arena.
* And the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Baltimore Bullets, 124-105 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California. Jerry West scored 41 points. Wilt Chamberlain scored 20 and had 24 rebounds.
There were 4 games played in the American Basketball Association:
* The New York Nets beat the Denver Rockets, 114-104 at the Island Garden in Hempstead. The Rockets became the Denver Nuggets in 1974.
* The Memphis Pros beat the Pittsburgh Condors, 105-96 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.
* The Carolina Cougars beat the Miami Floridians, 122-115 at the Miami Beach Convention Center.
* The Utah Stars beat the Indiana Pacers, 111-103 at the Indiana State Fair Coliseum (now the Corteva Coliseum). The Stars ended up dethroning the Pacers as ABA Champions that season.
And there were 4 games played in the NHL:
* The Boston Bruins beat the Montreal Canadiens, 6-1 at the Boston Garden.
* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the expansion Buffalo Sabres, 3-1 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.
* The Pittsburgh Penguins and the Detroit Red Wings played to a tie, 3-3 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.
* And the Minnesota North Stars and the Chicago Black Hawks played to a tie, 3-3 at the Chicago Stadium.
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