Hometown: Lexington, KY Henry Clay
Position: G
Date of Birth: December 1, 1911
Additional Photos: (1) (2)
Game by Game Statistics
Kentucky Career Notes:
Multi-Sport Player [Football and Track]
Post-UK Career Notes:
Served in the Military
Future NFL Player
| Season | Games Played | FG | FT | Total Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1932-33 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Total | 4 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
Biography - '30s UK star had leg up on kicking, Lexington Herald-Leader (October 29, 1993) by Billy Reed
He also follows college and pro football, mostly through TV, and he can only shake his head when he talks about the sorry state of kicking in today's game.
"Some of the kicking in the pro league is pathetic," says Kercheval, who virtually cringes whenever he sees a punt that's shanked or a chip-shot field goal that goes awry.
To this day, of course, Kercheval is arguably the greatest kicker in the University of Kentucky history and one of the best to ever play in the NFL.
A s a UK sophomore in 1931, he came off the bench in the team's second game, against Washington & Lee, and boomed a 75-yard punt on his first attempt for Coach Harry Gamage.
"I remember, as a kid would, that everybody rose in their seats on both sides of the field," Kercheval said. "I couldn't help but see and hear them."
During his senior year of 1933, Kercheval set four Southeastern Conference records that still stand, punting 101 times for 4,413 yards and an average of 43.5
His best game that season came against Cincinnati, when he punted 10 times for 520 yards, one of the league records he still holds.
"We drove to Kentucky's goal line time after time," former Bearcat Bill Schwarberg once told writer Russell Rice, "and Kercheval would simply stand back and kick the ball all the way back."
If anything, Kercheval was an even better kicker than his magnificent numbers indicate, considering that the ball in those days was rounder and heavier. He also never played on punter-friendly artificial turf.
Many of his punts were difficult quick kicks out of the single-wing formation, meaning that he had to take the snap only 5 or 6 yards behind the line of scrimmage and boot it quickly.
Finally, punters in those days were given credit only for yardage in the air. Today's kickers get credit for total yardage in the air. Today's kickers get credit for total yardage per punt, including whatever comes from bounces and rolls.
So while Paul Calhoun's 80-yard punt against Indiana in 1983 is the official UK record, Kercheval's 78-yarder against Georgia Tech in 1933 probably was the more impressive kick.
During his seven-year NFL career with the Brooklyn Dodgers (1934-40), Kercheval's longest punt was an 86-yarder against the immortal Bronko Nagurski and the Chicago Bears on Oct. 20, 1935.
In addition, he kicked a 51-yard field goal on Oct. 10, 1934, to help the Dodgers to a 10-10 tie with the New York Giants before a crowd of 55,000 in the Polo Grounds.
"Lord, we never hardly tried a field goal in those days." Kercheval said. "The first pro game I was in, I kicked on 41 yards in the mud to beat the Boston-Redskins."
But the numbers and records don't mean as much to Kercheval as the fact that, in college and the pros, he was a 60-minute man who played in the backfield on offense and defense.
"So many people mistakenly think that all I did was go in and punt," Kercheval said. "That was just a sideline. I don't think I would have enjoyed football if kicking was all I did."
As a sophomore at UK, for example, he gained 161 yards rushing in a 7-0 loss to Duke and scored on a 90-yard run to beat Florida, 7-2, in Jacksonville.
In the pros, on the day he kicked the 51-yard field goal against the Giants, Kercheval also scored a touchdown and kicked an extra point, leading to his headline in a New York newspaper: "Kercheval 10, Giants 10"
In his best season with the Dodgers, Kercheval made $3,600 and was the only player on the team that had a contract.
"As a rookie," he says, "I played all but five minutes of the entire season."
The other love of Kercheval's life has been thoroughbred racing. After graduating from UK with a degree in animal husbandry, he went to work for famed breeder C.V. Whitney, who let him take off in the fall to play pro ball.
After retiring from the NFL following the 1940 season, Kercheval spent the rest of his professional life in the horse business, with the exception of a four-year Army stint as a cavalry officer during World War II.
Although he did some training and breeding, he's probably best known in the horse business for his work a manager of Alfred Gwynn Vanderbilt's Sagamore Farm in Maryland (1948-58) and the Mereworth Farm in Kentucky (1969-79).
Last year, Kercheval and his wife, Blanche, who were married in 1936, gave away their last two horses. However, Blanche says they might buy another horse or two just to have something to do.
At an interview earlier this week at the Thoroughbred Club of America, Kercheval was at a loss to explain how he became such a superb kicker.
"The only thing I can imagine," he said, "is that when I was a kid, my brother had this old, beat-up football. We took the bladder out of it and stuffed it with rags and then stitched it back up with shoelaces. It was heavy, but maybe kicking with that helped me."
He also says that he always put a lot of emphasis on his follow-through, and, indeed, photos of Kercheval in action show that hi right knee ended up so high that it was almost even with his face.
The last time he remembers kicking a football was in the early 1960s, when he used to fool around on the farm with some kids.
"But I really think I could go out there right now and kick one 50 yards," Kercheval said.
He wasn't kidding, either.
