Hungarian soccer player changed how American football is played

A Hungarian teenager bored in an American high school decided to start kicking a basketball, which fortunately the coach of the local American football team saw. Peter Gogolák then changed the sport and played a considerable role in the fact that the rivalling leagues eventually merged – writes Forbes.

Pete Gogolak, or – as he was born in Budapest in 1942 – Péter Kornél Gogolák was a football player in Ferencváros – known as Kinizsi at the time – in his childhood when he was the teammate of Albert Flórián. However, history has intervened, making Pete not one of the dominant figures in soccer but in American football. He and his family fled the 1956 Revolution when Pete was a child – but he later “revolutionised” a sport overseas.

The essence of American football is that teams have to run as many yards as possible to get the egg-shaped ball into the other team’s so-called endzone; this is the well-known touchdown. However, a point or an extra point can also be earned by kicking the ball through the huge U-shaped goalpost; this is a field goal. In the ’60s, American footballers were kicking the ball by running towards it head on kicking from the front, so there was a lot of excitement about whether the ball was within the target and players could not kick the ball very far. This was changed by the Gogolak brothers, mostly thanks to the eldest of them, Peter.

Like all great things, it all started with a coincidence

The Gogolak family settled in Ogdensburg, New York, where Peter went to high school. On a rainy day, the school’s American football team could not train outside, and there was Gogolák in the hall, kicking a basketball far across the hall out of pure boredom. Bill Plimton, the coach of Ogdensburg, immediately asked Pete to go out on the field and kick the American football. He kicked it so hard it was difficult to follow it with plain eyes.

Although it may appear that Pete had superpowers imported from Eastern Europe, Gogolak still had a lot of work to do to become a truly outstanding player – and he trained hard. Plimton recalled a high school game when Gogolak kicked the ball so hard that it broke the goalpost in half.

If you rather prefer soccer legends, here is an article about a mural on Chelsea Stadium commemorating a Hungarian coach. But if you are the adventurous type and like trying out new things to do, well, you might love teqball, a Hungarian invention that soccer superstars love.

While at Cornell University’s team, Pete employed the “soccer-style” kick for the first time in the history of the sport, which has been quite a significant innovation among the pros. Gogolak kicked the ball slightly from the side, which was more effective for two reasons: he was able to aim more precisely, and he was able to kick it farther. Of course, he took the technique from his early days of playing European football, but Pete changed the game in one fell swoop. Although not a member of the Hall of Fame, the American Professional League, the NFL still considers Pete Gogolak’s kicking technique among the top 10 things that changed American football.

He was drafted in 1964 and began his professional career with the Buffalo Bills team, where he immediately excelled, delivering a quarter of the team’s points. At that time, the two professional leagues, the rival National Football League (NFL) and the American Football League (AFL) that started later organised their championship separately. Pete Gogolak became a champion in the AFL for a year in 1964 and was selected to the league’s all-star team in his first professional year.