Garo Yepremian faces biggest battle | FinHeaven - Miami Dolphins Forums

Garo Yepremian faces biggest battle

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We spoke twice this week, Garo and I. He sounded tired the second time, his voice a whisper. He had a reason. He had just been through his second of three chemotherapy treatments, chemicals seeping intravenously through a port in his chest.

“It doesn’t bother you during,” he says. “But it takes a lot out of you.”
Garo turned 70 on June 2. There is a photograph that shows him lifting a forkful of birthday cake. There is a wide scar on his forehead, above his left eyebrow, that the Band-Aid doesn’t cover. It is a still-fresh surgical scar. Unseen in the photo is a tube running from a shunt in the back of his head, to remove fluids and relieve swelling.
Garo had a brain tumor.
It was the result of adrenal cancer.
Surgery and radiation took care of the tumor, they hope.
The chemo is attacking the cancer, they hope.
All of this just occurred, as spring burned into summer. It is all happening right now.
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A couple of lifetimes later, though, it is the little player we had fun laughing at, the one who couldn’t even throw a pass, who has something to teach us about strength.

“Today is a wonderful day,” he says, even chemotherapy-weak. “It could be raining or cloudy or snowing out. It’s still a gorgeous day.”
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I sure hope Garo can win the battle, will be praying for him.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/07/02/4215466/legendary-miami-dolphin-garo-yepremian.html
 
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I first met Garo at the Christiana Mall in Delaware where he opened a gourmet chocolate shop. This was probably 20 years ago and I walked in wearing my Dolphins leather jacket and Garo walked up and said, "hey, that's a nice jacket you have there, but... do you have one of these? That's when he showed me his Super Bowl ring which was friggin huge on his little hands. We talked about the fins for about 30 minutes and I made sure to stop in to chat every couple of weeks. He loved talking football. He really was a down to earth guy. I wish him and his family the best.
 
Ugh, get better soon Garo. Kick cancer's ass...Dolphins fans are pullin' for ya!
 
Like our nation went to the moon and back, we will find a cure for this awful disease.
 
Best wish to Garo. I believe he was from Cyprus and had a career as a tie salesman before giving football a shot.
 
Get well Garo, Dolphins Nation is pulling for you.

Thanks for the story Bromagnon. Garo has always been my favorite kicker. Here's some interesting tidbits on his wiki page.
After much practice in which Yepremian finally proved that he, indeed, might have the ability to kick, the brothers set off on a mission to convince NFL teams that Yepremian could be an American football star. The NFL didn't know what to make of the brothers and they were denied access to many practice facilities. Krikor acted as Yepremian's agent and finally managed to convince the Detroit Lions to give the small Yepremian (5'7", 160 pounds) a tryout. Yepremian's surprising talent earned him a contract. In his rookie year, he broke a record by kicking six field goals in a single game against the Minnesota Vikings. His talent aside, Yepremian was, nonetheless, at a loss regarding football vernacular and custom. In his first game his coach told him that their team had lost the coin toss, at which point Yepremian ran to midfield and dropped to his knees looking for the coin.

Yepremian was an immediate target to NFL players who considered American football the exclusive realm of Americans. Players were looking to take Yepremian's head off, and before his first kickoff his coach told him to run to the bench as soon as he kicked before his opponents could lay into him. Yepremian kicked off, then in a harried state ran to the wrong bench, finding himself sitting with the opposing team. Yepremian had never worn a helmet and at first decided not to use one with a face mask, but that changed during Week 4 of the 1966 season, when he was knocked to the ground and badly injured by Green Bay Packers linebacker Ray Nitschke. Afterwards, he started using a single-bar mask.

During one of his early games with the Lions, they were losing but scored a touchdown in the last 10 seconds of the game. Yepremian was sent in to kick the extra point, and he was so excited after converting the point that he went running off the field with his arms raised in celebration. Teammate Alex Karras asked Yepremian, "What the hell are you celebrating?" Yepremian replied with a phrase made famous on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson: "I keek a touchdown".

After the 1967 season, Yepremian left football to enlist in the U.S. Army. When he returned to the Detroit area in 1968, however, the Lions chose not to re-sign him, so Yepremian signed a contract to be a kicker/punter for the Michigan Arrows of the Continental Football League.

After sitting out the 1969 season, Yepremian earned a spot on the Dolphins roster in 1970. After leading the NFL with 117 points in 1971, he was a key member of the 1972 Miami Dolphins "Perfect Season" team - he was the leading scorer and converted on many clutch field goals to help the Dolphins stay unbeaten. Yepremian appeared in three Super Bowls (VI, VII and VIII).


Voted "Kicker of the Decade" (1970s) by the Pro Football Hall of Fame Committee
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garo_Yepremian
 
It is a shame that many will remember him for that one play in the Super Bowl.

In the first Madden they had the 72' Dolphins as one of the "great teams".

And Garo could not make a extra point let alone a FG. Plus, Griese or Morrall could not complete a pass (this is no joke). I still think this is why I'm one of the last of the "runners" in Madden today. I could not make FGs or extra points or complete a pas so I ran all 4 downs and even had to make my extra point running the ball.

I never knew Garo had to put us with so much BS with the rest of the NFL.
 
Best Wishes go out to him and his family. But, Garo, for the love of God, never attempt a forward pass again.:chuckle:
 
Sad to see one of my childhood heroes having to deal with such a brutal disease.
 
I became a dolphins fan because of this guy. Came to America in 1989 and didn't know anything about football. I randomly saw a documentary about the 1972 Miami Dolphins and heard this guys name. As an Armenian I thought it was awesome to hear about an Armenian player playing in the NFL and became a Dolphins fan because of that connection. This is a saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaddd triiiipppppppp.
 
Get well soon, Garo! My prayers are with you and your family.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk
 
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