Ben Agajanian, 1919-2018

The history of football is speckled with challengers to the NFL, and those challengers with unusual stories. Ben Agajanian was a part of both.

Benjamin James Agajanian was born on August 28, 1919 in Santa Ana, Orange County, California, and grew up in the San Pedro section of Los Angeles. His parents, Armenian immigrants, left the Ottoman Empire due to the genocide. Ben had an older brother, Joshua, known as J.C. Agajanian, who became a prominent auto racing promoter.

Ben became a placekicker on the football teams at San Pedro High School, Compton Junior College and the University of New Mexico. However, he was not selected in the 1941 NFL Draft. Nor did any team in the American Football League express interest in him. This was the 3rd league with the AFL name, following those of 1926 and 1936-37. This league was founded in 1940, but did not survive America's entry into World War II.

Pro teams may have been scared off of signing Agajanian because of an accident at an off-campus job in 1939. He was working at a cola bottling plant, sitting on a barrel of syrup that was on a moving freight elevator. His right foot, his kicking foot, was smashed into a ledge, and 4 toes, all but the little toe, were crushed.

They had to be amputated. He asked the doctor who would perform the surgery to make the nubs all the same length, because he thought it would make kicking easier. But this did not stop him from enlisting and being accepted into the U.S. Army Air Force, the forerunner of the U.S. Air Force.

He came out of The War, but his football reputation was not much enhanced. He played 1 game with the Philadelphia Eagles in 1945, then 5 with the Pittsburgh Steelers, attempting 4 field goals and making them all, albeit none from longer than 31 yards.

He was out of football in the 1946 season, and started a sporting goods store. But that year, a new league, the All-America Football Conference, was founded. The AAFC became for him, and many others, a professional lifeline. There was a team in his hometown, the Los Angeles Dons (named for the Spanish colonial lords of California and Mexico, and also the name of the teams of the University of San Francisco), and they signed him up. In 1947, he led the AAFC in field goals made, field goals attempted, and field goal percentage.

He was the 1st kicker to ask that his holder turn the football's laces outward. With his European background, he treated the ball as a soccer player would a soccer ball, taking just 2 steps to take a corner kick. This is why kickers who curved their paths into the ball became known as "soccer-style" kickers, which changed the position as much as Dick Fosbury's "Fosbury flop" changed the high jump. But Agajanian remained a straight-on kicker.

When he played, his left shoe was a size 11, his right shoe a size 7 1/2 with a square front. Some players -- as they would a generation later, when club-footed Tom Dempsey wore a "half-shoe" that allowed him to kick, including the 1st 63-yarder in pro football -- said that his disability was helping him, and was, therefore, cheating. He said, "Well, you can do it, too. If it helps you, why not?" No one did.

After 2 seasons with the Dons, the NFL finally took notice, and the New York Giants signed him for 1949. He made 8 field goals in 13 attempts, his 61.5 percent conversion rate leading the NFL. Feeling he had made his point (extra and otherwise), he retired from football, and went back to his sporting goods business.

But in 1953, following the retirement of quarterback-kicker Bob Waterfield, his hometown Los Angeles Rams needed a kicker, with Norm Van Brocklin still around to play quarterback. Ben was in town, so they signed him. The Giants took him back in 1954, and, splitting the kicking duties with Pat Summerall, he helped the Giants win the 1956 NFL Championship. He retired again after the 1957 season, 38 years old, and one of the few players making more money at his off-season job than he was in the NFL.

But another American Football League was founded in 1960, and they had a team in Los Angeles, the Chargers. They signed Ben, even though he was 41. He was 1 of only 2 players to play in the AAFC, the NFL, and the AFL. The other was linebacker Hardy Brown: AAFC, 1948 Brooklyn Dodgers and 1949 Chicago Hornets; NFL, 1950 Baltimore Colts, 1950 Washington Redskins, 1951-55 San Francisco 49ers, 1956 Chicago Cardinals; AFL, 1960 Denver Broncos.

Ben helped the Chargers reach the 1960 AFL Championship Game, where they lost to the Houston Oilers. In 1961, he was traded to the Dallas Texans, but was cut. He was then snapped up by the Green Bay Packers, and, playing in their games against his hometown Rams, kicked a field goal and made 8 extra points. Running back Paul Hornung did most of their kicking at the time, but Ben handled kickoffs for the Packers in the 1961 NFL Championship Game, a 37-0 demolition of the Giants on New Year's Eve at City Stadium (later renamed Lambeau Field).

He kept retiring, but, as Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) would say in The Godfather Part III, "Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in." The AFL called him back twice more, with the Oakland Raiders in 1962 and the now-San Diego Chargers in 1964. Finally quitting for good, his last game was the 1964 AFL Championship Game, which the Chargers lost to the Buffalo Bills.

Even then, it wasn't his last job in football. The Dallas Cowboys hired him as their kicking coach, and he stayed with them for 20 years. He helped develop kickers Danny Villanueva (from New Mexico but of Mexican descent, and later a co-founder of the Spanish-language network Univision), Mike Clark (from the Dallas area), Toni Fritsch (from Austria), Efren Herrera (from Mexico) and Rafael Septien (also from Mexico). By an odd turn of events, Agajanian outlived Villanueva, Clark and Fritsch. (Herrera and Septien are still alive.)

He founded the Long Beach Athletic Club in 1972, and it became a magnet for the West Coast's leading handball players. He also became a world-class gin rummy player. He was married for 49 years to Arleen, and had sons Larry and Lewis, and daughters Lynne and Lori. He lived to see 10 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren. His wife and his son Larry predeceased him.

Yesterday, it was announced that Ben Agajanian had died last Thursday, February 8, 2018, in Cathedral City, California, at age 98, making him the oldest living former NFL player. 98 was also the number on the race car his brother J.C. professionally drove.

With his death, there are now just 4 surviving members of the 1956 NFL Champion New York Giants, 61 years later: Sam Huff, Rosey Grier, Harland Svare and Henry Moore. And there are 15 surviving members of the 1961 NFL Champion Green Bay Packers, 55 years later: Bart Starr, Paul Hornung, Jim Taylor, Willie Wood, Herb Adderley, Forrest Gregg, Willie Davis, Jerry Kramer, Boyd Dowler, Gary Knafelc, John Roach, Tom Moore, Dale Hackbart, Nelson Toburen and Lee Folkens.

UPDATE: He was cremated, so there is no gravesite. As of the 100th Anniversary of his birth, Starr, Taylor and Gregg have died, leaving 4 living '56 Giants and 12 living '61 Packers.