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UK's Ralph Kercheval put the foot' into football
He's been called 'Babe Ruth of UK football'
Since the inception of modern football at the University of Kentucky almost 100 years ago (1891), Wildcat teams have featured many multi-talented performers who, among other things, really put the "foot" in football, but
Russell Rice
Cats' Pause Columnist
no Wildcat has surpassed the overall feats (or feets?) of Ralph Kercheval, who almost six decades ago made his mark as perhaps the greatest UK kicker of all time.
Kercheval, now semi-retired after many years of managing thoroughbred farms and training horses, was born at Salt Lick but came at an early age to Lexington, where he was coached at Henry Clay High School by John Heber, former Wildcat star (1916-17-18-19-20) who called Kercheval the best kicker he had ever seen.
"HE WAS A NATURAL BORN PUNTER," Heber said. "I didn't teach him a thing. In fact I tried to stop him from taking two or three steps before kicking and it hurt his effectiveness. So I just moved him back a few yards. He was great when I first saw him. I suppose he taught himself."
As part of his punting technique. Kercheval seemed to throw the ball downward. He once explained that he held the ball with one hand on top and a little to the side, which allowed the left arm to swing as if he were in stride and gave him excellent balance.
"Even as a kid I could kick the ball 55 or 60 yards," he said. "When I was about 12 or 13, we used to go over to where the Kentucky players were punting. We'd get behind the goal, in case they missed, and shag balls. Sometimes they'd let us punt. I used to kick it over their heads. They'd get a bang out of that.
"We used to climb over the fence (at old Stoll Field), hide
and get lost during the games. That's when they put up barbed wire over the cyclone fence. The players had to walk through a garden area from the dressing room to the playing field, and we'd often walk with them, hiding under their blankets. When we got inside, they would turn us loose."
One of those Wildcat players was the flamboyant John Simms "Shipwreck" Kelly, backfield standout and a punter in his own right who would play one year (1931) with Kercheval at UK and then draft the Wildcat punter two years later when Kelly was a player and part-owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers pro grid team.
KERCHEVAL, ALSO AN OFFENSIVE BACK, played a secondary role his freshman season as the Kittens overran six opponents and his punting services seldom were needed; however, he kicked the extra points.
As a third-string fullback behind the Phipps brothersTom and Jack of Ashlandhis sophomore year, Kercheval failed to see action in a 19-0 opening victory over Maryville. He was languishing on the bench late in the first half against Washington & Lee the following Saturday when the Wildcats were assessed a 15-yard penalty that put them deep in their own territory. Wildcat coach Harry damage looked down the bench and yelled: "Kercheval, go in there and kick it."
"I caught the ball real well and kicked it 75 yards in the air," Kercheval said. "I remember, as a kid would, everybody rose in their seats on both sides of the field, and I couldn't help but see and hear them. When we went back to the dressing room, Gamage sat beside me and said,: 'I'm going start you this half, and we're going to kick every time on first down.' "
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After a 75-yard punt in the air vs. Washington & Lee, Kercheval was a fixture in the lineup
After playing well in that game, which UK won 45-0, the multi-talented Kercheval was assured a starting position for the remainder of his career at UK.
John McGill, former sports editor of The Lexington Herald, wrote that Kercheval could be called the "Babe Ruth of Kentucky football because his punts linger so vividly in fens' memories that his all-around ability is often overlooked."
KERCHEVAL'S RECORD for the most punts in one game is 17 against Alabama in 1931, a game won by the Tide 9-7. On a free kick, he booted the ball 65 yards to the Tide 15. He rushed for 161 yards in a 7-0 loss to Duke. He tried his first quick-kick, a 58-yarder against Tennessee, and punted one 68 yards out of bounds on the Vol four.
In the final game of his sophomore season, he ran nine yards for a TD to beat Florida 7-2 at Jacksonville. His nine punts averaged 48 yards, one traveling 66 yards.
"We had them beat with fourth down and seven or eight inside our own 35," Shipwreck Kelly recalled years later. "In the huddle, I told (captain) Babe Wright that I wanted to see Kercheval kick one more time before the season ended. Ralph took the ball and kicked it out of
the end zone and into the bay. That was the only time I've ever seen a ball kicked out of a stadium."
According to available records, Kercheval finished that season with 64 punts for 2,627 yards, a 41.0 average in those days when the ball was, as Kercheval recalls, "shaped like a pumpkin."
Injuries kept Kercheval out of the Duke and Alabama games his junior season, when he unofficially punted 69 times for 2,763 yards with three of the punts traveling 60 yards or better. He set school and national records the following season with 101 punts for 4,394 yards, a 41.8 average.
In a 7-6 victory over Georgia Tech in 1933, he had a 77-yard punt, a school record that remained on the books until Randy Jenkins kicked a 78-yarder in 1983. Later in the game, he kicked a 73-yarder, going against the wind, and averaged 45 yards on 16 kicks. He also kicked the winning point and made two key defensive plays.
ANOTHER MEMORABLE GAME occurred midway of that season was against Cincinnati in the Queen City, where the Wildcats and Bearcats, both undefeated, met before a record 16JXX) fens in Nippert Stadium. Here is how UC's fleet halfback Bill Schwarberg described Kercheval's kkk-[ Continued on page 22}