Gano has sense of history with kick

CHARLOTT E , N. C . » When Graham Gano got home with the football he kicked 63 yards to give the Carolina Panthers a dramatic win over the New York Giants, he knew exactly where he was going to put it.

Gano took the ball into his office and placed and placed it neatly on a kicking tee — one autographed by Tom Dempsey.

It seemed only fitting, Gano said.

It was Dempsey, after all, who was the only kicker in league history to boot a gamewinning 63yard field goal before Gano’s heroics last Sunday that gave Carolina a 3331 victory. Dempsey’s kick came on Nov. 8, 1970, helping the Saints beat the Lions 1917 — 17 years before Gano was born. Matt Prater, then with the Broncos, holds the NFL record for the longest field goal of 64 yards, but it wasn’t a gamewinner.

Gano said that while he has never met Dempsey, now 71, he has always admired his accomplishment from afar. Gano has watched the historic kick on You Tube several times and even stood at the site of Dempsey’s kick at Tulane University, which is no longer used for football but now a common area for students.

Gano kept the tee in his office as inspiration.

“I would look at that tee sometimes and be like, man, that would be awesome to have that opportunity to do that,” said Gano, a converted soccer player who didn’t start playing football until his freshman year of high school. “So to have that chance on Sunday, it was like everything came full circle.”

Gano received the plastic orange tee as a Christmas gift from his wife’s uncle back when he was a kicker at Florida State. It came with a certificate of authenticity and a picture of Dempsey signing it.

“Hey, I thought it was the coolest thing ever,” Gano said with a wide smile. “To a lot of people it might not be all that to them, but to me it was really, really cool.”

When Gano ran on to the field with six seconds left, he said had no idea exactly how long the kick was from.

He said he was too busy doing what he normally does before every kick — lining it up and making sure he had good footing, all before the play clock expired. He didn’t find out it was a 63yarder until after the ball arched over the crossbar — with a few yards to spare — to give Carolina the lead with one second remaining.