by John Bach
photo/Lisa Ventre

Some people spend their entire life chasing after a childhood dream. Bearcat kicker Jonathan Ruffin put arms around his before the end of his sophomore year in college.

Jonathan first put his dream into words at age 9 when his mom, Linda Ruffin, pulled a miniature Aladdin's lamp down from the shelf of their New Orleans home. Handing it to her son, she asked, "If you could have anything you want, what would it be?"

He answered immediately as if he had been contemplating it in the off chance he found himself in the presence of a wish-granting genie, or more likely, his mom and the lamp. Instead of a lifetime supply of Slush Puppies or a million dollars, the youngster decided then and there that he would use his only wish to one day be named the nation's top college place-kicker.

"He automatically said, 'I want the Groza,'" Linda recalls. "He wanted the Lou Groza Award."

Each year since 1992, college football's top kicker has been given the Groza, named in honor of Lou "The Toe" Groza, who played 21 years for the Cleveland Browns and set NFL records for most field goals and extra points in a season before being named to the NFL Hall of Fame.

Ruffin, in just his second year at the University of Cincinnati, saw his boyhood wish to win the Groza come true after turning in one of the most outstanding place-kicking efforts in NCAA history. The 185-pound soft-spoken biology major parted the uprights 26 times in 29 tries last season, just three short of the NCAA record. His powerful leg and accurate follow-through shattered the former record for field goals in a season at UC (17).

Ruffin's right-footed feat is particularly profound considering his previous season. As a freshman with the Bearcats, he started strong. But the year ended on the wrong foot.

He kicked off his college career in '99 by making four out of five field goal attempts, including a 41-yarder to help UC upset Wisconsin at home and a career-long 46-yard kick in front of more than 93,000 fans at Ohio State.

"I remember a lot of red in the crowd," Ruffin says of the Buckeye game. "I can picture in my head just exactly what happened. The kick was right along the post. It almost went right, but it just kind of hung in there.

"That was definitely the most memorable part of my freshman year, even though I had the big Wisconsin kick (where fans tore down the goal posts). I don't quite remember that. It was only my first game kicking. I didn't even really know what was going on."

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