Age: 27 (Dec.
11)
3rd
season in pro football & with Vikings
College: Pittsburgh
Height: 5’10” Weight: 200
Prelude:
Cox was a
running back in college who gained 1298 yards from scrimmage in three varsity
seasons and scored five touchdowns. He was a future draft choice of both the
Cleveland Browns of the NFL (eighth round) and New York Titans of the AFL (28th
round) in 1961. Signing with the Browns in ’62, he suffered a back injury
during his first training camp and concentrated on placekicking, learning
technique from veteran PK Lou Groza. The Browns traded him to Minnesota during
the preseason, but he was waived in favor of Mike Mercer, who could both punt
and placekick. Cox sat out the year but was invited back in 1963 and made 12 of
24 field goals and all 39 extra point attempts as a placekicker and also
handled the punting, averaging 38.7 yards. He was relieved of the punting in
’64 and had a better year placekicking, hitting on 21 of 33 of his field goal
tries and 40 of 42 PATs.
1965 Season Summary
Appeared in
all 14 games
[Bracketed
numbers indicate league rank in Top 20]
Kicking
Field goals –
23 [1]
Most field
goals, game – 4 at Green Bay 12/5
Field goal
attempts – 35 [1]
Most field
goal attempts, game – 5 at Green Bay 12/5
Field goal
percentage – 65.7 [2]
PATs – 44 [5]
PAT attempts
– 44 [5]
Longest field
goal – 53 yards at Green Bay 12/5
Scoring
Field Goals –
23
PATs – 44
Points – 113
[3]
Vikings went 7-7
to finish fifth in the NFL Western Conference.
Aftermath:
Cox continued
on for a total of 15 seasons, all with the Vikings. After two lesser years in
1966 and ’67, his field goal percentage improved to 65.5 in 1968. He topped the
NFL in field goals (26), field goal percentage (70.3), and scoring (121 points)
in 1969, when he also received All-NFL honors from the Associated Press and
Sporting News, and again in field goals (30) and scoring (125 points) in ’70,
when he received consensus All-NFC recognition. His field goal totals dropped
with the moving of the goal posts to the back of the end zone in 1974, although
he succeeded on 13 of 17 attempts in ’75 for a career-high 76.5 percentage, and
he became less reliable on extra points in his last few seasons. Overall, Cox
was successful on 282 of 455 field goal tries (62 %) and added 519 extra points
out of 539 attempts for a total of 1365 points, all franchise best totals. In
18 postseason games, he was successful on 11 of 18 field goal attempts and 38
of 40 PATs for another 71 points. Cox was a first-team All-NFL selection once
and was named to one Pro Bowl. He also gained some notoriety as the inventor of
the Nerf football.
--
Highlighted Years features players who were consensus
first-team All-League* selections or league* or conference** leaders in the
following statistical categories:
Rushing:
Yards, TDs (min. 10)
Passing:
Yards, Completion Pct., Yards per Attempt, TDs, Rating
Receiving:
Catches, Yards, TDs (min. 10)
Scoring: TDs,
Points, Field Goals (min. 5)
All-Purpose:
Total Yards
Defense:
Interceptions, Sacks
Kickoff
Returns: Average
Punt Returns:
Average
Punting:
Average
*Leagues
include NFL (1920 to date), AFL (1926), AFL (1936-37), AAFC (1946-49), AFL
(1960-69), WFL (1974-75), USFL (1983-85)
**NFC/AFC
since 1970
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