Raimund "Ray" Wersching (born August 21, 1950 in Mondsee, Austria) is an Austrian former placekicker

Placekicker

Placekicker, or simply kicker , is the title of the player in American and Canadian football who is responsible for the kicking duties of field goals, extra points...

 in the National Football League

National Football League

The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...

 (NFL). He played in the NFL for a span of 15 years, stretching from 1973 through 1987.

NFL career

Undrafted

Undrafted

An undrafted sportsperson or undrafted free agent is specific type of sportsperson who plays, or attempts to play, in a professional sports league without first being selected in a draft....

 after his career at Cerritos College

Cerritos College

Cerritos College is a public comprehensive community college founded in 1955 located in Norwalk, California. It was named after Rancho Los Cerritos, a ranch that served prominently in the region in the 19th century...

 and the University of California, Berkeley

University of California, Berkeley

The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...

, Wersching was signed by the San Diego Chargers

San Diego Chargers

The San Diego Chargers are a professional American football team based in San Diego, California. they were members of the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...

, where he played for four years. In 1977, Wersching joined the San Francisco 49ers

San Francisco 49ers

The San Francisco 49ers are a professional American football team based in San Francisco, California, playing in the West Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The team was founded in 1946 as a charter member of the All-America Football Conference and...

. In Super Bowl XVI

Super Bowl XVI

Super Bowl XVI was an American football game played on January 24, 1982, at the Pontiac Silverdome in Pontiac, Michigan to decide the National Football League champion following the 1981 regular season. It marked the first time that a Super Bowl was held at a cold-weather city...

, Wersching tied a Super Bowl

Super Bowl

The Super Bowl is the championship game of the National Football League , the highest level of professional American football in the United States, culminating a season that begins in the late summer of the previous calendar year. The Super Bowl uses Roman numerals to identify each game, rather...

 record by kicking 4 field goals, and his team won 26-21. He won another Super Bowl ring

Super Bowl ring

The Super Bowl ring is an award in the National Football League given to the winners of the league's annual championship game, the Super Bowl...

 with the 49ers in Super Bowl XIX

Super Bowl XIX

Super Bowl XIX was an American football game played on January 20, 1985 at Stanford Stadium, on the campus of Stanford University in Stanford, California, to decide the National Football League champion following the 1984 regular season...

, defeating the Miami Dolphins

Miami Dolphins

The Miami Dolphins are a Professional football team based in the Miami metropolitan area in Florida. The team is part of the Eastern Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...

 38-16. When he retired, Wersching held 49ers records for points, field goal

Field goal (football)

A field goal in American football and Canadian football is a goal that may be scored during general play . Field goals may be scored by a placekick or the now practically extinct drop kick.The drop kick fell out of favor in 1934 when the shape of the ball was changed...

s and extra point

Extra Point

Extra Point is a twice-daily, two-minute segment on ESPN Radio that covers generic sports-related topical news and opinion. The AM edition airs Monday through Saturday at various times between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m. ET, and the PM edition airs Monday through Friday between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. ET...

s. He was the twelfth player in NFL history to score 1,000 points in a career, and was the most recent player to have scored from a fair catch kick

Fair catch kick

The fair catch kick is a rarely used rule in some forms of American football that allows a team, after making a fair catch of an opponent's kick, to attempt a field goal freely from the spot of the catch. It is one of the three types of free kicks; the other two are the kickoff and the safety kick...

http://quirkyresearch.blogspot.com/2006/07/nfl-fair-catch-kick-attempts.html.

Wersching had a unique kicking style. Upon crossing the out of bound line onto the field to kick a field goal or extra-point, he always looked down, never raising his head until after he kicked. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/04/21/SP1S15EMMD.DTL