Ryan Pretorius (born 2 May 1979) is a South African former

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

player and

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

place kicker Placekicker, or simply kicker (PK or K), is the player in gridiron football who is responsible for the kicking duties of field goals and extra points. In many cases, the placekicker also serves as the team's kickoff specialist or punter. Speci ...

with the

Ohio State Buckeyes The Ohio State Buckeyes are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Ohio State University, located in Columbus, Ohio. The athletic programs are named after the colloquial term for people from the state of Ohio and after the state tree ...

. He was raised in

Durban Durban ( ) ( zu, eThekwini, from meaning 'the port' also called zu, eZibubulungwini for the mountain range that terminates in the area), nicknamed ''Durbs'',Ishani ChettyCity nicknames in SA and across the worldArticle on ''news24.com'' from ...

, South Africa, and played rugby union professionally before attending Ohio State University to play American football.

Early life

Pretorius was born in Rhodesia and is the grandson of Joe Pretorius, a rugby player who played internationally for

Rhodesia Rhodesia (, ), officially from 1970 the Republic of Rhodesia, was an unrecognised state in Southern Africa from 1965 to 1979, equivalent in territory to modern Zimbabwe. Rhodesia was the ''de facto'' successor state to the British colony of S ...

and was part of their 1949 10–8 victory over the All Blacks. Pretorius and his family fled to

, South Africa, in 1983 after a Zimbabwe Republic Police officer threatened him and his father with an AK-47. He settled with his family in Durban and was educated at

Westville Boys High School Westville Boys' High School, often referred to as WBHS or "boys high", is a semi-private high school for boys located in Westville, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Early history The year 2022 marks the 67th anniversary of WBHS as a high school. T ...

Rugby

After finishing school, Pretorius moved to England and joined the academy of

Bath Rugby Bath Rugby is a professional rugby union club in Bath, Somerset, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby. Founded in 1865 as Bath Football Club, since 1894 the club has played at the Recreation Ground in the c ...

. He made his one and only appearance for Bath as a scrum-half against

Saracens file:Erhard Reuwich Sarazenen 1486.png, upright 1.5, Late 15th-century Germany in the Middle Ages, German woodcut depicting Saracens Saracen ( ) was a term used in the early centuries, both in Greek language, Greek and Latin writings, to refer ...

in 1999. He then moved to play rugby in France. For Christmas he got a laptop and looked at American football kickers seeing how far they could kick and then went on holiday to the United States and filmed himself kicking

field goal A field goal (FG) is a means of scoring in gridiron football. To score a field goal, the team in possession of the ball must place kick, or drop kick, the ball through the goal, i.e., between the uprights and over the crossbar. The entire ba ...

s from . After encouragement from fellow South African former

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major ...

kicker Gary Anderson, Pretorius sent copies of the tape to several American universities and was invited to join Ohio State University as a

walk-on Walk On may refer to: Music * ''Walk On'', a 1994 album by Boston, and its title song Albums * ''Walk On'' (Boston album), 1994 * ''Walk On'' (John Hiatt album), 1995 * ''Walk On'' (Randy Johnston album), 1992 *''Walk On'', a 2007 album by ...

. When told he would have to pay his way there, he sold his car to his father.

American football

When Pretorius kicked, he wore cleats that were two sizes too small to replicate the feeling of kicking barefoot as he had done when younger practising rugby. He made his debut for the Buckeyes in 2005. In 2006, he was awarded a scholarship to Ohio State. At the time, he was the oldest member of the Ohio State team. In 2007, with a 96% extra point percentage, he was nominated for a Lou Groza Award. He also played in Ohio's

2008 BCS National Championship Game The 2008 BCS National Championship Game (branded as the 2008 Allstate BCS National Championship Game for sponsorship reasons) was played at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana, on Monday, January 7, 2008, and featured the No. 1 and ...

loss to LSU Tigers. In his 2008 season, he scored all but one of his point after touchdown attempts and was a part of Ohio State's

2009 Fiesta Bowl The 2009 Tostitos Fiesta Bowl game was a post-season college football bowl game between the Ohio State Buckeyes and the Texas Longhorns on Monday, January 5, 2009, at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. Texas participated in t ...

game, a loss to the Texas Longhorns.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pretorius, Ryan 1979 births Living people American football placekickers Bath Rugby players Ohio State Buckeyes football players Rhodesian sportspeople Rugby union scrum-halves South African expatriates in the United States South African players of American football South African rugby union players Sportspeople from Durban White South African people