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

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

player and

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

place kicker 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 ( ; , from meaning "bay, lagoon") is the third-most populous city in South Africa, after Johannesburg and Cape Town, and the largest city in the Provinces of South Africa, province of KwaZulu-Natal. Situated on the east coast of South ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

, and played rugby union professionally before attending

Ohio State University The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one ...

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 the Republic of Rhodesia from 1970, was an unrecognised state, unrecognised state in Southern Africa that existed from 1965 to 1979. Rhodesia served as the ''de facto'' Succession of states, successor state to the ...

and was part of their 1949 10–8 victory over the

All Blacks The New Zealand national rugby union team, commonly known as the All Blacks, is the representative men's national team in the sport of rugby union for the nation of New Zealand, which is considered the country's national sport. Famed for th ...

. 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 The AK-47, officially known as the Avtomat Kalashnikova (; also known as the Kalashnikov or just AK), is an assault rifle that is chambered for the 7.62×39mm cartridge. Developed in the Soviet Union by Russian small-arms designer Mikhail Kala ...

. He settled with his family in Durban and was educated at Westville Boys High School.

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, Bath, Rec ...

. 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 History of Germany, German woodcut depicting Saracens ''Saracen'' ( ) was a term used both in Greek language, Greek and Latin writings between the 5th and 15th centuries to ...

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. Consequently, ...

s from . After encouragement from fellow South African former

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The N ...

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. 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 Cleat may refer to: * Cleat (nautical), a fitting on ships, balls, and balls to which ropes are tied * Cleat hitch, a knot * Cleat, Orkney, a List of places in Orkney#C, place in Scotland * Cleat (shoe), a type or part of a shoe * Cleats (comic st ...

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 The Lou Groza Award is presented annually to the top college football placekicker in the United States by the Palm Beach County, Florida, Palm Beach County Sports Commission. The award is named after former Ohio State Buckeyes and Cleveland Browns ...

. He also played in Ohio's 2008 BCS National Championship Game loss to LSU Tigers. In his 2008 season, he scored all but one of his

point after touchdown The conversion, try (American football), also known as a point(s) after touchdown, PAT, extra point, two-point conversion, or convert (Canadian football) is a gridiron football play that occurs immediately after a touchdown. The scoring team att ...

attempts and was a part of Ohio State's 2009 Fiesta Bowl game, a loss to the

Texas Longhorns The Texas Longhorns are the athletic teams representing the University of Texas at Austin. The teams are sometimes referred to as the Horns and take their name from Longhorn cattle that were an important part of the development of Texas, and ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pretorius, Ryan 1979 births Living people American football placekickers Bath Rugby players Ohio State Buckeyes football players 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 Alumni of Westville Boys' High School South African expatriate rugby union players in England Rugby union players from Durban Rhodesian rugby union players