Theodore Francis Vactor (born May 27, 1944) is a former

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 ...

cornerback A cornerback (CB) is a member of the defensive backfield or secondary in gridiron football. Cornerbacks cover Wide receiver, receivers most of the time, but also blitz and defend against such Play from scrimmage, offensive running plays as sweep ...

in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, 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 ...

(NFL) for the

Washington Redskins The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East ...

and

Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. They are one of two remaining ...

. He played

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

at the

University of Nebraska A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...

. Vactor is often mistakenly credited with blocking the

Miami Dolphins The Miami Dolphins are a professional American football team based in the Miami metropolitan area. The Dolphins compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East division. The team ...

Garo Yepremian Garabed Sarkis "Garo" Yepremian (2 June 1944 – 15 May 2015) was an Armenian-Cypriot American football placekicker who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 15 seasons, primarily with the Miami Dolphins. During his nine seasons with ...

's late field goal attempt in

Super Bowl VII Super Bowl VII was an American football game between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Miami Dolphins and the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Washington Redskins to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion for ...

that led to the bizarre fumble-return touchdown by the

Mike Bass Michael Thomas Bass (born March 31, 1945) is an American former professional football player who was a cornerback for the Washington Redskins of the National Football League (NFL) from 1969 through 1975. He appeared in 104 consecutive games f ...

. Several still photos of the play show him diving to block the kick, but the kick cleared him and was actually blocked by Redskins' defensive lineman Bill Brundige. Vactor also served as the head football coach at the

University of the District of Columbia The University of the District of Columbia (UDC) is a public historically black land-grant university in Washington, D.C., United States. The only public university in the city, it traces its origins to 1851 and opened in its current form in 1 ...

from 1977 to 1982 where he compiled an overall record of 24–31–1. He resigned his position as the Firebirds' head coach in 1983 to become an assistant coach with the

Washington Federals Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A m ...

of the

United States Football League The United States Football League (USFL) was a professional American football league that played for three seasons, 1983 through 1985. The league played a spring/summer schedule in each of its active seasons. The 1986 season was scheduled to be ...

. In 1999, Vactor was inducted to the Washington-Greene County Chapter of the Pennsylvania Hall of Fame and in 2000 he was inducted into the Nebraska Hall of Fame.

Head coaching record

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vactor, Ted 1944 births Living people American football cornerbacks Players of American football from Pennsylvania Washington Redskins players Chicago Bears players Nebraska Cornhuskers football players UDC Firebirds football coaches Orlando Renegades coaches