The longest college football field goal: What we know

Fall was upon them in Abilene, Texas. Overcast skies and the crisp 58-degree air resembled the breath of a peppermint. The wind? Seventeen miles per hour with a 12 miles per hour tailwind. Sixty-nine yards was all that stood in the way of Ove Johansson and history.

That’s when, Johansson kicked a 69-yard field goal against East Texas State, becoming the record-holder for the longest field goal in college football history.

Homecoming weekend brought the crowd on Oct. 16, 1976 to Abilene Christian University and Shotwell Stadium. The stands were brimming with students, faculty, staff, parents, alumni. They knew one record would be broken that day. Wilbert Montgomery was a touchdown shy of surpassing fellow Mississippi native Walter Payton’s career collegiate touchdown record (63). What they didn’t know of was the dialogue that preceded the game between ACU teammates Johansson and Montgomery. Both agreed to set records that day.

Two of Johansson’s pregame warmup kicks were good from 70 yards. 

“The leg was working,” Johansson told NCAA.com in 2019.

Wilbert scored his long-anticipated touchdown. That didn’t pressurize Johansson, but something peculiar peaked his adrenaline. Ten minutes before he and the Wildcats’ special teams unit gathered at their own 41-yard line, Tony Franklin of Texas A&M kicked a 65-yard field goal (and a 64-yarder later in the game) against Baylor to take full ownership of the longest field goal in college football history.

“It was exciting to get on that field knowing if I make this field goal then I will do something that no one has ever done in the sport,” Johansson said.

The kicking gods traveled 270 miles up the road from College Station to sprinkle magic kicking dust onto Johansson’s right foot in Abilene. He was on target from 69 yards out, so much that the officials said it would’ve been good from 75 yards.

Some people like to view the kick as a fluke, that mystical powers were at work that day, that the wind…