Bootin’ Ben

Based on the true story of Ben Agajanian

 

   Ben Agajanian, the son of a hard-working immigrant garbage collector, gets his big break when he earns a college scholarship for his skill at tennis and football. He’s an excellent tennis player, but he’s only fair at best as a football player. Ben’s scholarship barely gave him enough money to eat once a day, so he decided to take a job at a local Coca Cola bottling company. One day Ben's foot got crushed in a freight elevator accident, resulting in the amputation of four toes on his kicking foot. Ben's tennis days are over. The doctor tells him he’ll be lucky just to walk with a cane. Never enthusiastic about the gridiron, Ben’s father tells him you might as well make up your mind that you're not going back to college to play football. Fighting depression, Ben was determined not to be the center of his friend’s jokes. He figures out a way to walk so that he doesn't have to use cane. With the help of his older brother J.C., Ben struggles to rehabilitate himself. When he returns to college, he surprises his coach and everyone by kicking better than ever with his squared off foot and special kicking shoe fashioned for him by a bootmaker.

 

When World War II breaks out, he tries to enlist, but the Navy turns him down due to his missing toes. What am I supposed to do? He asks, “Wait for them to grow back?”  When the Army Air Force learns of his football talent, they enlist him so he can play on their team in games that boost the morale of service men and civilians alike. At a base dance, he meets an athletic redhead, Arleen Phelps. Her father was a semi-pro baseball player. She beats Ben at badminton and bowling, and her father comments that he should stick to playing with the boys. As the war ends, Ben gets honorably discharged and through friends he made playing football in the Army, Ben gets a chance to try out for the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League. Amazing! He makes the team. He’s in the big leagues now and celebrates with a proposal to Arleen by telegram. She says Yes, and they get married. But pro football isn’t an easy life and in 40’s it didn’t pay much. He gets traded in the middle of the season to the Pittsburgh Steelers, a losing team. In a game he gets his arm broken making a tackle. His season --and career—hang in the balance his career may be finished. But then the coach needs him to kick. Ben trots out onto the field, arm in a sling and kicks the needed field goal. Even with his arm in a cast, he never misses a kick the rest of the season and gets the idea that he should focus on kicking and nothing else. Thanks to his broken arm, in 1945 he becomes the first player in the NFL to appear on the roster as a kicker only. The kicking specialist is born.

 

Arleen is miserable living in Pennsylvania, so Ben moves to the West Coast All American Football Conference for several years, playing for the Hollywood-owned L.A. Dons. This is the era of colorful players such as Crazy Leg Hirsch, Night Train Lane, and Choo Choo Roberts. Ben realizes to succeed, he himself must coach his own special center and holder. For the first time ever, Ben’s father finally comes to a game and becomes so proud of his son that he buys 22 season seats. As a birthday present to his wife Arleen, Ben kicks the conference’s longest field goal 53 yards. For the 1947 season he’s the leading kicker in all the leagues. In 1949 Bootin Ben retires. By 1956 Ben has been hired as the kicker for the NFL’s New York Giants the past four seasons. Some of the players grumble because he only flies in for the games, but assistant coaches Vince Lombardi and Tom Landry value his talent. As the underdog team rides the subway to the big final game against the brutal Chicago Bears, they’re subdued. It’s Ben who gives a pep talk to such all-time greats as Frank Gifford, Kyle Rote, and Rosie Grier. The Giants wind up thrashing the Bears on the icy field, 47-7. Ben and his team are crown world champions.

 

Ben retires again and focuses on his successful sporting goods business. But he misses football so he open a spring free clinic where he trains kids, in the art of kicking a football. In 1960 his wife Arleen urges him to go visit the Los Angeles Chargers practice. At age 41 he shows up on the field. The younger players taunt him about being old. However, he boots the ball so accurately the coach hires him. In the season’s thrilling first game, against the Dallas Texans, Ben is the oldest player on the field. A single point Ben’s after touchdown kick makes the difference a 21-20 victory.

 

Bootin’ Ben is a true story about a football hero. An original screenplay with heart, humor, and triumph. This film is Rudy, Invincible, and The Rookie all rolled into one.

 

                                                “When Life Kicked Him, He Kicked Back”