May 16, 2015

Updated at 4:45 p.m. with quotes from Bill Baldini

Garo Yepremian, the former NFL kicker who helped the Miami Dolphins win consecutive NFL championships but is best known locally for his fundraising efforts to give brain cancer the boot, died Friday of the disease. The Chester County resident was 70.

“Yesterday, we lost our hero,” said a Facebook posting by the Yepremian family. “Garo Yepremian was diagnosed with neuroendocrine cancer one year ago, which caused multiple brain tumors and complications as it metastasized. His valiant fight came to an end with his family by his side, and his fans in his heart.”

Calling him a wonderful, talented man “who laughed easily and gave so much to others,” Chester County Sheriff Carolyn “Bunny” Welsh said her friendship with the Yepremian family goes back nearly two decades.

She remembered one particularly entertaining moment at the wedding of one of her daughters when a friend asked in advance who would be at his table, and Welsh responded: “a world-class football star” – without revealing the name.

At the wedding, the friend sat down next to the Yepremians,  looked around, and asked: “So where’s this big football player?” Welsh said Yepremian pumped us his 5-foot-8 frame, stood up, and proclaimed: “That would be me.” Welsh said the surrounding guests exploded with laughter.

Bill Bergey, another ex-NFL standout who lives in the area, described a decades-long friendship with the man he dubbed “Mr. Personality” that began with mutual admiration. Bergey recalled coming out of the Orange Bowl, seeing Yepremian, and deciding that he had to meet him because he regarded him as the best kicker in the history of the NFL.

As Bergey approached Yepremian and his wife, Maritza, he later learned that Yepremian had just whispered: “Maritza, I don’t want you to look now, but the best linebacker who’s ever played is coming up behind us.”

Bergey said the next time he saw Yepremian was a chance encounter at the Sunoco station at Routes 1 and 202, where both had stopped to get gas. “He’s a guy who made a difference,” Bergey said. “When you have someone of his stature who commits themselves to helping others, that’s really what it’s all about.”

Yepremian’s football career spanned 15 years and three Super Bowls, including stints with the Detroit Lions, Miami Dolphins, New Orleans Saints and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. It was a storybook career for an unknown who came to the U.S. from Cyprus at age 22 because his brother had watched a football game on TV and thought his sibling could kick well enough to get a free education.

Acknowledging that he had never seen a football game until he played in one, Yepremian would continue to tackle unfamiliar endeavors, always displaying a zest for life and an infectious smile.

His ambitious goal of advancing brain tumor research and treatment began in the mid-‘90s with a high school love story. Debby-Lu Tashjian, a 1995 Unionville High graduate, had won the devotion of Azad Yepremian, one of Garo Yepremian’s two sons. When Tashjian was subsequently diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor in 1998 and given six months to live, Azad Yepremian insisted on going forward with wedding plans.

Tashjian proceeded to captivate the hearts of the entire Yepremian family:  Maritza, Yepremian’s wife of more than 40 years, and their elder son, Garo Jr. Debby-Lu Yepremian graduated summa cum laude from West Chester University in 1999, and she also outlived her doctors’ prognoses by more than five years.

She lost her hard-fought battle with the disease in 2004. By then, her father-in-law was already several years into the Garo Yepremian Foundation, a nonprofit he founded in 2001 to subsidize life-saving brain tumor research and treatment, primarily through annual celebrity-studded fundraisers. Bergey said both he and his wife had served on the board.

Yepremian’s efforts to eliminate brain cancer hit even closer to home last year when Yepremian received his diagnosis. At the time, Maritza Yepremian said she and her husband had the same reaction to the news: speechlessness.

The tumor was successfully removed, and the Stage 4 cancer responded positively to chemotherapy and radiation, but it returned some months later, his wife said. The news prompted the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s choice as the 1970’s “Kicker of the Decade” to fight back, resuming a combination of chemotherapy and radiation with the same optimism and tenacity that dominated his life.

During his football tenure, he became known as “the tiemaker-tiebreaker” for a line of neckwear he designed. From 1966 through 1981, he missed only one NFL season when he volunteered to serve in the U.S. Army. He also gained notoriety for a short-lived quarterbacking stint during the 1973 Super Bowl.

After one of his field-goal attempts was blocked, Yepremian grabbed the ball, attempted to pass, and fumbled it, enabling an opposing player to return it for a touchdown. Over the years, many linked Yepremian to the image of the ball’s slipping from his grasp and nearly dooming Miami’s perfect season, an association that Yepremian accepted with characteristic grace and good humor.

Following his retirement in 1981, Yepremian flourished as a high-energy speaker and an author, writing three books. In 2003, he added oil painting to his repertoire, enthusiastically tapping into his creative side to produce vibrant works of art that would become coveted auction items at various charity events.

One of his paintings sold for $2,000 during the NFL Players Association’s “Smocks for Jocks” Super Bowl benefit last year, his wife said. Yepremian’s artwork was also featured prominently at his two signature fundraisers for his  501(c)3 foundation: Casino Night and the Garo Yepremian Celebrity Golf Classic.

Welsh, who said Yepremian’s paintings enliven multiple walls in her home, described his loss as immeasurable. “He leaves a hole in our hearts,” she said. “We love him and miss him.”

Bill Baldini, who retired from broadcasting after 40 years at NBC10, said he became friends with Yepremian after doing a series of stories on him – both before and after the creation of the Garo Yepremian Foundation.

“I never, ever heard him utter a word in anger,” Baldini said. “The guy was always up, he always took the high road … Even when he was suffering, he was a warrior to the end.”

Baldini said members of Yepremian’s family endured atrocities, even death, in Armenia, so when Yepremian came to the U.S., he “really appreciated the opportunities” he got here.

“The guy was just a patriot and a half,” Baldini said. “He was always giving back. It’s a tremendous loss, even for people who don’t know him, because he did so much for others. There’s going to be a giant void.”

For more information on the foundation, visit http://www.yepremian.org.