Early Life
Groza was born in an Ohio River town called Martins Ferry, Ohio, the son of immigrant parents who owned and ran Groza's Tavern on Main Street. He was the smallest in stature of three boys in an athletic family: his brother Alex became a star basketball player at the University of Kentucky as the school won two national championships.
Groza played on his high school football and basketball teams in Martins Ferry. The school won the state basketball championship in 1941, when Groza was its captain. He was also captain of the baseball team. He learned placekicking from his older brother Frank, and practiced by trying to kick balls over telephone wires when he and his friends played touch football in the street.
Read more about this topic: Lou Groza
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or life:
“Franklin said once in one of his inspired flights of malignity—
Early to bed and early to rise
Make a man healthy and wealth and wise.
As if it were any object to a boy to be healthy and wealthy and wise on such terms.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“One’s real life is so often the life that one does not lead.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)