Dirk Borgognone

Who is Dirk Borgognone?

Dirk Ronald Borgognone is a retired former National Football League placekicker who currently holds the record for the longest field goal ever kicked in the history of high school football, 68 yards.

Borgognone attended Reno High School, initially playing as a soccer player. He soon switched to football and was trained in a "straight-on" kicking style. On September 27, 1985, he kicked the longest field goal in high school football history, during a Reno High School game at Sparks High School. The kick measured 68 yards, and was longer than any that had ever been successfully kicked in the NFL or the NCAA. Borgognone was thereafter relegated solely to kicks of over 50 yards after his kick and missing all eight of his subsequent attempts, not kicking a single successful field goal the rest of his high school career. He would convert three field goals in a subsequent all-star game, being named the game's MVP. After high school, Borgognone attended Truckee Meadows Community College before transferring to the University of the Pacific. Borgognone's college career, however, was derailed by a 1988 change to the NCAA rule books that banned kicking off tees for field goal attempts. This not only reduced the general range for field goals, but Borgognone had always kicked off a tee and was unprepared for the change. Frustrated, Borgognone left college early to pursue an NFL career as a kickoff specialist.