University of Georgia Athletics
Peter Rajecki: Bulldog Embracing The American Dream
November 08, 2013 | Football
Nov. 8, 2013
By Loran Smith
Here comes Peter Rajecki, the Bootin' Tueton, his effervescent personality cloaked in warm smiles, engaging and ebullient, showering a generous helping of conversational goodwill to one and all--friends and neighbors and anyone within earshot--bringing about sparkling and energetic chatter without pause.
Peter, the German born, former Georgia placekicker who treasures his days with the Bulldogs, always has a business idea or a bent for something charitable, making you feel good when he is talking about whatever is on his mind. He might tell you about a speech he made recently to a woman's group, which left them charmed and emotionally overwhelmed about his intriguing life's story. He might share with you his latest business concept, convincing you that it is even better than HE thinks it is. He might tell you about a hunting opportunity on the plains of Africa. And he will forever remind you even in singsong, "It's Great to Be a Georgia Bulldog."
He has been a Bulldog advocate since taking up residence in America after his early years in post World War II Germany when the war ravaged country was struggling to find food to eat and to dedicate itself to rebuilding. Peter's early life was deeply affected by that Phoenix-like rebirth of his native land.
"Fortunately for me," he says of those times, "I was in West Germany where you could find a way. Free enterprise, man that is the ticket and don't you forget it," he says in a mellow voice, still charmingly influenced by his soft accent.
He refers to himself, as does many of his friends, as "German." He might reminisce about a critical juncture in his life and quote himself. "I says to myself, 'German you are out there all alone. Nobody is going to give you anything. You know, German, just roll up your sleeves and get to work. Do it like German did it when he walked on, when everybody told him he was crazy, and made the Bulldog football team. Nobody thought German could do that. Nobody thought German would ever earn a letter. Nobody thought German could get a scholarship. That's what America is all about. You work, you work hard and you can do things in this country."
When he was a senior at Georgia in 1970 the following story, in part, appeared in the football programs and reflects his early days as a soccer kicker, which led him to the Georgia campus. Peter Rajecki takes his football seriously, same as he did with soccer as a young boy in the war-ravaged town of Gelsenkirchen, West Germany.
In those days, he lived with his grandmother and spent every available minute playing soccer and hockey without the slightest thought that he would someday use his soccer training in another sport, in another country.
After his grandmother's death, he came to America to live with his mother and father, who had gone ahead 14 years earlier. When he arrived in Marietta, Ga., he couldn't speak English. When he decided to play football for Sprayberry High School, he became a "straight-toe" kicker, believing all the while that he could make it as a kicker, even though he was converted to the unfamiliar American method.
This was in 1965, and the coming of the soccer kickers was yet to be, although the original star, Pete Gogolak of the Buffalo Bills and New York Giants, was about to make the scene.
Peter was good enough, straight-toe style, in high school to kick 32 of 34 extra point attempts. What he wanted was to play for the Bulldogs. He had seen one game at Georgia, and, throughout the afternoon, he kept telling his father that he could kick it as far as the Bulldog's kicker at the time, Bobby Etter.
Other than mastering placekicking well enough to play in college, Peter had to concern himself with such things as schoolwork, which didn't come easy. After learning to speak English, he began to improve his grades, but he needed a year at West Georgia College before gaining admission to Georgia.
The year in Carrollton was a profitable one, and Peter worked at two things: homework and placekicking. Everyday he would go out and kick and kick, but he was having difficulty. Without the use of a cleated football shoe, Peter was not getting good distance with the cheap tennis shoes he practiced in daily.
"I couldn't afford a pair of football shoes, and I was doing the best I could," Peter says. "But when the ball wouldn't go far enough, I really was sick. My roommate was holding for me, and after getting disgusted one day, I went up and swung at the ball soccer style and really got off a good one. It startled my roommate, and he suggested I do it again, and I did. After that I stuck with the soccer style and began to wear out my tennis shoes."
He found an Army-Navy store that sold shoes for about $2.00 a pair, and during that one year at West Georgia, he wore out at least a half-dozen pairs, even after he had most of them patched and repaired several times.
At home in Marietta on holidays and vacations, he kicked in the backyard, starting out with the goal of kicking over one small pine tree that stood in front of two larger ones.
"When I started, I couldn't clear the small tree, but now I can clear all three," Peter says. He kicked so much that he gradually loosened the telephone wires, creating a sagging line from the house to the first utility pole.
All of this kicking was not to be in vain. Peter wanted to be a Bulldog, and, if there is one thing that has disappointed him in this country, it is that everyone has told him that he, "couldn't do the things that I have done.
"In high school, nobody encouraged me to go to Georgia and go out for football, but that is what I wanted to do and now I show them that I can do it," he says with his accent, accented with a shy grin practically all of the time.
His high school teammates, Craig Elrod and Joe Clamon, won scholarships to Georgia, and they told him about the university, which got him more and more excited. "Boy, when they told me how nice this place was, and how you got clean clothes everyday when you went to practice, and that they furnished you shoes, I couldn't believe it, and I said, 'That is the place for me.'"
Arriving in Athens in 1967, with kind assistance from his friend, Dr. Tom Lightsey of West Georgia, Peter had all the enthusiasm of a kid with his first Christmas train, but he had to spend that year on the scout team.
In 1968, he got a couple of opportunities to kick off, and, in the rainy Florida game that year, it was Peter who kicked a field goal for Georgia's final three points in that 51-0 splasher. Afterwards he rode to the sidelines on the shoulders of his teammates, and it is doubtful that anyone enjoyed a score in that championship season more than Peter.
Growing up in a coal and steel town in the heart of war-devastated Germany, Peter appreciates the good things of this country, but is forever baffled by the rat race he's learning to live with.
His family was torn apart by the war with six uncles in a family of 12 dying in World War II. Reared by a grandmother who was sick much of her life, Peter looked to surviving uncles for guidance and direction.
When Peter wasn't playing hockey or soccer, he would dive into the Staatwald Kapfen Teich (Lake of the Carp Fish) and find knives and guns that were deposited there during the war.
"My home was across the road from an area where there were concentration camps during the war, and as youngsters we used to find many things that were used in World War II," he adds. Peter is always extending a helping hand in his community and wherever there is a need. Lately, his life has been affected by military men "....who have given so much--if not their lives, their limbs--those wounded warriors to whom we owe so much.
"I was adopted by a military family and have always had appreciation for the military. It was important to me to do something for the national organization for wounded warriors. Every American is indebted to the military and we should all reach out to the wounded warriors," Peter said. "We are pleased that we are honoring Sean Adams of Gainesville, a truly inspiring young man, at the halftime of the Appalachian State game."
Peter has an organized a golf tournament supporting the "Wounded Warrior in Action Foundation." The tournament will be held on Friday Nov. 22nd at the University golf course. For information and support of the Wounded Warrior program, contact Peter online: estrolgolfinvitational.com or pr3@estroloil.com
