Mac Percival

Mac Percival was born on 26 February 1940 in Lubbock, Texas, to Bob and Mary Percival, who were then students at Texas Tech University. According to the family obituary, his father was playing in a basketball game when Mac was born. Bob Percival later became a football and basketball coach in Vernon, Texas, where Mac grew up under the guidance of the man known as Coach Bob.

At 6 feet 4 inches, Percival was a multi-sport athlete at Vernon High School, excelling in football, basketball and baseball. He used a straight-away kicking style on the football team but was mainly involved in kickoffs and extra points. Basketball was his primary sport. He still holds the Vernon High School record for the longest baseball hit over the fence. Despite receiving numerous football and basketball scholarship offers, he chose to follow his father to Texas Tech to play basketball.

Percival attended Vernon High School in Vernon, Texas, then accepted a basketball scholarship to Texas Tech University. He played for the Texas Tech Red Raiders and was part of a talented program that won consecutive Southwest Conference championships. He did not play college football at any point during his four years at Tech (listed 1958-1961 on football archives as not on the football team).

Texas Tech also shaped his personal life. In his senior year he noticed a freshman wearing a beanie labeled Lady Jane, teased her, began dating her, and married her a year later at First Methodist Church in Lubbock. After graduation he worked as a high school teacher and coach rather than entering professional sports immediately, spending roughly four years away from organized football before his NFL opportunity.

In the mid-1960s the Dallas Cowboys ran kicking caravans and open tryouts to find specialists. Percival's South Garland High School basketball players urged his wife to persuade him to try out. He signed with Dallas as an undrafted free agent after the 1967 NFL/AFL draft, even though he had never played college football. On 6 September 1967 he was traded (with tight end Austin Denney) to the Chicago Bears for a third-round pick later used on Ed Harmon.

Chicago acquired him to replace Roger LeClerc. As a rookie in 1967 he made 13 of 26 field goals in 14 games. In 1968, working with Ben Agajanian, he made 25 of 36 field goals and scored 100 points, becoming only the third Bear to reach 100 in a season. On 10 October 1968 he made five field goals in a win over Philadelphia, still cited as the last time a Bears kicker made five in one game. He also hit late game-winners against Minnesota (47 yards with three seconds left) and, most famously, Green Bay.

Over Bears seasons 1967-1973 he made 99 of 182 field goals (54.4 percent) and scored 456 points, wearing No. 83. He appeared in 14 games in each of his first six seasons and four games in 1973. Teammates included Dick Butkus, Gale Sayers, Brian Piccolo and offensive lineman Randy Jackson, a lifelong friend. On 10 September 1974 Dallas brought him back to replace George Hunt; he lasted three games (No. 11) before Efren Herrera took the job and was released on 2 October 1974. Career totals: 101 of 190 field goals (53.2 percent), longest 50 yards, 163 of 167 extra points, 466 points, 91 games.

On 3 November 1968 the Chicago Bears faced the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field. With the score tied 10-10 and 26 seconds remaining, Packers punter Donny Anderson's kick was fair-caught by Cecil Turner at the Green Bay 43-yard line. Offensive line coach Abe Gibron reminded head coach Jim Dooley of the rarely used fair-catch free kick rule. Dooley later told the Chicago Tribune that when Green Bay faced second-and-10 at its own 15, Gibron said they should get the fair catch so they could try the free kick.

Percival then made the 43-yard free kick for a 13-10 Bears win. It remains the only known game-winning fair-catch free kick in NFL history. Goal posts then sat on the goal line, shortening the effective kick distance compared with today's placement. Gale Sayers rushed for 205 yards in the same game, a then Lambeau Field record. Four years later, in an August 1972 exhibition against the Houston Oilers, Percival missed a long fair-catch free kick; the Bears still won 20-17 after recovering and kicking a conventional field goal.

Successful NFL fair-catch free kicks are extremely rare. Lists compiled by Quirky Research and summarized by the Los Angeles Times place Percival among a handful of successful attempts before Cameron Dicker's 57-yarder for the Chargers in December 2024, the first success since Ray Wersching in 1976. Percival's 1968 kick is still cited whenever the obscure rule resurfaces in modern broadcasts.

Percival married Lady Jane after his senior year at Texas Tech. Their marriage lasted 63 years. They had three daughters: Paige (later McLaren), Kimber Lee (later Jackson), and Myer Lee (later associated with Ballesteros and Ellison in family listings). Paige was born while he coached at South Garland; Kimber was born during Cowboys training camp; Myer was born during a Bears camp while he was away.

Football friendships endured. Kimber later married Jeff Jackson, son of Percival's Bears teammate and close friend Randy Jackson. The children had grown up together in Chicago, started first grade together, lost touch for about 20 years, then reconnected when Jeff traveled to Houston on business.

In 1977 Percival took a transportation-company job and the family moved to the Houston area. He and Lady Jane were active at Chancellors Racquet Club, playing tennis and tournaments. He also loved golf and hunting. For several years he, Lady Jane and their teenage daughters played on a mixed softball team organized by Lady Jane's brother, Patrick Henry. Five back surgeries, a knee replacement and hip replacements ended competitive sports. After the daughters left high school, Lady Jane began a 30-year career as a flight attendant with Continental and later United; the couple traveled widely, including trips on Patrick Henry's private railroad cars through the Sierra Nevada and Rockies.

Percival was described in his obituary as quiet, unassuming and deeply religious. He worked for 31 years alongside his sister Judy Belle Gray, with whom he shared a close relationship.

Percival's legacy rests on two pillars: an improbable route to the NFL and a single iconic special-teams play. He is among the rare modern-era players who reached the league without college football experience, arriving instead from basketball and high school coaching. For Chicago, he remains linked to the 1968 season's 100-point campaign, the five-field-goal game against Philadelphia, and especially the Lambeau free kick that beat Green Bay.

Whenever NFL broadcasts revisit the fair-catch free kick rule, analysts and historians routinely name Percival's 43-yarder as the sport's only known game-winning example. Bears team histories and fan memoirs, including accounts collected by Windy City Gridiron, treat the Free Kick game as a franchise landmark alongside more famous milestones. His career accuracy (53.2 percent) reflects an era of straighter approaches, heavier balls and different goal-post placement, yet teammates and fans remembered him as a dependable specialist with a flair for late drama.

Off the field his memorial emphasizes family, friendship with Randy Jackson's family, and a gentle, religious character rather than celebrity. He asked for no funeral service, directing remembrances toward charity of the donor's choice.

Mac Percival died on 17 September 2026 in Sugar Land, Texas, at the age of 86, surrounded by his family after a three-year battle with colorectal cancer. The Houston Chronicle published his obituary via Legacy.com on 4 October 2026.

He was survived by his wife of 63 years, Lady Jane; his sister Judy Belle Gray and her husband Patrick Gray; brother-in-law Patrick Henry and Terry Graham; sister-in-law Kay Henry; daughters Paige McLaren (Tim), Kimber Jackson (Jeff), and Myer Ballesteros with Jack Ellison; and seven grandchildren: Haylee Meador, Jeffrey Jackson, Madison McLaren, Logan Jackson, Sydney Ellison, Jadyn Ellison and Adrian Ballesteros. He was preceded in death by parents Bob and Mary Percival and brother-in-law Mark Henry.

A deeply religious man, Percival requested that no service be held. In lieu of flowers, the family asked that donations be made to a charity of the donor's choice.