Carlos Antonio Huerta (born June 29, 1969) is an American former professional football player who was a placekicker in three different professional leagues. He played college football for the

Miami Hurricanes The Miami Hurricanes (known informally as The U, UM, or The 'Canes) are the intercollegiate sports teams that represent the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. The Hurricanes compete in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic A ...

, and was recognized as an All-American. Drafted by the San Diego Chargers in the twelfth round of the

1992 NFL Draft The 1992 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 26–27, 1992, at the Marriott ...

, he played in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL),

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...

(CFL) and

Arena Football League The Arena Football League (AFL) was a professional arena football league in the United States. It was founded in 1986, but played its first official games in the 1987 season, making it the third longest-running professional football league in ...

Early years

Huerta was born in

Coral Gables, Florida Coral Gables, officially City of Coral Gables, is a city in Miami-Dade County, Florida. The city is located southwest of Downtown Miami. As of the 2020 U.S. census, it had a population of 49,248. Coral Gables is known globally as home to the ...

.National Football League, Historical Players
Carlos Huerta
Retrieved March 27, 2012. He graduated from Christopher Columbus High School in

Miami, Florida Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

,databaseFootball.com, Players
Carlos Huerta
. Retrieved March 27, 2012. and played for the Columbus Explorers

high school football High school football (french: football au lycée) is gridiron football played by high school teams in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular interscholastic sports in both countries, but its popularity is declining, part ...

team.

College career

Huerta attended the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, i ...

, where he was a walk-on kicker for the

Hurricanes A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depend ...

teams from 1988 to 1991.University of Miami Hall of Fame, Football Inductees
Carlos Huerta
. Retrieved March 27, 2012. During his four years as a starter, he led the Hurricanes in scoring. He still holds the Hurricanes career records for points after touchdowns (PATs), field goals, and total points, as well as the top three season records for consecutive PATs in a season, the top four season records for field goals, and the top three season records for points scored kicking and field goals in a game. As a senior in 1991, he was recognized as a consensus first-team All-American, having earned first-team honors from the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. ne ...

, the

Walter Camp Football Foundation The Walter Camp Football Foundation (WCFF) is one of the organizations whose College Football All-America Team is recognized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The organization also presents various awards. It is named in honor of foo ...

, '' Football News'' and ''

The Sporting News The ''Sporting News'' is a website and former magazine publication owned by Sporting News Holdings, which is a U.S.-based sports media company formed in December 2020 by a private investor consortium. It was originally established in 1886 as a pr ...

''. He graduated from the university with a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

in business administration, and was later inducted into the University of Miami Sports Hall of Fame. While at Miami, he was given the nickname "The Iceman" because of how cool he stayed no matter what the situation.

Professional career

Huerta joined the

Las Vegas Posse The Las Vegas Posse were a Canadian Football League (CFL) team, that played at the Sam Boyd Silver Bowl in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States, in the league's 1994 season as part of the CFL's short-lived American expansion. Lasting only one seaso ...

, a Canadian Football League expansion franchise. He was one of the few notable players for the Posse, completing 38 of 46 field goal attempts, scoring 154 points. Following the season, he was the recipient of the

Jackie Parker Trophy The Jackie Parker Trophy is a Canadian Football League trophy that is awarded annually to the Most Outstanding Rookie in the West Division, since 1974. Each team in the West Division nominates a candidate from which a winner is chosen, and either ...

, and was the runner-up for the

CFL's Most Outstanding Rookie Award The Most Outstanding Rookie Award is annually awarded to the player judged to be the best player in his first year in the Canadian Football League. The two nominees for the award are the Frank M. Gibson Trophy winner from the East Division, and the ...

. After the Las Vegas CFL franchise folded, he moved to the CFL's

Baltimore Stallions The Baltimore Stallions (known officially as the "Baltimore Football Club" and previously as the "Baltimore CFL Colts" in its inaugural season) were a Canadian Football League team based in Baltimore, Maryland, in the United States, which played ...

, where he completed 57 field goals and scored 228 points, and was a key contributor to the Stallions'

1995 Grey Cup The 83rd Grey Cup a.k.a. The Wind Bowl was the 1995 Canadian Football League championship game played between the Baltimore Stallions and the Calgary Stampeders at Taylor Field in Regina, Saskatchewan. The Stallions won the game by a score of 3 ...

championship season. His 57 completed field goals remains the second highest season total in CFL history.CFLapedia
CFL Records
. Retrieved March 27, 2012. The

followed in 1996. Huerta played 3 games with the Chicago Bears in 1996, hitting 4 of 7 field goals, and one game with the

St. Louis Rams The St. Louis Rams were a professional American football team of the National Football League (NFL). They played in St. Louis from 1995 to the 2015 season, before moving back to Los Angeles, where the team had played from 1946 to 1994. The arr ...

, scoring 2 extra points. From 1998 to 2001 he played in the

, with the

Florida Bobcats The Florida Bobcats were an Arena Football League (AFL) team based in Sunrise, Florida. They were previously known as the Sacramento Attack and the Miami Hooters, and played in the AFL for a total of ten seasons, the last seven in West Palm Beach ...

in 1998 and the remainder with the

San Jose SaberCats The San Jose SaberCats were a professional arena football team based in San Jose, California. The SaberCats had been members of the Arena Football League (AFL) since 1995 (the year in which the team was founded); and until 2015, they belonged to ...

. He would connect on 37 of 85 field goals in the AFL. Also in 1998, Huerta appeared in a playoff game with the

Toronto Argonauts The Toronto Argonauts (officially the Toronto Argonaut Football Club and colloquially known as the Argos) are a professional Canadian football team competing in the East Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL), based in Toronto, Ontario ...

of the Canadian Football League.

Life after football

Huerta was interviewed about his time at the University of Miami for the documentary ''

The U "The U" is a nickname often given to a university. Specifically, it has been used to refer to: * The University of Miami ** ''The U'' (film), a 2009 documentary about the University of Miami football team. * The University of Utah Other uses * ...

'', which premiered December 12, 2009 on

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...

References

External links