It's good! In 1976, UNM students started a field goal-kicking contest. This year, the 'Bob Berg' turned 50.

Todd Elston was done, totally done, with Jim Haynes.

Haynes, the New Mexico Lobos’ place kicker in 1976, had missed four field goals in UNM’s 16-7 loss to arch rival New Mexico State that fall.

Elston, a UNM junior from Alamogordo, longed for the educated toe of Bob Berg, the two-time All-Western Athletic Conference kicker who’d booted his last field goal for the Lobos in ‘75.

With Berg gone and not coming back, Helston and some of his UNM dorm buddies decided to take the matter into their own … hands.

“We’re sitting around on a Friday night bored to tears,” he said, “going, ‘Hey, one of us has to be better than that guy who missed those field goals. So let’s go out on Johnson Field, kick some field goals, and the winner is going to walk onto the team on Monday.’”

That, of course, never happened. And let it be noted that the following year, Haynes redeemed himself by making three field goals as the Lobos beat the Aggies 35-13.

But what did happen, then, as a result of Helston’s dissatisfaction?

The Bob Berg Kicking Contest happened, that’s what.

A half-century later, the 50th annual “Bob Berg” was staged Saturday morning where it all began — Johnson Fields on the UNM main campus — with Berg himself, now 71 and a Phoenix resident, as the guest of honor.

“It’s still hard to believe,” Berg said. “I look at this as (the organizers’) excuse for a reunion. A lot of the same people come back every year, which is great.”

Great, but not easy. Elston, the prime mover, lives in the Denver area. Yet, some 50 people — “50 for (year) 50,” Elston said — attended on Saturday, most of them aiming kicks between the uprights of a specially constructed goal post, some just watching and cheering.

The group included three generations of the Elston and Berg families.

In his teens, Berg was more than just a kicker. He was a Shohei Ohtani of sorts for the Sandia Matadors, hitting over .400 as a senior and hurling a five-inning no-hitter against Albuquerque High.

Kicking a football, though, was what he truly loved.

“I was horrible at it (at first), but it was just so much fun,” he said. “… I finally got better and better at it.”

After earning all-city honors as Sandia’s kicker in 1971, Berg walked onto the UNM roster the following fall. He understudied most of the 1972 season before becoming the starting kicker in ‘73. After coach Rudy Feldman was fired following the 1973 season, Bill Mondt, Feldman’s successor, awarded Berg a full scholarship.

He left as the most prolific kicker in program history to that point. Five decades later, he still ranks fourth all-time in field goals made (41) and sixth in accuracy (73.2%).

Berg was that accurate and that prolific while kicking straight on, not soccer-style as virtually all kickers do today. Pete Gogolak debuted as a soccer-style pro kicker in 1964.

“(Kicking) was kind of in transition (in the 1970s),” Berg said. “I would guess that half of the (kickers) I played against were straight on.”

Twice, against NMSU in 1973 and against Wyoming in ‘74, Berg hit game-winning field goals in the waning seconds.

“I was very fortunate against the Aggies,” he said, “because I missed two field goals and an extra point.”

Saturday, amid the friendly competition of the event named for him, Berg’s kicks went straight but not far. After making a 20-yarder — kicking barefoot — on his third and final try, he bowed out after missing three times at 25 yards.

Jack Elston, Todd’s son, was the men’s winner. Tiffany Elston, Jack’s wife, won the women’s competition. Kevin Fitzwater, who finished third among the men, was one of the original Bob Berg contestants 50 years ago.

Berg said he had no idea the Bob Berg existed until six years in, when he received a letter notifying him.

“They asked me if I’d like to attend the next one,” he said, “and I said, ‘You bet!’”

Berg hasn’t made it to the Bob Berg every year, but has done so whenever possible.

Elston said, as Berg did, that the Bob Berg has served as a reunion of old friends coinciding with UNM’s homecoming.

After the weekend, Berg and his wife, Vikki, will head back to Phoenix, where Berg, an arts major at UNM, designs and manufactures decorative leaded glass.

And come 2026, will there be a 51st Bob Berg Kicking Contest?

Nope. Elston, Berg & Co. decided the 50th was the perfect time for a game-winning field goal at the gun.