From China to the Cotton Bowl: How Dicker The Kicker cemented his name in Red River history – The Dallas Morning News

The weight of Texas all lied on the shoulders and foot of Cameron Dicker, the kicker from China. The only thing separating the Longhorns from 2018 Red River glory was a freshmanand his 40-yard field goal attempt.

"Cameron Dicker, from 40 yards away, for University of Texas Red River immortality," Fox Sports play-by-play announcer Gus Johnson said on the call.

Dicker's parents, Rachel and Kelly, nervously scanned the field as Kyler Murray led a vicious comeback, overcoming a 45-24 fourth-quarter deficit to tie the ballgame 45-45 with two minutes left.

"We were enjoying the game," Kelly said. "It was an incredible atmosphere ... (With) probably about 10 mintues left is when we started noticing that this might come down to a kick."

Rachel focused on the game, but Kelly was fixated on his son, Cameron, who patiently waited until he was asked to line up for the biggest kick of his career.

This was all relatively new for the Dicker family, not just the pageantry of the Red River Showdown or the scent of corn dogs and deep-fried everything sweeping across the Texas State Fair, but college football and the state of Texasin general.

Cameron didn't grow up like the majority of the players at the Cotton Bowl who anxiously awaited his kick with the Red River Showdown on the line. Home for him was over 7,300 miles away.

Cameron was born in Hong Kong, though Shanghai is where the Dickers called home for the first decade of his life. It's also where he was introduced to sports.

While success in soccer dominated Cameron's early childhood, Kelly decided to introduce him to American football by building a program with a group of fathers who were also expatriates living in China. They had enough numbers to form two teams,the hardest part of forming a league waschecked off the list -- in theory, the plan sounded fine.

Then, Cameron got stuck playing on the offensive line and middle linebacker for his team, the Shanghai Dragons.

"He definitely did not enjoy that position at all," Kelly said. "He did really well at middle linebacker. They made him the center just because of his size."

Cameron wasn't exposed to kicking in China simply because that wasn't an option -- it wasn't part of the version of football they played in Shanghai. That all changed when Cameron got his hands on a tee after a practice.

"One night in a practice, someone threw out the 1980s orange tee that we all grew up with as kids, something that somebody threw out of a bag," Kelly said. "We were messing around. He and a couple of other kids were kicking the ball. It was a very natural swing for him."

That natural swing is exactlywhy Cameron raised his hand when a middle school coach asked, 'Can anybody kick?' after the Dickers moved to Austin due to Kelly's job.

Even in middle school, though, Cameron was less than excited to still be playing on the offensive line.

After a season of playing it, I was like Im done with this. It pushed me away from football. I was about to be done with the sport, Cameron said. Im a soccer player, so I enjoy running around and doing stuff. At O-Line I just stood there and blocked. It wasnt very fun, it just pushed me away from it.

The following year, Dicker decided to shift his focus solely on kicking duties.

As time would tell, this move was a permanent one. Neither Cameron nor his family knew it at the time, but 92,000-plus fans inside the Cotton Bowl would eventually watch his every move,awaiting that same swing for "Red River immortality."

According to Cameron, none of this pressure fazed him. He still managed to ooze the confidence the Longhorn fan base has come to associate with the kicker, even with the crimson half of the Cotton Bowl erupting as the Sooners completed the 21-point comeback.

"When they started coming back, I was like, 'OK, I'll kick the game winner,'" Cameron said after the game. "I knew I was going to, I felt that, and I was ready to go."

Before Cameron got his shot, he watched as Sam Ehlinger led a nearly perfect two-minute drill, converting on a third down to advance the ball to the Oklahoma 32.

"Once they got the first down, I knew it was in the 40 range," Kelly said. "I became more calm because I know Cameron can make that kick."

Kelly continued to read his son's body language from the stands, but what he didn't see was Cameron's facial expression, which went viral in the middle of the game.

Right before Cameron ran out for the field goal, a Fox camera found the freshman with a wide grin and a confident head nod, a moment that quickly turned into one of the most popular GIFs among UT fans and students alike.

"It's a perfect reflection," Ehlinger said. "He's just enjoying the moment and having fun. That's how he is all the time."

"He's goofy," linebacker Joseph Ossai said.

He recently claimed he was unaware the camera was locked in on him, clarifying that the gesture was toward Ossai and not to the millions of viewers watching at home.

"That was our thing," Ossai said. "There's a lot of pressure on those guys. They have such a little job, but it means a lot and everybody is watching. Before and after every kick I would hug him and say, 'No matter what, I love you, bruh.' After a made kick he would just wink at me, and I would wink back."

Ossai says they still do the wink, but it also has evolved into a handshake as well.

With Cameron busy going viral on national television and Kelly calming down a bit, Rachelappeared to be the only onestill trying to get a handle on her nerves.

Rachel and Cameron made their first trip to the Red River Showdown the year prior, though Cameron was just a recruit, not the kicker who lined up for this 40-yard attempt with 14 seconds on the clock.

"It's all on the shoulders of a freshman," Johnson said.

Some players linked arms, others prayed and a few couldn't bring themselves to watch.

"I was sitting next to (Texas safety, Class of 2017) DeShon Elliott, and I ask, 'How do you want to approach this?'" former defensive end Breckyn Hager said. "He (DeShon) said, 'I don't know, bro.'I said, 'Let's look up.' So we're looking up. We're not going to watch it. As we're looking up I was like, 'God told me we were going to win this game, so why would he miss it?' That's when I was like, 'Oh wait, he went to Lake Travis, and I'm from Westlake.'"

Hager's joke dates back to their high school days, which featured a bitter rivalry between Dicker's Lake Travis Cavaliers and Hager's and Ehlinger's Westlake Chaparrals. None of that mattered when Cameron stared down the goal post against the crimson backdrop of Oklahoma fans, did his double heel tap routine and took a deep breath.

"Earthquake! He hit it. Dicker the kicker, 48-45, Texas," Gus Johnson announced in the specific octave he saves for monumental moments.

Cameron said he didn't even watch the kick -- the shot that sent the burnt orange half of the Cotton Bowl into a frenzy -- go through the uprights.

"I remember after he kicked the field goal and he made it through -- I felt weak in the knees," Rachel said. "Literally weak in the knees. I was thrilled for him."

Cameron's game-winner not only came with the Golden Hat, but also a rare appointment with the media.

"I just remember it took him a really long time to come out to where we were waiting," Rachel said. "We were anxious to see him but he was apparently doing all these interviews. He was quite happy. I wouldn't say overwhelmed but it was a lot for him, all the attention he was getting."

Even after last year's kick, or his 57-yarder against Rice this year, Tom Herman still refuses to call Cameron, or any specialist by their name. If former Texas punter, and Texas Bowl MVP, Michael Dickson wasn't able to shake the name "punter," it's tough to expect Cameron to earn such a feat.

He is convinced that Herman enjoys this special teams group more than previous units, though. Herman hasn't gotten around to saying that, and he likely won't, but the compliments Cameron is drawing from the Texas head coach is slowly inching toward the Dickson tier of praise.

"I think our kicker is pretty dang good," Herman said in August. "I'm not afraid to say that. It's a luxury. It's rare to find one that is talented but yet mentally in a really, really good place."

Unlike last year, nothing will be new for the Dickers on Saturday. It looks like it might be 20 degrees cooler, but everything else -- the 50/50 split, the deep fried everything, the tunnel, the specific hatred shared between border states -- will all look familiar.

The attention Dicker received after last year's game is going anywhere, either. The same kicker -- the one who picked up the sport by playing on the offensive line in Shanghai -- will arrive to the Cotton Bowl on Saturday with his name, loved by one half of the stadium and deeply hated by the other, already cemented into the history of the Red River Showdown.

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From China to the Cotton Bowl: How Dicker The Kicker cemented his name in Red River history - The Dallas Morning News