On a night made for kickers, former Oakland Raiders quarterback Jim Plunkett made himself fit right in.

"I can't talk about kicking," Plunkett said, "except how important it is to many teams to win football games."

Plunkett served as keynote speaker for the Greater Augusta Sports Council's Sports Awards Gala on Friday night at Augusta Marriott & Suites.

The ceremony honored Ray Guy Award winner Durant Brooks, the former Georgia Tech punter and current member of the Washington Redskins, as well as local athletes as part of the Greater Augusta Medals for Excellence in Sports program.

The gala also included the inaugural induction ceremony for the American Football Kicking Hall of Fame. Sammy Baugh, George Blanda, Lou Groza, Jan Stenerud and Jim Thorpe comprised the initial class.

"I'm fascinated with all the names that were involved in it," said Stenerud, one of the two living inductees (along with Blanda). "I thought it was pretty neat."

Rick Sang, director of prokicker.com, and the Greater Augusta Sports Council teamed up to develop the new hall of fame. Ray Guy, who is considered the game's best-ever punter and is affiliated with prokicker.com, said it was time to shine the spotlight on the special teams players.

"It think this is fantastic," he said. "Let's honor these guys in a special way."

Paul Blanda stood in for his 81-year-old brother who recently had two knee replacements. The younger Blanda, from Miami, said his brother loves the idea of a kicking hall of fame.

"There's a lot of great kickers," Paul Blanda said. "And 99 percent of them won't make it into the Pro Football Hall of Fame."

Blanda's right. Only one pure kicker, Stenerud, was elected into the Pro Football Hall of Fame after an illustrious career. In 19 seasons, the 65-year-old Norwegian kicked 363 field goals, including three for Kansas City in its Super Bowl IV upset win over Minnesota.

Stenerud, a 3-handicap who lives on a golf course in Colorado Springs, Colo., now spends his days working as director of marketing for a firm that specializes in the design of stadiums and arenas. In the previous 12 years, his company sold kicking tees, which came with a manual explaining the art of soccer-style kicking, at Wal-Mart.