The Windy City is a long way from where he grew up in Melbourne, but it’s now home for Tory Taylor (OH 2015). In April 2024, he was drafted by the Chicago Bears and joined the USA’s high-profile National Football League.
Tory became one of a handful of Australian athletes to make the massive leap to the elite NFL – an achievement that came on the back of Tory first moving to the USA in 2020 on a scholarship to play college football for the University of Iowa.
In a few short years, despite America and American football initially being unfamiliar, Tory caught the eye of NFL scouts.
“I had no clue where I was going to be drafted and when I received the call from the Bears, I was beside myself” says Tory.
Tory joined Haileybury in Year 9 and sport was an important part of his school life.
“I mainly played soccer, golf and the odd game of footy during my last two years at Haileybury. I remember Aikman House won the 2015 House football that year on the last kick of the day!” says Tory.
After graduating, Tory worked in construction and in a golf pro shop until he began training with Prokick Australia, a program that trains Aussie athletes for college football and the NFL.
Hard work, commitment and remaining humble have paid off. Last season, Tory broke an 85-year-old National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) record with 4,479 punting yards from 93 attempts.
Tory has certainly come a long way from playing his very first game of college football only nine days after landing in the United States. It was in the middle of the pandemic lockdowns and Tory’s first game against Purdue was played in an empty stadium.
By the time his final season at Iowa came round, Tory was a Hawkeye fan favourite with the 70,000-strong crowd who regularly chanted his name and waved Australian flags in his honour.
Tory, being an international student, could not receive any NIL (Name Image & Likeness) monies from his sport so he opted to donate his earnings to a not-for-profit organisation called Count the Kicks. The charity was founded by five Iowa women who sadly lost babies through stillbirth. It promotes the importance of tracking foetal movement during the last trimester of pregnancy by encouraging expectant mums to download the Count the Kicks app to help monitor their pregnancy.
Tory is settling into his new Chicago home and preparing for his first NFL season, with the first game marked for September. He’s keeping a level head and is managing the pressure by ‘just being me’.
“Speaking to my family nearly every day helps me with any homesickness. I do miss family and friends and Melbourne is still the best place in the world for coffee and food,” says Tory.
He’s an advocate for people taking chances and moving out of their comfort zone.
“My Dad told me, ‘Don’t be one of those guys sitting in a bar or a pub in 20 or 30 years saying I should have, I could have, I would have. You either do it or you don’t, and we’ll support you no matter what you do’,” says Tory.
“Don’t stay in your comfort zone all your life. Just try to get out there and do things that are uncomfortable because that’s the only way you’re going to grow.”