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The first player in the history of Bluffton College football to collect over 1,000 career receiving yards, Abraham Groves ’80 was the Beaver’s aerial “go-to” player for four years from 1976-79. When his playing days were done in 1979 he held BC records for career receptions (79) and yards (1,025) and remains in the top-10 in both of those categories today. |
A native of Dalton, Ohio, Groves was also a punt and kickoff return threat and led Bluffton and the Hoosier-Buckeye Collegiate Conference in punt returns as a senior. That year he also led BC in kickoff returns in addition to his receiving duties, where he caught 35 passes for 412 yards, which at the time were the second-best single season receiving statistics ever at Bluffton. In career punt returns, Groves’ 8.4 yards per return ranks fifth in BC record book, while his 143 yards ranks eighth.
Groves broke into the BC starting lineup as a freshman and caught seven passes for 113 yards. As a sophomore he established himself as one of the top receivers in the HBCC as he hauled in 28 catches for 394 yards and three touchdowns and picked up second team all-conference honors. An off-season leg injury gave Groves a late start into the 1978 season, but he still managed to catch nine passes for 106 yards and a touchdown before getting back to full strength for his record-setting senior season the following year, when he once again was named second team all-league. In the spring of his senior year Groves had tryouts with the Detroit Lions and New England Patriots of the National Football League.
Crediting his parents, William and Ellen Groves, and former Bluffton head football coach Roy Young as the guiding influences in his life, Groves was honored with the 1980 A.C. Burcky Award, given annually to the college’s top male student-athlete. In addition to his accolades on the football field, Groves also lettered in basketball at BC as a sophomore and lettered twice in track, where he was named the squad’s MVP as a senior when he turned in the team’s fastest time in the 200 meter dash (22.8 sec.), 400 meter dash (51.9 sec.) and high jump (6-2) and was a member of the 1600 meter relay team (3:28.7).
Groves earned a degree in education at BC with concentrations in art and history. He taught and was a varsity assistant football coach at Massillon Jackson High School for two years before he entered the medical sales business in 1983. For the last 14 years he has worked in cardiology medical sales for Cordis Corporation, a division of Johnson & Johnson, where he was named the sales division’s rookie of the year and has been named the company’s national sales representative of the year seven times out of a sales force of 110 members.
Groves lives in Dublin, Ohio with his wife Marie (McLennan) and children Olivia-Marie, 7, Erin-Elizabeth, 5, and Mason Abraham, 4.
