Don Maynard obit

Jets legend WR Don Maynard dies at 86

 

He was not on the list.

New York Jets legend Don Maynard died at the age of 86 on Monday, the Pro Football Hall of Fame announced. Maynard was a Super Bowl III champion with the Jets, spending 13 years with the franchise and being selected to four Pro Bowls.

He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1987 after racking up 633 catches, 11,834 yards and 88 touchdowns in his career. Maynard was one of the best wide receivers of his era, leading the league in receiving yards once (1967) and yards per game twice (1967, 1968).

He also caught the most touchdown passes of any player in 1965, scoring 14 times for the Jets.

    The professional football world today is celebrating the life of Don Maynard, a record-setting wide receiver who played in several of the sport’s most memorable games.

    A member of the Hall of Fame’s Class of 1987, Maynard died Monday. He was 86.

He was a wide receiver in the National Football League (NFL) with the New York Giants and St. Louis Cardinals; the American Football League (AFL) with the New York Jets; and the World Football League (WFL) with the Shreveport Steamer. He also played for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the CFL.

Maynard was a four-time AFL All-Star and played for the Super Bowl III champions. The Jets retired Maynard's uniform number in his honor. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame and included on the AFL All-Time Team.

Maynard became the first player to sign with the New York Titans in 1960 (the team was renamed the Jets in 1963). This came about because the Titans' first head coach, Sammy Baugh, had coached against Maynard in college and knew his talent. Although scorned by the New York press as an "NFL reject" in 1960, he teamed with Art Powell to form the first professional wide receiver tandem to each gain over 1,000 yards on receptions in a season, with the pair achieving this milestone again in 1962.

Collecting 72 pass receptions in his first year as a Titan, he went on to compile four more seasons with 50 or more catches and 1,000 yards receiving, and held the professional football record for total receptions and yards receiving. A four-time AFL All-Star, he is sixth in all-time pro football touchdown receptions, and is a member of the AFL All-Time Team.

In 1965, Maynard was teamed with rookie quarterback Joe Namath. Maynard had 1,218 yards on 68 receptions and 14 touchdowns in Namath's first season (Namath had 22 touchdown passes that year). In 1967, Maynard caught 1,434 of Namath's historic 4,007 passing yards. The receiving yards were a career-high for Maynard and led the league; he also had 71 receptions, 10 touchdowns, and averaged 20.2 yards per catch. In the 1968 season opener against Kansas City, Maynard had 200+ receiving yards for the first time in his career and passed Tommy McDonald as the active leader in receiving yards, where he remained for the next six seasons until his retirement. He added a career-best 228 yards in Game 10 against Oakland. Maynard had 57 receptions for 1,297 yards (22.8 yards per catch) and 10 of Namath's 15 touchdowns that year. In the 1968 AFL Championship Game, a 27–23 Jets victory over the Oakland Raiders, Maynard caught six passes for 118 yards and two touchdowns. His 14-yard catch in the first quarter gave the Jets the lead and his six-yard catch in the fourth quarter proved to be the game winner. The Jets won Super Bowl III, 16–7 over the NFL's Baltimore Colts, which was hailed as the first "upset" in Super Bowl history. Maynard played, but had no catches while suffering the effects of a hamstring injury in the AFL title game.

Maynard did not wear a chin strap on his helmet, instead using special cheek inserts that held the helmet tightly in place.

After the 1972 season, he played for one year with the St. Louis Cardinals before finishing his playing career in 1974 with the Houston Texans / Shreveport Steamer of the World Football League.

One of only 20 players who were in the AFL for its entire 10-year existence, Maynard was also one of only seven players who played their entire AFL careers with one team. Maynard finished his career with 633 receptions for 11,834 yards and 88 touchdowns. His 18.7 yards per catch is the highest for anyone with at least 600 receptions. Maynard was the first receiver to reach 10,000 yards and retired as pro football's all-time leading receiver which stood until Charlie Joiner surpassed him in 1986.

Following his NFL career, Maynard went on to participate in many charity-sponsored events. He also participated in the coin toss in Super Bowl XXXIII along with his former teammates, in honor of the 40th anniversary of the 1958 NFL Championship, which is also known as "The Greatest Game Ever Played". He was also once named the grand marshal in the annual El Paso Sun Bowl Thanksgiving Parade. He worked as a math and industrial arts teacher, sold a variety of products, and was a financial planner, which he still dabbled in.

Later in his life, Maynard lived in both El Paso and in Ruidoso, New Mexico to be close to his son and daughter and two grandchildren. His son was also a coach in the Canadian Football League with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in 1990.

Donald Rogers Maynard was born on Jan. 25, 1935, in Crosbyton, Texas. His father was a cotton gin manager, which meant the family moved often. Maynard attended five high schools in Texas and New Mexico.

"We kept moving around, and I never did play football again until I was a senior in high school at Colorado City," Maynard said in a 2003 interview with The Coffin Corner's Jim Sargent. "Under Texas rules, I never was eligible for football as a sophomore and a junior. You had to live somewhere for a year. But I played basketball and ran track."

After high school, Maynard attended Rice University but transferred after one semester to Texas Western, now known as the University of Texas at El Paso.

After redshirting his sophomore season, Maynard compiled 2,283 all-purpose yards as a halfback and kick returner. He also played safety on defense.

In 1957, the year Maynard would have originally graduated, he was selected by the New York Giants in the ninth round (109 overall) of the league's draft. Maynard stayed in school before turning pro in 1958.