Don Maynard (1935-2022) American Football Player

Don Maynard (1935-2022) American Football Player dies at 10 January 2022 (86 years)

Don Maynard was an American professional football player

He played the wide receiver position for the National Football League’s New York Giants and St. Louis Cardinals and the American Football League’s New York Titans/Jets from 1958 to 1973.

He played football collegiately at both Rice University and Texas Western University before being drafted by the New York Giants in the ninth round of the 1957 NFL Draft. He played one season with the Giants before going up to the Canadian Football League to play for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in 1959. In 1960, he joined the upstart New York Titans (later Jets) of the new American Football League and went on to play for them for the next thirteen years. While with the Jets, he was an integral part of their 1968 AFL Championship and Super Bowl III-winning team.

He also was a four-time AFL All-Star, two-time First-team All-AFL, and two-time Second-team All-AFL during his tenure with the Jets. After the 1972 season, he joined the St. Louis Cardinals and played for them during the 1973 season. He played one more year with the World Football League’s Houston Texans/Shreveport Steamer in 1974 before retiring from professional football. During his NFL career, he caught 633 receptions for 11,834 yards and had 88 touchdowns.

He later was honored by being inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1980 and having his number 13 retired by the New York Jets.

Full Bio

Early life

Maynard grew up in Texas. His father was a cotton broker, and with the family constantly moving, Maynard attended 13 schools, including five high schools. As a senior at Colorado City High School in Colorado City, Texas, he lettered in football, basketball and track.

College career

Maynard played collegiately for Rice University (one year), then for Texas Western College (now the University of Texas at El Paso). In three seasons (1954–56) with the Miners, he caught only 28 passes but averaged 27.6 yards per reception and recorded 10 touchdowns. As a running back, he had 843 yards rushing on 154 attempts for a 5.4 average and also returned punts and kickoffs. He amassed 2,283 all-purpose yards, while also intercepting 10 passes playing defensive back.

Professional career

The New York Giants selected Maynard in the ninth round, with the 109th overall selection, of the 1957 NFL Draft. In 12 games as a rookie, he had 12 rushes for 45 yards (3.8 yards per carry), caught five passes for 84 yards (a 16.8 yard average) and played on special teams. After being released by the Giants during their 1959 training camp, he played one season in the Canadian Football League with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, catching just one pass for 10 yards. In the off-season, he worked as a plumber and a teacher.

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. Over the next 13 years Maynard put up receiving numbers that would earn him a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1987.

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.

Post-NFL career

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.

Maynard and his wife Marilyn (Weaver), whom he met when she was a student at Texas Western, were married in December 1955 after his junior season. She predeceased him. Maynard died from complications of dementia, among other ailments, at a care facility in Ruidoso on January 10, 2022, at the age of 86.

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