Don Maynard, 1935-2022

It's easy to forget just how much time has passed. Tomorrow marks the 53rd Anniversary of the New York Jets' one and only appearance, and victory, in the Super Bowl. And the number of players from that game who are still alive just got a little smaller.

Donald Rogers Maynard was born on January 25, 1935 in Crosbyton, in the Texas Panhandle. His father worked in the cotton industry, and moved around a lot, settling in Colorado City, still in West Texas. At Colorado City High School, he lettered in football, basketball and track -- not surprising, given the element of speed in all 3.

He started at Rice University in Houston, then transferred to Texas Western University. (In 1967, that school became the University of Texas at El Paso, or UTEP.) He was drafted by the New York Giants, and played in the 1958 NFL Championship Game, which the Giants lost in overtime to the Baltimore Colts at Yankee Stadium. It has been called "The Greatest Game Ever Played."

But in a truly dumb move, the Giants cut him during the next season's training camp. Given the fact that Frank Gifford missed the end of the 1960 season and all of 1961, and returned only to retire again in 1964, they really could have used a prime Don Maynard.

Instead, Don went to the Canadian Football League, and played a season for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. In 1960, the American Football League was founded, with the New York Titans. Their 1st head coach was Sammy Baugh, one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, and a Texan. Having been head coach at Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, he had coached against TWU, and knew how good Maynard was.

Despite drawing pathetically small crowds to the Polo Grounds, the Titans were a respectable 7-7 that 1st season, and, with Baugh contributing to the early AFL's reputation as a pass-happy league, Maynard and Art Powell were the 1st professional receiving pair to both gain over 1,000 yards on receptions in a season. They did this again in 1962.

In 1963, the Titans were renamed the New York Jets, and in 1964, they moved to Shea Stadium in Queens. In 1965, the Jets drafted and signed quarterback Joe Namath, and they combined for 68 passes for 1,218 yards. In 1967, Namath became the 1st pro quarterback to pass for 4,000 yards in a season, with Maynard contributing 1,434 of them on 71 catches.

In 1968, the Jets advanced to the AFL Championship Game against the Oakland Raiders. Namath completed 6 passes to Maynard for 118 yards and 2 touchdowns, and the Jets won, 27-23. This advanced them to Super Bowl III. Namath told the media, "We're gonna win, I guarantee it!" The Jets did, 16-7. However, a hamstring injury sustained in the AFL Championship Game limited Maynard's success, as he caught no passes. Instead, George Sauer was the biggest recipient of Namath's largesse, and Matt Snell rushed for their only touchdown.

Maynard remained with the Jets for the entire 10-year run of the AFL, 1 of only 7 men to play all 10 years for only 1 team. He stayed through 1972, played the 1973 season with the football version of the St. Louis Cardinals, and played in 1974 in the World Football League, with the original version of the Houston Texans.

He retired after that season, having caught 633 passes for 11,834 yards, making him the 1st receiver ever to surpass 10,000 yards, scoring 88 touchdowns. He said, "I don't really look at it like I'm the greatest receiver. After you play a while, anybody can break certain records. Longevity is the key. The record I'm proudest of is being the first guy to get 10,000 yards in receptions. Others may do it, but I'm the first, and only one guy can be the first."  

After playing, he taught math and industrial arts in El Paso. While in college, he married a woman named Marilyn Weaver, who predeceased him. They had a son and a daughter.

In 1987, he became the 2nd Jet to be elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, following Namath in 1985. He was a 4-time AFL All-Star, and was named to the AFL All-Time Team. The Jets retired his Number 13, and named him to their Ring of Honor. He published a memoir, You Can't Catch Sunshine; and attended anniversary celebrations for the Super Bowl III winners, at Giants Stadium for the 25th in 1993, and at MetLife Stadium for the 50th in 2018.

Don Maynard died yesterday, January 10, 2022, at his home in El Paso. He was 86 years old.

With his death, there are now: 

* 8 living men who played in the 1958 NFL Championship Game. For the Giants: Rosey Grier and Al Barry. For the Colts: Lenny Moore, Raymond Berry, Dick Horn, Jack Call, Leo Sanford and Andy Nelson.

* 16 surviving players from the original 1960 New York Titans/Jets: Dewey Bohling, Leon Burton, Dan Callahan, Ken Campbell, Ed Cooke, Charlie Dupre, Pete Hart, Blanch Martin, Nick Mumley, Joe Pagliei, Bob Reifsnyder, Dave Ross, Rick Sapienza, Gerhard Schwedes, Bob Scrabis and Hall Whitley.

* 27 surviving players from the Jets' win in Super Bowl III: Joe Namath, Bob Talamini, Matt Snell, Emerson Boozer, Jim Turner, Bake Turner, Mark Smolinski, Lee White, John Schmitt, Randy Rasmussen, Dave Herman, Jeff Richardson, Gerry Philbin, Steve Thompson, Carl McAdams, Ralph Baker, Al Atkinson, John Neidert, Randy Beverly, John Dockery, Earl Christy, Jim Richards, Michael Stromberg, Bill Baird, Mike D'Amato, Cornell Gordon and Karl Henke.

* And 10 living players from the AFL All-Time Team: Namath and Philbin from the Jets; Lance Alworth, Ron Mix and Paul Lowe from the San Diego Chargers; Jim Otto from the Oakland Raiders; Billy Shaw from the Buffalo Bills; and Johnny Robinson, Bobby Bell and Ed Budde from the Kansas City Chiefs.

Top 10 Greatest New York Jets

Continuing the series I began, on the Top 10 players of each of the Tri-State Area's major league teams. On to the J, E, T, S, Jets, Jets, Jets!

Honorable Mention to members of the Jets' Ring of Honor at MetLife Stadium who are not otherwise in this Top 10: Winston Hill, Gerry Philbin, Mark Gastineau, Al Toon, and coach Weeb Ewbank. Also to Wayne Chrebet and Dennis Byrd, who are not yet in the Ring of Honor, but have had their numbers removed from circulation, though not officially retired. (UPDATE: In 2012, the Jets officially retired Byrd's Number 90.)

Also to Jim Turner, Art Powell and Bob Talamini, who, like Hill, Philbin, Ewbank, and the men at Numbers 8, 3 and 1 on this list, were named to the American Football League's All-Time Team.

Also to the members of the Jets' "All-Time Four Decade Team" named in 2003, who are neither in this Top 10, nor in the Ring of Honor, nor on the AFL All-Time Team: Matt Snell, Randy Rasmussen, Bill Baird, Bruce Harper, Pat Leahy, Chuck Ramsey, Jim Sweeney,  Mickey Shuler, Greg Buttle, Kyle Clifton, Marvin Powell, Kevin Mawae, Jason Fabini, Mo Lewis, James Hasty, Aaron Glenn, John Abraham and Victor Green.

Also to Richard Todd and Ken O’Brien, and to active Jets Mark Sanchez and Darrell Revis. And to coach Bill Parcells: "You are what your record says you are." And to coach Herman Edwards: "You play to win the game!" And to Ed Anzalone, a.k.a. Fireman Ed, the best-known Jets fan.

And to Sonny Werblin, for building the Super Bowl III Champions; to Leon Hess, part of the Jets' ownership from 1963 until 1984 and sole owner from then until his death in 1999; and to Robert Wood Johnson IV, a.k.a. Woody Johnson: Although he's a major Republican donor, I have to credit him for, along with Giants owners John Mara and Steve Tisch, getting MetLife Stadium built; it is a huge improvement over Giants Stadium, and not just from the Jets' perspective.

I am not, however, awarding an Honorable Mention to coach Rex Ryan -- not unless he finally keeps his promise. (As former Yankee star Jim Bouton would say, "Yeah, surrrre!")

10. John Riggins, Number 44, running back, 1971-75. It's easy to forget, for all his runs behind those Washington Redskin "Hogs," but Riggo played 5 years for the Jets, and until Curtis Martin just got in, he was the only member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame who played at least 3 seasons with the Jets with none of those seasons being the 1968-69 Super Bowl season.

9. Vinny Testaverde, Number 16, quarterback, 1998-2003 & 2005. No, he wasn't Namath's backup in Super Bowl III – he wasn't quite that old. (Babe Parilli, an All-American at Kentucky and an AFL start with the then-Boston Patriots, was Joe’s backup then.) But he did come within a half of doing what only Namath has done, quarterbacking the Jets into a Super Bowl. Like Y.A. Tittle with the early-Sixties Giants, he seemed to do more after age 34 than before it.

8. Larry Grantham, Number 60, linebacker, 1960-72. Along with Gerry Philbin, he led the Jet defense that should be remembered as the real heroes of Super Bowl III. Remember, the Baltimore Colts went 13-1 in the regular season, and went into Cleveland Municipal Stadium (at the time, NFL Championship Game sites were rotated between divisions, not based on record), against the Browns, the only team that had beaten them, and crushed them, 31-0. And the Jets held that offense to 7 points. Which is good, because, despite all the hype, Namath only led them to 1 touchdown (and 3 field goals).

Grantham was there at the beginning, playing as the New York Titans in front of under 5,000 people at the disintegrating old Polo Grounds, and was there at the Orange Bowl when glory was finally achieved.

7. Wesley Walker, Number 85, receiver, 1977-89. How soon we forget: Al Toon, Keyshawn Johnson, Wayne Chrebet, and now Santonio Holmes and Plaxico Burress have gotten bigger headlines, but Walker did more for the Jets than any of them.

He hauled in 15 Richard Todd passes in the Jets' 1982 Playoff wins against the Cincinnati Bengals at Riverfront and the Raiders at the Los Angeles Coliseum. He caught the winning pass from Ken O’Brien in the 51-45 win over the Miami Dolphins at the Meadowlands in 1986. He caught 438 passes for 8,306 yards and 71 touchdowns. He should be in the Hall of Fame.

6. Marty Lyons, Number 93, defensive tackle, 1979-89. An incredibly underrated player, he should be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and isn't even in the Jets' Ring of Honor yet. The anchor of the University of Alabama's National Championship defense in 1978, he became the centerpiece of the New York Sack Exchange. He's become the Jets' radio analyst, and runs a charitable foundation.

5. Joe Klecko, Number 73, defensive end, 1977-87. With Gastineau, Lyons and Abdul Salaam, he formed the New York Sack Exchange, which got a lot of headlines but did not achieve what the Giant defenses of 1956-63, 1986-90 and 2007-present did.

A knee injury probably kept him out of Canton, but he is the only defensive player to have his number retired by the Jets. Dwight Stephenson, the Hall of Fame center for the Miami Dolphins (whose career was ended by an alleged cheap shot by Lyons), has called Klecko one of the 2 best interior linemen he ever faced. Anthony Munoz, the Hall of Fame tackle of the Cincinnati Bengals, says he had "perfect technique," and puts him in a group with Mean Fred Dean, Lee Roy Selmon and Bruce "Bad Things" Smith as the best defensive ends he played against. Yet another Hall-of-Famer, Buffalo Bills guard Joe DeLamielleure, puts him on equal footing with Merlin Olsen and Mean Joe Greene – truly high praise.

Joe is the father of Dan Klecko, a defensive tackle won won 2 Super Bowls with the Patriots and another with the Colts.

4. Freeman McNeil, Number 24, running back, 1981-92. With Johnny Hector, he formed "The Two-Headed Monster," and rushed for over 8,000 yards, making him the Jets' all-time leader until Number 2 on this list came along.

3. Don Maynard, Number 13, receiver, 1960-72. For those of us who tend to think of Riggins as a Redskin, for a long time, Maynard was the only Jet besides You Know Who in the Hall of Fame. Somebody had to catch You Know Who's passes, to be Raymond Berry to his Johnny Unitas, Lynn Swan to his Terry Bradshaw, Jerry Rice to his Joe Montana.

Maynard was a rookie with the 1958 Giants, and played in that year's NFL Championship Game, often called "The Greatest Game Ever Played," but the Giants lost to the Baltimore Colts.  As far as I know, the only men to be involved in that game and Super Bowl III 10 years later, often cited as the 2 most important games in NFL history, are Maynard, Johnny Unitas, Colt center/linebacker Dick Szymanski, and Ewbank, who coached the winning team each time.

Lou Michaels played for the Colts in Super Bowl III, and his brother Walt was the Jets' coach when they reached the 1982 AFC Championship Game. Had they won that game to get into Super Bowl XVII, Walt would have gotten an Honorable Mention here.

2. Curtis Martin, Number 28, running back, 1998-2005. Yet another figure in the Jets-Patriots rivalry, Parcells brought him in when he moved from Foxboro to East Rutherford. He is the Jets' only 10,000-yard rusher, and slightly trails Tiki Barber of the Giants as New York football's all-time leading rusher (although he's ahead of Tiki if you count his Patriot years). He was just elected to the Hall of Fame, and deservedly so.

1. Joe Namath, Number 12, quarterback, 1965-76. You were expecting someone else? True, he only reached the Playoffs twice. Statistically speaking, Joe's credentials for the Hall of Fame are actually kind of skimpy.

But, like his contemporaries Muhammad Ali and Walt Frazier, there was a perfect mix of man and moment: The late Sixties, great sports achievement, a change in style, and the growth of mass media and advertising to properly complement them. Just as Johnny U was the perfect quarterback for the preceding era, Broadway Joe was the right man, in the right sport, in the right position, in the right place, in the right time.