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.

September 11, 1960: The New York Titans (Jets) Debut

This is the Titans playing at the Polo Grounds,

but it's not the first game.

The opponent is the Denver Broncos.

September 11, 1960, 60 years ago: The New York Titans play their 1st regular-season game. The New York entry in the brand-new American Football League takes the field at the Polo Grounds, at 155th Street and 8th Avenue, where Harlem meets Washington Heights, and beats the Buffalo Bills, 27-3.

The Bills scored first, on a 35-yard field goal by Darrell Harper. In the 2nd quarter, Bill Shockley scored the franchise's 1st points with a game-tying 15-yard field goal. Later in the quarter, Al Dorow rushed for 2 touchdowns. Shockley kicked a 39-yard field goal in the 3rd quarter. In the 4th, Dick Jamieson threw a 13-yard touchdown pass to Art Powell. On all 3 Titan touchdowns, Shockley converted the extra point.

Despite good weather -- 65 degrees, with an 18-mile-per-hour wind -- the attendance was only 10,250. Not good. For comparison's sake, when the NFL's New York Giants played their 1st home game of the season, they brought 60,625 people to the old Yankee Stadium.

The Titans finished 7-7 in 1960. In 1963, to match baseball's Mets, with whom they were sharing the ancient Polo Grounds, they changed their name to the New York Jets. They also changed their colors from navy blue and gold to green and white. In 1964, both teams moved into Shea Stadium in Flushing Meadow, Queens. In calendar year 1969, both teams improbably won their sports' World Championships.

The Jets joined the NFL with the 1970 merger with the AFL, and continued to play at Shea until 1983. The following season, they moved to the Meadowlands in East Rutherford, Bergen County, New Jersey, sharing Giants Stadium with the Giants. In 2010, both teams moved next-door to the new MetLife Stadium.

*

September 11, 1960, as you might guess, was a Sunday. The rest of the inaugural week of AFL regular-season play went as follows: 

* The 1st game was 2 days before, on the 9th, a Friday night at Boston University's Nickerson Field. The Denver Broncos beat the Boston Patriots 13-10. The Patriots changed their name to "New England" in 1971, when they moved out to suburban Foxborough, Massachusetts.

* On the 10th, the Los Angeles Chargers beat the Dallas Texans, 21-20 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The Chargers moved to San Diego in 1961, and back to Los Angeles in 2017. The Texans became the Kansas City Chiefs in 1963.

* The only other game played on the 11th was the Houston Oilers beating the Oakland Raiders, 37-22 at Kezar Stadium in San Francisco. The Raiders wouldn't actually play a game in Oakland until the 1962 season. They moved to Los Angeles in 1982, back to Oakland in 1995, and to Las Vegas in 2020. The Oilers moved in 1997, becoming the Tennessee Oilers, and became the Tennessee Titans in 1999. Hey, the Jets weren't using the Titans name.