Caprock Chronicles: Don Maynard: The wandering West Texas Jet

Editor’s Note: Jack Becker is the editor of Caprock Chronicles and is a Librarian Emeritus from Texas Tech University. He can be reached at jack.becker@ttu.edu. Today’s article about football hero Don Maynard is the first of a two-part series by frequent contributor Chuck Lanehart, Lubbock attorney and award-winning Western history writer.

He was born in 1935 in Crosbyton, Texas, population 1,500, but young Donald Rogers Maynard rarely stayed anywhere long. The son of an itinerant working man, Don moved constantly with his family around the West Texas area. He attended 13 schools, including five high schools. It seemed a wonder the boy would grow up to be one of the greatest of professional football players.

His earliest memories were of riding his grandfather’s mule six miles to his first grade school in rural Oklahoma. He was living temporarily with his grandparents because his mother was recovering from tuberculosis and his father traveled for work.

After his mother recovered, the family moved to Pettit, Texas, in Hockley County. Although his family was poor, “Everybody I knew was poor,” Don wrote. “It’s just that none of us knew it. The unhappiness came every time we moved from one town to the next.”

Wherever they landed, the family attended various Protestant churches, and Don never touched beer or alcohol. At age nine, the family moved to Levelland, where he became active in Boy Scouts. When he reached fourth grade, sports beckoned. He competed in the 50-yard and 100-yard dash, winning first place three years straight.

By the time he reached middle school, Don traveled each summer to work with a six-man painting crew. He would “go to one little town, paint a cotton gin, and then move on to the next location, which might be 50 miles away. It was a good-paying job and it kept me busy. I liked it fine.”

In the fall of his freshman year, Don found himself at tiny Three Way School in Bailey County. He went out for the six-man football team, and he played quarterback. It is ironic that the first time Don — the future record-setting receiver — played organized football, he was not eligible to catch a pass.

The family’s next stop was Portales, New Mexico, where Don played basketball, and then on to Lamesa, but he did not play football his sophomore year. That spring, the family moved to San Angelo, where Don played basketball and ran track.

Don found himself in Colorado City for his junior year. He ran track and played defense on the junior varsity football team. Finally, in the fall of his senior year, the boy was eligible to play 11-man varsity football for the first time. He started at halfback and safety, and it quickly became obvious he had what no one else on the team had: blazing speed. During the track season, he won the Texas state title in both the low and high hurdles.

Major universities — including all Southwest Conference colleges — offered full athletic scholarships. With good grades — and an incredible perfect attendance record at 13 schools since he first rode a mule to first grade — Don chose Rice University. “If I graduated with a degree from Rice, I could get a job anywhere. So I paid no mind when they sent the baseball coach to recruit me for the track and football teams.”

At Rice, Don got crossways with his coach and quit the football team. Homesick, he dropped out of Rice midterm and wound up at Texas Western in El Paso (now UTEP), where NCAA rules required him to sit out a full football season.

Don played multiple positions at Texas Western. As a receiver, he caught only 28 passes, but averaged 27.6 yards per catch with ten touchdowns. He averaged 5.4 yards per carry at running back, and finished with 2,283 multi-purpose yards, including outstanding kickoff and punt returns. On defense, he intercepted 10 passes.

In the 1957 NFL draft, Don was selected by the New York Giants in the ninth round but was released after his first season. He then signed with the New York Titans—later renamed the Jets—of the upstart American Football League. In the 1969 Super Bowl, Don and “Broadway Joe” Namath hooked up for pitches and catches that beat the mighty Baltimore Colts, one of the greatest upsets in professional football history.

Don — six feet tall and 180 pounds — retired in 1974 as the NFL’s all-time leading receiver with 633 receptions for an average of 18.7 yards per catch. His record no longer stands, but the poor boy from Crosbyton-Pettit-Levelland-Lamesa-Portales-San Angelo-Colorado City and points beyond was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1987. The Jets retired his lucky No. 13 jersey.

Known as a football equipment innovator, Don was the first player to wear a V-neck jersey, a mesh jersey, white cleats, soccer-style spikes, cheek pads inside the helmet for stability, and special over-the-knee socks to protect from grass burns and infield dirt.

After retirement, Don opened a financial consulting firm and did charity work for the American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society, the March of Dimes and Boy Scouts of America. Don Maynard died in 2022 in Ruidoso, New Mexico, at age 86.

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Caprock Chronicles: Don Maynard: The wandering West Texas Jet