TJB Hall of Fame: Don Maynard
Whenever there are discussions of great receivers or great Jets, the name of Don Maynard almost never comes up — or worse, it comes into the conversation as an afterthought. Why?!
Unquestionably the best receiver to ever to wear the green-and-white, Maynard is only one of two Jets in the NFL Hall of Fame — that guy from Beaver Falls who threw him the ball and won a championship with him, being the other. He is also only the Jets all-time leader in every receiving category, and simply the greatest big-play weapon the team has had. Ever.
In addition, his jersey is only one of three that have ever been retired by the team; again, you already know the other two — Namath and Klecko.
But for some reason — maybe because he played before much of the current fan base got to see him, or has kept a low profile since retiring — he never seems to get the credit due him. Heck, it’s taken until the third time around for him to even get inducted into the esteemed TJB Hall of Fame!
This, my Jets brethren, is a glaring oversight that we hope to amend a bit with this (overdue) enshrinement of number 13 into the TJB Hall of Fame.
The very first player to join the New York Titans franchise in 1960, he is also one of the longest-tenured stars in team history, playing for the Jets for 13 seasons.
During those 13 seasons — a few of them for a struggling expansion franchise — Maynard was the unquestioned go-to guy, the player the team could count on to make the big play. In what was possibly the game where they needed his game-changing skills the most, the 1968 AFL championship game against Oakland, Maynard delivered the performance of a lifetime, snaring 6 passes for 118 yards and 2 TDs. And although he didn’t catch a pass in that improbable win over the Colts in Super Bowl III, he was on the field, drawing coverage and freeing up George Sauer for a big day, contributing mightily to that hailed championship.
Known as a player who liked to improvise while running routes, Maynard was a highly respected player on the field. He was a five-time All-Pro (1960, ‘65, ‘67, ‘68 & ‘69) and a four-time AFL Pro Bowl selection (1965, ‘67, ‘68 & ‘69).
Although I was alive when he played for the Jets, I was very young and have no personal memories of Maynard’s playing prowess. And because of the era he played, there isn’t a lot of highlight films out there. But I do have the record book to testify to his special place in NFL history, as well as AFL history — he is a member of the All-Time AFL Team.
As mentioned, he is the Jets career leader (or close) in every critical receiving category.
- Receptions: 633 (40th NFL all-time; 1st NYJ all-time)
- Yards: 11,834 (18th NFL; 1st NYJ)
- Receiving TDs: 88 (10th NFL; 1st NYJ)
- Yards/reception: 18.7 yards/reception (23rd NFL; 2nd NYJ)
- Receiving yards/game: 63.6 (27th NFL; 2nd NYJ)
- Most receiving yards/game in NYJ history: 228 yards (11/17/68 vs. Oakland)
- Most receiving yards/season in NYJ history: 1,434 (1968); also is responsible for 4 of the top 5 seasons in receiving yards in NYJ history.
And again, all these totals were totally amassed in the era of 14-game seasons, and back in an era when the modern passing game was just beginning to take off — teammate Joe Namath was the first QB to pass for over 4,000 yards in 1967, with 1,400+ of them belonging to Maynard, who averaged a staggering 102.4 receiving yards/game that season.
Even more amazingly, Maynard didn’t the join the Titans/Jets and start his true NFL career until he was 25, playing one season with the Giants as a returner (netting 84 yards on 5 receptions) and spending the 1959 season with Hamilton of the CFL.
If Maynard’s numbers don’t sound overly impressive, try to keep them in context. From his NFL Hall-of-Fame bio:
Although he never led the league in receiving any one season, at the time of his retirement following the 1973 season, Maynard was one of only five players to record more than 50 receptions and more than 1,000 receiving yards in five different seasons. A four-time AFL All-Star, his 633 career catches for 11,834 yards were both pro records at the time.
Simply, just because you never saw him play doesn’t mean he wasn’t amongst the very best in NFL and AFL history.
Jets fans like to grumble that we get no respect. Well, if there is any player who more embodied a lack of respect than Don Maynard, I don’t know who it is.
Here’s hoping this modest tribute atones for some of that. Congratulations!
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Overdue but well done.
I was at the AFL championship game. It was simply the greatest performance I ever saw by a WR. Against the hated Raiders too made it sweet.
Youse younguns missed some of the greatest Jets highlights. Lets hope the new staff accounts for some new memories.
harlan
Great article, Maynard may be the best Jet ever yet he is constantly overlooked and underappricated.
Unrelated but i just wanted to pass along this SI article about broadcasters that Damian Woody is featured in.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/ross_tucker/06/24/broadcasting/index.html?eref=T1
I like to think of it as though Maynard was not overlooked…we simply decided to vote him in this year so that he would not be overshadowed by Namath as he may have been if he was part of last year’s class. So, he gets to be the jewel in this year’s class instead (and that’s my excuse for any “snubs” we get criticized for this year!)
In the Superbowl, an injured Maynard went deep on the first drive. Although the pass was incomplete, it was enough of a threat that the Colts paid plenty of attention to him for the rest of the day, allowing George Sauer to grab the glory and have a big day underneath. How many of today’s modern WRs would make a sacrifice like that?
Bassett,
Great job writing about Maynard. and while i will always be a Joe Willie guy Maynard runs a close second with Curtis. And don’t forget maynard played when DB’s were able to really play and hit and hold WR’s. best part of the Jets getting him was that the Giants let him go. Also love the picture with the Polo Grounds in the background
IRA – to give credit where credit’s due, this piece was written by R in CT, not Bassett.
Bent, Sorry thanks for the heads up. It was a great read.
I agree wholeheartedly that Don Maynard is one of the, if not the, most underrated receivers in NFL history. Hell, he had better hands than many of the receivers in the Hall. Maybe he was so overshadowed by the exploits of that Beaver Falls guy, who knows?
Maynard was on of the great Jets dating back to day 1 with the Titans. (To think that Allie Sherman of the Giants cut him because he had “bad hands”.)
But where are some of the other great Jets from the 60’s like Boozer and Snell or Winston Hill and Dave Herman, or Gerry Philbin and Larry Grantham?
I love Maynard.. I was born a few years after he retired, but thanks to my handy “History of the NY Jets” DVD (i own 2 copies of it LOL), i really began to appreciate what he and Namath accomplished through the 60s..
Namath gets all the glory, but Maynard is a true Darkhorse.. What a great player in our favorite team’s history!
I agree with all the accolades thrown Maynard’s way and I did see him play – was a better WR, in my opinion, than Fred Biletnikoff – and a very similar receiver, although Don was faster.
I think part of the reason that Maynard doesn’t get his due is because he shuns the spotlight. He is a country boy Texan and he never liked the limelight. He also has been known to speak his mind on issues that may not necessarily fit in with what the Jets franchise thinks. He would have been a great color analyst, if he would have been a little more outgoing, He told it like it was/is.
I’m extremely happy with this!
For Maynard to go in along with Wesley Walker is a true joy. Someone yesterday tried to compare/contrast these two, which is just silly. It’s like comparing apples and apples. They’re both Great Jets, were both fluid and lithe and impossible to cover, and always found a way to settle under that floating pass in stride, thereby giving opponents fits and Jets fans untold pleasure and fun. Equal greats from different eras.
Great pick, thanks!
Harlan brings up a good point:
There was no Jet “yesterday” or ‘legacy” under Mangini. As far back as he would allow was morning practice.
Here’s hoping Woody and the Jets develop a more pronounced and open connection to the legacy left behind by these hundreds of green-clad (and navy & gold) warriors. They’re all Jets. And all our heros. I know the team’s doing more in that direction, but the hope is that they make it as much a part of team culture as the Yankees do (OK, yeah, I know, without the titles).
I was directing the NFL Film crew at that Raiders AFL Championship game. Maynard was covered most of that day by rookie George Atkinson, who later improved into a good if not nasty Raider CB but Maynard ate him alive. On that 2nd TD Maynard caught, I told the iso camera to shoot someone else but cameraman Bill Wilson was an old pro and he ignored me and shot Maynard in iso and we had the winning TD in iso with Don beating George.
After the game I interviewed Maynard about picking on the rookie and he ranted at me, “Wining! Winning that’s all that’s important!” NFL Films has used that quote often without my question but I was honored to get him out of his quiet shell.
In the Super Bowl, I believe he had a leg injury and wasn’t up to full speed to create his usual separation but he was a great decoy and gave the best handed receiver,George Sauer, a chance to really shine. Sauer made one catch turning completely around as the ball got there. Highlights of the game usually show that miraculous catch.
Two other points as I’m thinking of those days, which some of you never had the chance to experience:
1) Someone above mentioned the wide-open DB game going on at the time, yet still Maynard prevailed! Tip: Go back up and look at the arms of the guy in the 1st and 3rd photos — he may have been all of 12 lbs., sure, but damn, he was solid muscle. And one mean Texan — a little like Nolan Ryan was. Rest assured, those DBs got the snot clubbed out of them, just as well as they dished it out.
2) Maynard’s records are impressive as well because they came at a time when the AFL was the Wild West Show, which is why most of us who were kids at the time loved that league so much. Every AFL team was doing it, not just the Jets. So these records beat out a lot of heavy competition. The NFL was Dust off tackle; Dust off right tackle; Dust up the middle; 8-yd. pass; repeat. Borrrrring. But, OH-MY-GOD, the AFL…the ethic was “just stomp people” on D, and on O, it was just drop back five and fling it as far as you could and run down and catch it, which gave birth to a whole string of strong-armed QBs and lightning quick WRs. Imagine Prime Favre-to-Clowney all day long! Madness! Balls were flying all over the damned place! DBs would devise every cheat they could think of, to grab both balls and receivers! They’d be running their asses off all afternoon. These QB/WR combos were simply unstoppable, league-wide. So, every Sunday saw shootout after shootout. All at the same time you had: Daryl Lamonica to Warren Wells or Lamonica to Fred Biletnikoff in Oakland; John Hadl to Lance Alworth in San Diego; Jack Kemp to Haven Moses in Buffalo; Steve Tensi to Al Denson in Denver; Len Dawson to either Otis Taylor or Frank Pitts in KC; Bob Griese to Jack Clancy on those expansion guys in Miami; Babe Parilli to Gino Cappelletti in Boston; George Blanda to Charley Frazier or Pete Beathard to Lionel Taylor in Houston. It was a league of madness, which is why the NFL pissed on the AFL’s shoes so much. It wasn’t “proper football” the NFL sniffed. Then, along came Joe Willie & Co. Oops, new story.
Actually, it’s hard to see from so far away, but we football fans are the ones who really lost in that 1970 merger. When the AFL became the AFC, something was lost. The animals were tamed. With a few exceptions, the AFL teams began to smooth out the wrinkles and dumb down the product to more closely match the NFL model, which loosened up only a little. Out went the Wild West Show, and sadly we’ve all watched a much tamer brand of football since. Then, once Parcells won with a Giants grind-it-out game, that was it for any chance for the joy of a wide-open game (Jet-Miami shootouts notwithstanding).
Believe me, when we see the Jets take the field v. the replacement Houston team, if Ryan is true to his word and our assumptions, we’ll see a Jets team that is far closer to the Baltimore Colts of SBIII than to the NY Jets of that day.
Sigh…
All I know is Namath always credits Maynard and Sauer as the main reasons he was so successful .. that goes a long way in my book ..
Google:
“Going Long” Don Maynard Allie Sherman
You should get a Google Books excerpt starting on page 21…which recounts why Maynard was cut by the Giants. (Only the first of a long list of stupid mistakes by Allie Sherman.)
Also noted is the reason Maynard was signed by the Titans. He played against Sammy Baugh’s team in college and the Titan’s coach knew what Maynard was capable of.
A running back in college, Maynard was drafted by the Giants in 1957 in the 9th round as a futures pick. That sounds pretty far down in the draft, but #109 is equivalent to an early 4th round selection in 2009. Given it was a futures pick (Maynard didn’t play till 1958) it was probably equivalent to an early 3rd.
Than you Allie Sherman.
Eventually, the TJB HOF should have all the stars of that era, including Winston Hill, Gerry Philbin, Sauer, Snell and Boozer. At the very least, Hill and Philbin are musts.
Namath to Maynard was a thing of beauty. They taught me to appreciate a great passing game. Hopefully, before this season starts, our WR situation will come together.
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