RIP Don Maynard

[Kingspoint]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Maynard

1987 Pro Football Hall of Fame Inductee.

For 20 years, along with Belitnikoff, he was considered to have the best hands in the history of the NFL.

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. 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.

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.

Maynard would have had more yards and TD's if there weren't so many idiots running NFL football teams. The same idiot philosophy still exists whenever you see some idiot say something like, "he can't be any good because so-and-so cut him".

[Kingspoint]

This was one of my favorite cards (had dozens of favorites from that year, as it was easily my favorite year and still the best looking cards I've ever seen in football, as the backs were great....never surpassed until the '87 Fleer Baseball backs with their "hotzone").





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Note that his position was "Flanker".

[Kingspoint]

He was the Tyreke Hill of his day, except a lot better and a heck of a lot tougher.

[Kingspoint]

Probably the best article you'll find on Don Maynard.

https://vault.si.com/vault/1973/07/2...flows-this-don

"Maynard himself arrived at training camp in Peekskill, N.Y. in 1963 driving a turquoise, 8-year-old Ford coupe that he had fitted out to operate on butane instead of gasoline. One teammate called it the "El Paso Flame Thrower." Back home in El Paso the Flame Thrower, with 160,000 miles to its credit, still stands in the Maynard driveway. "Heck, you get the same mileage with butane as you get with regular gas, and it costs a whole lot less than gasoline does," Maynard says. "Besides, it doesn't pollute the environment, and your engine will last five times as long." The fact that Maynard performs this automotive engineering himself is just a small sample of his versatility. He has taught math, industrial arts, government and world history in high school, and has earned a plumber's license, an achievement that took five years of apprenticeship.

Maynard just as stubbornly refuses to lose his temper. "Don is such an easygoing guy, even under the worst circumstances," Grantham says, "that I can think of only one time he really got hot. That was in a game against Buffalo a few years ago when one of their defensive backs was hitting him late and getting in a lot of cheap shots. Suddenly on a play down near their goal line, Don hit this guy from the blind side with his forearm, knocked his helmet off and left him lying there in the end zone until his teammates came out and lugged him off." The story is an exaggeration, according to Maynard. "It didn't happen like that," he protests. "The play was a quarterback roll-out, and my job was to block this guy. I hit him a good lick, but it wasn't until afterwards I even knew it was the same guy who had been beating on me. Maybe I smiled a little, but I don't believe in retaliation. It's always the guy who retaliates who gets caught and penalized, never the original sinner. You can lose ball games that way."

More representative of Maynard is a story concerning a game against Denver. A defensive back first interfered with Don on a pass play, then he clobbered Maynard on the side of the head and finally he spat obscenities at him. Shocked, Maynard addressed himself to the referee. "You should throw this dirty player out of the game," he said. "He's a disgrace to football. He's a disgrace to his family."

[RedsBaron]

Great player. As an old Oakland Raiders fan I can recall Maynard making some big catches in a swirling New York wind to help the Jets defeat Oakland in the 1968 AFL title game 27-23. The Jets of course went on to upset the Colts 16-7 in Super Bowl III.
I made the above post before I read the article Kingspoint posted, which mentions the 1968 AFL title game. In his first post Kingspoint also mentioned Fred Biletnikoff. In reading the article I noticed that Maynard and Biletnikoff had something else in common: They both tried to make their uniform and equipment as light as possible for a game, foregoing heavier protective gear.

[Roy Tucker]

Note that his position was "Flanker".

Back in the day of flankers and split ends.

[cumberlandreds]

A great receiver. Maynard made many key catches for the Jets in the late 60's when the they were a relevant pro football team in the old AFL. I read his book a few years ago and it was pretty good. The part how he was trying to hang on for one more season was very poignant. RIP Don Maynard.