Gobbler Fan
10-18-2006, 05:18 AM
Mayne Recalls Glory Days On The Gridiron
Former Rb Inducted Into Gobbler Hall Of Fame
October 18, 2006 - Posted at 12:00 a.m.
BY MIKE FORMAN - ADVOCATE SPORTS WRITER
Lewis "Mickey" Mayne did play football without a face mask but it didn't affect his memory.
Mayne can recite the entire starting lineup of his Cuero football team, which may not seem like a big deal, except he played in 1938.
Mayne turned 86 in March but looks almost as fit as the 190-pound halfback who played for Ed Shinn at Cuero, Dana X. Bible at the University of Texas and Paul Brown of the Cleveland Browns before settling into a career as a coach and administrator that led him to his present home in Daingerfield.
"I just remember the wonderful attitudes of the people," Mayne said during a recent visit to Cuero for his induction into the Gobbler Hall of Fame. "I've always had a special feeling for the Green and White. Even my eyes are green."
Mayne's athletic ability was obvious at a young age and he was spurred on by his uncle, Jess, who was five years older, and told him, "Dutch (Mayne's nickname growing up) you're good, but you're not as good as me."
Mayne proved his uncle wrong by winning four events at a track meet in Yoakum as a 14-year-old junior high student and becoming so dominant in football that he was selected to the Houston Post's All-Southeast Texas Class B Team during his junior and senior years at Cuero.
The Post described Mayne as "the Cuero crusher and in addition to his exceptional ball-carrying ability, was a good passer and one of the finest punters in the state."
Mayne remembers his sternest competition in high school coming from Victoria's Frank Crain and Kenedy's Charlie Roberts. Mayne and Crain have remained friends and Mayne still teases Crain about the time the two tied for first place in a race at a meet in Houston and Mayne was awarded the gold medal by coin flip.
Mayne ended his high school football career by playing in the North-South All-Star Game at Rice Stadium in Houston. But Mayne's final game at Cuero came in the regional playoffs, which was as far as teams could advance at the time, against Junction. The game was played in Cuero after Junction was paid $1,000 to travel to the Gobblers' home field.
Mayne kicked a 15-yard field goal and returned a kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown but Cuero lost 19-10, much to the dismay of Texas assistant coach Blair Cherry, who attended the game.
"Why didn't they let you run with the ball," Mayne recalls Cherry asking him after the game.
Cherry returned to Cuero at a more opportune time and won Mayne's commitment to attend Texas.
"I came from a family of Aggies," Mayne said. "My uncle Jess had attended A&M on a baseball scholarship. Coach Bible had spoken at our athletic banquet. My uncle was giving me so much grief that I told him, 'The first one who comes through that door, that's where I'll go.' Coach Cherry beat the A&M coach by five minutes."
Mayne, who for unknown reasons was known as "Mugge" at Cuero, earned his present nickname from Bible when he played at Texas.
"Coach Bible couldn't remember Mugge so he started calling me Mickey," Mayne said.
Mayne played football and ran track at Texas, where he met his wife, Nollie, in geology class and helped lead the Longhorns to the 1942 Southwest Conference championship and their first-ever bowl appearance at the 1943 Cotton Bowl where they defeated Georgia Tech 14-7.
"You played both ways," Mayne said. "It was the same way in high school, college and the pros."
Mayne entered the service when World War II started during his senior year at Texas and played for the Lincoln Air Field Wings in Nebraska before transferring to Austin for pilot training just after getting a physical to be sent overseas.
After leaving the service in 1946, Mayne weighed offers from the Chicago Bears of the NFL and Brooklyn Dodgers of the All-American Football Conference before signing with the Dodgers.
Mayne was one of 33 of the 100 players to attend training camp in Bend, Oregon, to make the team. In his first game, he ran back a missed field goal attempt - returning a missed attempt from the end zone was illegal at the time and Mayne admits he was probably in the end zone but attributes his "always running forward" to catching the officials off guard - 100 yards for a touchdown and was featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not.
Mayne spent one season in Brooklyn, scoring three touchdowns and intercepting four passes, before reaching an oral agreement with George Halas to play for the Bears the next season. But while building a home in Winnsboro that summer, Mayne was summoned to a meeting at the Adolphus Hotel in Dallas where he agreed to play for the Cleveland Browns of the AAFC. The Browns offered him $3,000 more than the Bears along with a $500 bonus and Mayne received Halas' blessing to play for the Browns.
The Browns, who were coached by Paul Brown and included future Hall of Famers Otto Graham, Marion Motley and Lou Groza, and beat the New York Yankees 14-3 the 1947 championship game at Yankee Stadium.
"The hair stood up on the back of my neck before coming out of the tunnel," Mayne said. "It was pretty rough back then. I remember before a game started about three-fourths of the team would reach in their mouths get their front teeth and put them in their locker. That's one of the reasons why coach Brown helped design the face mask and the mouthpiece."
Mayne played for the Baltimore Colts of the AAFC in 1948 before separating his shoulder midway through the season and retiring. Mayne had suffered a more serious injury while playing for the Dodgers when both of his arms went numb after making a tackle on a kickoff return. But his coach at the time instructed him to shake his arms and get back in the game.
Mayne would later learn he had bruised his spinal cord and as result is severely limited when it comes to physical activity.
But the injury didn't stop Mayne from a successful coaching career at Winnsboro and Daingerfield, where he led his team to the 1962 state track and field championship at the same meet where Shinn, his coach at Cuero, was the honorary chairman.
Mayne was the junior high and high school principal at Daingerfield before becoming the superintendent. Mayne and his wife raised three children before retiring from the Daingerfield school district in 1982. Nollie passed away in 2004.
Mayne was happy to return to Cuero where he was honored during halftime of Cuero's game against Palacios. But he didn't enjoy answering questions about which team he wanted to win when Cuero and Daingerfield met in the 1985 Class 3A state championship game, won by Daingerfield 47-22.
"I had to be real quiet during that game," Mayne said. "That was a case of really mixed emotions."
Former Rb Inducted Into Gobbler Hall Of Fame
October 18, 2006 - Posted at 12:00 a.m.
BY MIKE FORMAN - ADVOCATE SPORTS WRITER
Lewis "Mickey" Mayne did play football without a face mask but it didn't affect his memory.
Mayne can recite the entire starting lineup of his Cuero football team, which may not seem like a big deal, except he played in 1938.
Mayne turned 86 in March but looks almost as fit as the 190-pound halfback who played for Ed Shinn at Cuero, Dana X. Bible at the University of Texas and Paul Brown of the Cleveland Browns before settling into a career as a coach and administrator that led him to his present home in Daingerfield.
"I just remember the wonderful attitudes of the people," Mayne said during a recent visit to Cuero for his induction into the Gobbler Hall of Fame. "I've always had a special feeling for the Green and White. Even my eyes are green."
Mayne's athletic ability was obvious at a young age and he was spurred on by his uncle, Jess, who was five years older, and told him, "Dutch (Mayne's nickname growing up) you're good, but you're not as good as me."
Mayne proved his uncle wrong by winning four events at a track meet in Yoakum as a 14-year-old junior high student and becoming so dominant in football that he was selected to the Houston Post's All-Southeast Texas Class B Team during his junior and senior years at Cuero.
The Post described Mayne as "the Cuero crusher and in addition to his exceptional ball-carrying ability, was a good passer and one of the finest punters in the state."
Mayne remembers his sternest competition in high school coming from Victoria's Frank Crain and Kenedy's Charlie Roberts. Mayne and Crain have remained friends and Mayne still teases Crain about the time the two tied for first place in a race at a meet in Houston and Mayne was awarded the gold medal by coin flip.
Mayne ended his high school football career by playing in the North-South All-Star Game at Rice Stadium in Houston. But Mayne's final game at Cuero came in the regional playoffs, which was as far as teams could advance at the time, against Junction. The game was played in Cuero after Junction was paid $1,000 to travel to the Gobblers' home field.
Mayne kicked a 15-yard field goal and returned a kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown but Cuero lost 19-10, much to the dismay of Texas assistant coach Blair Cherry, who attended the game.
"Why didn't they let you run with the ball," Mayne recalls Cherry asking him after the game.
Cherry returned to Cuero at a more opportune time and won Mayne's commitment to attend Texas.
"I came from a family of Aggies," Mayne said. "My uncle Jess had attended A&M on a baseball scholarship. Coach Bible had spoken at our athletic banquet. My uncle was giving me so much grief that I told him, 'The first one who comes through that door, that's where I'll go.' Coach Cherry beat the A&M coach by five minutes."
Mayne, who for unknown reasons was known as "Mugge" at Cuero, earned his present nickname from Bible when he played at Texas.
"Coach Bible couldn't remember Mugge so he started calling me Mickey," Mayne said.
Mayne played football and ran track at Texas, where he met his wife, Nollie, in geology class and helped lead the Longhorns to the 1942 Southwest Conference championship and their first-ever bowl appearance at the 1943 Cotton Bowl where they defeated Georgia Tech 14-7.
"You played both ways," Mayne said. "It was the same way in high school, college and the pros."
Mayne entered the service when World War II started during his senior year at Texas and played for the Lincoln Air Field Wings in Nebraska before transferring to Austin for pilot training just after getting a physical to be sent overseas.
After leaving the service in 1946, Mayne weighed offers from the Chicago Bears of the NFL and Brooklyn Dodgers of the All-American Football Conference before signing with the Dodgers.
Mayne was one of 33 of the 100 players to attend training camp in Bend, Oregon, to make the team. In his first game, he ran back a missed field goal attempt - returning a missed attempt from the end zone was illegal at the time and Mayne admits he was probably in the end zone but attributes his "always running forward" to catching the officials off guard - 100 yards for a touchdown and was featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not.
Mayne spent one season in Brooklyn, scoring three touchdowns and intercepting four passes, before reaching an oral agreement with George Halas to play for the Bears the next season. But while building a home in Winnsboro that summer, Mayne was summoned to a meeting at the Adolphus Hotel in Dallas where he agreed to play for the Cleveland Browns of the AAFC. The Browns offered him $3,000 more than the Bears along with a $500 bonus and Mayne received Halas' blessing to play for the Browns.
The Browns, who were coached by Paul Brown and included future Hall of Famers Otto Graham, Marion Motley and Lou Groza, and beat the New York Yankees 14-3 the 1947 championship game at Yankee Stadium.
"The hair stood up on the back of my neck before coming out of the tunnel," Mayne said. "It was pretty rough back then. I remember before a game started about three-fourths of the team would reach in their mouths get their front teeth and put them in their locker. That's one of the reasons why coach Brown helped design the face mask and the mouthpiece."
Mayne played for the Baltimore Colts of the AAFC in 1948 before separating his shoulder midway through the season and retiring. Mayne had suffered a more serious injury while playing for the Dodgers when both of his arms went numb after making a tackle on a kickoff return. But his coach at the time instructed him to shake his arms and get back in the game.
Mayne would later learn he had bruised his spinal cord and as result is severely limited when it comes to physical activity.
But the injury didn't stop Mayne from a successful coaching career at Winnsboro and Daingerfield, where he led his team to the 1962 state track and field championship at the same meet where Shinn, his coach at Cuero, was the honorary chairman.
Mayne was the junior high and high school principal at Daingerfield before becoming the superintendent. Mayne and his wife raised three children before retiring from the Daingerfield school district in 1982. Nollie passed away in 2004.
Mayne was happy to return to Cuero where he was honored during halftime of Cuero's game against Palacios. But he didn't enjoy answering questions about which team he wanted to win when Cuero and Daingerfield met in the 1985 Class 3A state championship game, won by Daingerfield 47-22.
"I had to be real quiet during that game," Mayne said. "That was a case of really mixed emotions."