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Quarterback Rich Mayo By Rod Kausen
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ith the local high school football teams scheduled to begin amid these strange times, it seems like a good time to reflect on a Humboldt County football legend. Raised on the fringes of Eureka out past Redwood Acres on Bettencourt Ranch, Rich Mayo grew up on a dairy and worked hard as a kid. He grew to love his hometown and throughout his life always wished to move back to Eureka. We may never see another local quarterback as good as Rich Mayo. Heading to high school in 1950s, Mayo was a natural athlete, as was his stockier older brother by three years Ralph, a top linebacker. By the time Rich got to Eureka High School he was acknowledged as the best athlete in his class, soon to be the best athlete in the county and one of the best local athletes ever. He was a standout in baseball and basketball, but as the football quarterback, he was the leader and star. Many good quarterbacks have come through the local high schools with names such as Titus, Costello, Spinas, Montana and Brown. Probably the two best were Eureka High School classmates born just month apart — two field generals on one team: Fred Whitmire and Rich Mayo, best friends to this day. Both coveted the quarterback position for their senior season, 1955-56. Whitmire had played quarterback on the junior varsity team his junior year but had to compete against Mayo his senior year for the starting varsity job. The Loggers had been undefeated the previous year with Mayo as quarterback but he was a little unsure, as Whitmire seemed equally good. After a few days, Coach Renfro took them aside for some obvious news, they could not both be first string. Whitmire and Mayo were both drop-back passers who could run and think quickly, but the coach thought Mayo was a little better. Renfro finished by telling Whitmire, “Fred,
NORTH COAST JOURNAL • Thursday, March 11, 2021 • northcoastjournal.com
we are moving you to halfback.” Later in life, as a coach at College of the Redwoods and Humboldt State University, Whitmire himself had to do the same a few times. Mayo told me as he Rich Mayo on the cover of the 1960 Football Yearbook in called the plays himself his Air Force Academy uniform. that season, he never Courtesy of Fred Whitmire called a play for the halfback pass — he was always afraid of losing his quarterback coach. He convinced Mayo to stay and star status. that he would have an opportunity to play The Loggers had one near loss to Medquarterback. The new coaches took a parford High School in a game they should ticular liking to Mayo. They installed him at have won. The two boys lamented poolquarterback and history would be made. side after the game at the motel, talking Mayo later said, “Martin was a genius.” just past midnight with some Medford An article written years later by Irv girls. They were caught breaking curfew Moss, a 60-year veteran sportswriter at and placed on second string for the folthe Denver Post stated, “If Rich Mayo had lowing week against Arcata. By game time, followed his emotions after an unhappy the coach changed his mind. first year at the Air Force in 1957, one of That loss to Medford was the only college football’s most inspirational stories glitch in an otherwise perfect season. may never had been told.” The cadets and Mayo was offered an academic scholarship active duty personnel — everyone — to study pre-med at Stanford University became football fans. and an athletic academic scholarship at That year, with Mayo under center, the the Air Force Academy. He had his heart Air Force Academy Falcons went undeset on attending Stanford to play football feated earning a spot in the Cotton Bowl with his teammate Jerry Winters but he by beating the University of Colorado in would have to walk on to play. He agothe last seconds of the last seasonal game. nized but picked the Air Force Academy in Air Force would face the Texas Christian Colorado, which was only in its third year University Horned Frogs in one of the of existence. most anticipated of the bowl games. As He was frustrated after his first year at the academy had never had a graduatthe Academy, as Buck Shaw, the coach for ing class, it had to get a waiver from the whom he had hoped to work with at the NCAA to finish the paperwork. academy, was now leaving to coach the In a Sports Illustrated preview of the San Francisco 49ers in their first year. He Cotton Bowl in 1958, the staff wrote thought he might not get a chance to play “Guile and gumption mark the alarmingly quarterback, the position he was destined small but enthusiastic Air Force Academy for. Falcons. Coach Martin’s dream team has The school trainer Jim Conboy, an not the size to overpower the opposition influential man with the athletes, came so it must substitute speed and intuitive and shared some information with him. reactions for heft. This the Falcons have The academy was hiring new coaches, in done superbly well under the calculating particular Ben Martin as the new head reckless direction of young Rich Mayo, a
