Editor’s note: In the Colorado Classics series, The Denver Post takes a weekly look at individuals who made their mark on the Colorado sports landscape and what they are doing now.
If Rich Mayo had followed his emotions after an unhappy first year at the Air Force Academy in 1957, one of college football’s most inspirational stories may have never been told.
Mayo had come to the fledgling academy – in only its third year of existence – from Northern California. He had turned down a pre-med scholarship at Stanford and found his way to Lowry Air Force base in Denver, where the Air Force Academy had taken residence. But his football hopes were dashed when coach Buck Shaw moved him from quarterback to halfback.
“I was so disenchanted after my freshman year that I wasn’t going to go out for football again and was seriously thinking about leaving the academy,” Mayo recalled, his thoughts going back 49 years to when he was 18 as he talked from his home in a Houston suburb where he lives today after retiring from a medical practice.
But then Ben Martin was hired to replace Shaw as Air Force looked ahead to the 1958 season and the final year of the academy’s first senior class.
“I was adamant,” Mayo said. “I wasn’t even going to talk to the new coaches. They sent Jim Conboy, our trainer, to talk to me. Jim told me that the new coaches were fair and they promised to give me every opportunity to play quarterback.”
Conboy was a father figure to most of Air Force’s athletes and his talk was convincing. Mayo not only returned, but he led Air Force to its most memorable football season. The 1958 Falcons went 9-0-2, establishing Air Force’s only unbeaten season in football, and tied TCU 0-0 in the Cotton Bowl. Many college football fans had not even heard of the Air Force Academy at the time, but the record and the bowl game against a talented TCU team put the Falcons on the map in a hurry.
With Mayo completing 9-of-19 passes for 91 yards, the Falcons matched the Horned Frogs yard for yard. When it was over, Air Force had the yardage edge 231-227. Both teams lost three fumbles in the fierce defensive play. TCU punted nine times and Air Force seven.
“One thing that a lot of people didn’t know about that team was that we had a vicious defensive unit,” Mayo said. “It was a real key to our success. They just kept the other team from scoring while our offense just kind of muddled through.”
Air Force was such an unknown that it had to get a special waiver from the NCAA to play in the bowl game because it had yet to graduate a senior class.
Even today, Air Force players talk of achieving an unbeaten season that would match the magical 1958 team that played TCU, whose roster included Bob Lilly, Jack Spikes and Sherrill Headrick, to a standstill.
The heroics of the 1958 team have remained a standard for the 48 teams that have followed. Air Force has gotten close to another unbeaten season, but 12-1 records in 1985 and 1998 were the closest the Falcons could get.
“It’s flattering to hear,” Mayo said. “It’s my fervent hope that there will be another unbeaten season at Air Force. I’d be thrilled. I really enjoyed our unbeaten season. There was a lot of enthusiasm and the cadet wing loved the football team.”
Mayo went on to fly fighter jets in the Air Force before turning to the medical profession. But his memories always go back to the football games.
“It’s strange to look back so many years and still have such vivid memories,” Mayo said. “Most of the games still stand out in my mind. It must be that way for all athletes. I’m kind of a nostalgic guy. I can be watching a game on television and flashbacks keep coming back to me. A lot of the stadiums still are the same, and I can say there’s the side of the field where our bench was.”
There were a lot of memorable games in 1958. The Falcons tied Iowa 13-13. They beat Oklahoma State 33-29, scoring the winning points with nine seconds left. While they played most of their home games at the University of Denver Stadium, the Falcons played Wyoming at Colorado College’s Washburn Field in Colorado Springs. They beat Colorado 20-14 in the final game of the season before going to the Cotton Bowl.
Mayo remembers the bowl bid was at stake against CU, and the Buffaloes were threatening to score the winning touchdown. CU had the ball on the 2-yard line, but defensive end Sam Hardage came to the rescue.
“Sam slashed straight down the line of scrimmage, met the ball carrier and caused a fumble,” Mayo said. “We recovered and it made our unbeaten season. How could you end a regular season any better than playing your state rival, who may even have been embarrassed to be playing us?”
Mayo remembers his first meeting with Martin and assistant coach Pepper Rodgers.
“I think I was Ben Martin’s kind of quarterback,” Mayo said. “Our game plans were magnificent and one of the big reasons for our success. Pepper Rodgers had us prepared for every game. Ben Martin was a genius.”
Does Mayo ever regret his decision in 1957 to spurn Stanford for Air Force?
“I never second-guess,” Mayo said. “My days at Air Force were good days.”
Irv Moss can be reached at 303-954-1296 or imoss@denverpost.com.
