The father of Mojo football leaves a big legacy

How ironic is that the man who launched the Permian tradition of football excellence would die on the day that the Panthers and cross-town rival Odessa High would meet for the 51st time?
   Gene Mayfield, who led Permian to a completely unexpected state championship in 1965, was the coach who laid the groundwork for a legendary football program. During Mayfield’s tenure, Mojo became the rallying cry.
   Without the early impetus provided by the 1965 team of overachievers and the success that followed until Mayfield left after the 1970 season, Permian would be just another Texas high school football team.
   He was Permian’s answer to Knute Rockne. There are lots of his former players, including Congressman Mike Conaway, who can testify to the man’s motivational skills. Ask Mike Flynt, who went back to college at 59 to complete his final year of football eligibility and wrote a book about the experience. Ask Phil Fouche, who went on to be a community leader and serve on the Ector County Independent School District board. Ask J.C. Nickens, who overcame early economic hardships to become head of his own prestigious Houston law firm.
   The list of success stories of players who were groomed under Mayfield’s leadership from 1965 to 1970 goes on and on.
   And, of course, he set a standard that Permian teams have had to live up to for decades. Mayfield handed off to Gil Bartosh, whose 1972 team won it. Bartosh passed to John Wilkins, whose 1980 and 1984 Panthers achieved the ultimate level. Then Wilkins gave way to Gary Gaines, whose 1989 team won the championship. Then Gaines turned it over to Tam Hollingshead, who led the 1991 Panthers to the promised land. And now Gaines is back at the helm trying to convince teams to live up to the Mayfield seal of excellence.
   Mayfield had quite an athletic resume before and after the Permian experience. He had come out of the tiny Panhandle community of Quitaque to be the quarterback for a highly successful West Texas State team that won the Sun Bowl. And he completed the circle, in a sense, when he left Odessa to become the head coach at his alma mater.
   Alas, that move didn’t work out well. His record at WTSU (now West Texas A&M University) was 24-39-2. And Mayfield, being the stand-up guy that he was, freely admitted that he had made a big mistake.
   But he was a coach, first and foremost, and came out of athletic retirement in 1982 to serve as head coach at Levelland High School for six seasons.
   Still, his legendary status was earned at Permian, and it will never be tarnished. In those six short seasons, his teams won 62 games. Two of his 10 losses came in the 1968 and 1970 state title games as the Panthers came up short to Austin Reagan both those years.
   All that is just numbers and statistics. The true impact Mayfield had lives on in the words and deeds of those he inspired on the football field — and for the rest of their lives.