Abner Haynes on the Ballot for Induction

[UNTLifer]

Below is the link showing Abner Haynes being listed as a candidate for the 2006 Texas Sports Hall of Fame. Personally, I think his induction is long overdue considering the era he played in, the harrassment he endured and the success he realized.

TSHOF Candidate List

Below is the link to the list of the Selection Committee. I would like to start an email drive by all of us in support of his election. Please email the member's of the selection committee and ask, in a nice and tactful manner, for them to consider Mr. Haynes for induction. There is also an opportunity for the public to vote. You must pay $25.00 for membership to have this opportunity.

TSHOF Selection Committee

[UNTLifer]

Here are some great links to stories about Mr. Haynes success and the events he had to overcome during his playing era.

Texans/Chiefs website

North Texan Archives

[SCREAMING EAGLE-66]

Finally... He should have been inducted YEARS ago..

[Varsity]

Finally...  He should have been inducted YEARS ago..

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Agreed, this honor is past due. But, better late than never.

"And folks, be careful driving home. The life you save may be Abner Haynes'!"

-- Cotton Bowl announcer for the Dallas Texans

[UNTLifer]

Finally...  He should have been inducted YEARS ago..

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He's a nominee, he hasn't been inducted.

[Guest GrayEagleOne]

He's a nominee, he hasn't been inducted.

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Okay, put another way....He should have been INDUCTED years ago.

What's sad about this is unless the voter is over forty, he's not going to remember first hand the impact that Abner had on college and professional football. Not only was he a great player, he was a pioneer in Texas college football. There are few anywhere with the playing skills and character that could have endured what Abner went through.

[greenjoe]

Hey Varsity-Is that Cotton Bowl announcer line true ?

I'm a long time fan of Abner and I've never heard of that. Tell me more.

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[Varsity]

Greenjoe: Is it true? I don't really know. I remember reading about Haynes having a great game in the Cotton Bowl during his rookie season with the Dallas Texans of the old AFL (1960). His performance was such that the announcer made the statement as fans were filing out at the end of the contest.

Another Haynes story: While with the Texans he was on an airplane traveling to an away game when he gets into a discussion with Dallas GM Don Klosterman as to who produced the best football players, Texas or California. The discussion degenerated into a tit-for-tat match wherein Texan Haynes would call out the name of a great Lone Star player and Californian Klosterman would have to match it with a great Cali player. The two were getting down to the nub when Haynes finally settles the whole argument by playing his trump card; he called out ABNER HAYNES! Then danced away, laughing.

A guy like that HAS to be put into the Texas Sports Hall Of Fame!

[Coach]

I emailed a few of the panelists, and I got this response from Randy Galloway this morning:

I have brought up Abner's name many times for Hall...and will NOT stop in bringing it up again...thanks...

rg

[PlummMeanGreen]

Okay, put another way....He should have been INDUCTED years ago.

What's sad about this is unless the voter is over forty, he's not going to remember first hand the impact that Abner had on college and professional football.  Not only was he a great player, he was a pioneer in Texas college football.  There are few anywhere with the playing skills and character that could have endured what Abner went through.

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It's really difficult to find a (printable) word that can express the downright travesty it is that here we are already in the year 2006 & still talking about Abner Haynes not being in the Texas Sports Hall of Fame.

As a kid I saw him play against the Houston Oilers in old Jepphesson Stadium (now UH's Robertson Stadium) back in the day and years later read how many said Abner Haynes was really the AFL's first superstar.

Good luck Abner Haynes for this (hopeful) long overdue honor.

[greenjoe]

Plumm-You may recall that Abner misunderstood the instructions for the "fifth" quarter of the AFL Championship Game. Haynes won the toss and offered to kick the ball to the Oilers. The Texans won but I had some anxious moments first.

Some years later, when NT still had the "Old Timers" game, Abner was the featured drummer and vocalist in the 4 or 5 piece combo that performed at halftime.

Wonder if we could get him back for an encore ?

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[Eagle-96]

From the SportSay Blog on dallasnews.com:

It's past time to put Haynes in Texas Hall

Abner Haynes is among the veteran nominees on this year's Texas Sports Hall of Fame ballot. It's an awful oversight that he wasn't inducted a long, long time ago.

Haynes was a spectacular running back in high school (Lincoln), college (North Texas State) and the pros (Dallas Texans) in this state. He was the first pro football superstar in this town, being named the AFL Player of the Year as a rookie in 1960. That should be enough to be inducted.

The reason his omission to this point is so ridiculous, however, is that he was a trailblazer for black football players in Texas. Haynes and fellow Lincoln alum Leon King broke the color barrier for college football players in this state a decade before Jerry LeVias stepped foot on the SMU campus.

LeVias, the first black player in Southwest Conference history, is a household name in the state. Haynes, who was a better player, has been largely forgotten.

LeVias was inducted into the Texas Hall in 1995, a little late considering his impact. Haynes is long past due.

Posted by Tim MacMahon

[UNTLifer]

ttt

[PlummMeanGreen]

Plumm-You may recall that Abner misunderstood the instructions for the "fifth" quarter of the AFL Championship Game.  Haynes won the toss and offered to kick the ball to the Oilers.  The Texans won but I had some anxious moments first.

Some years later, when NT still had the "Old Timers" game, Abner was the featured drummer and vocalist in the 4 or 5 piece combo that performed at halftime.

Wonder if we could get him back for an encore ?

Join the Mean Green Club

Buy Season Tickets

GO MEAN GREEN

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Joe, probably (and unfortunately) the very one thing that most remember Abner Haynes about. If only those critics could see some game film of one who I think should also be in the NFL Hall of Fame as well and that since other early AFL stars have been added thru the years by the very pro NFL (before merger) voting committees.

ANYHOOO...........I spoke with Abner Haynes, ie, "Father Time" as Ron Shanklin used to jokingly call him a few years ago over lunch with our 2 former NT greats. At this Cowtown lunch, I brought the "coin flip" situation up and he had an entirely different interrpretation of what happened at that 1962 AFL championship game down in Houston. Of course, it was a completely different story than what we have all read about thur the year and what the Texas and national sports newspaper/ media-types have just "loved" to report over the decades (and all that at Abner's expense, of course).

So Joe as I recall the story Abner told me a few years at a Dos Gringos lunch over here in Fort Worth (& with Shanklin along as well as he was recruiting FW that day---(Hmmm? What a concept, UNT recruiting DFW HS recruits)? .............So anyway, Haynes' explained to me that that entire situation on the coin flip happened because he was taking sideline instruction from not only Dallas Texan's head football coach Hank Stram, but also from Texan owner Lamar Hunt who was pacing the Dallas sidelines like an expectant father as well.

As Haynes went on with the story over some of the best Mexican food in Fort Worth, it seems both Hank Stram and Lamar Hunt were sending Haynes different instructions and thus the reason for the confusion on the coin flip against the Houston Oilers. So as Abner told me and 'Shank, he was merely doing what "both" Dallas Texan coaches were instructing him to do at midfield of the AFL championship game.

Edited July 12, 2006 by PlummMeanGreen

[Objective Aggie]

One of the coolest museums I have been to is the Texas Sports Museum / Hall of Fame in Waco. I assume this is all connected.

Tons of cool stuff. Michael Johnson's shoes, Shaq's SA COle Hs jersey, tennis gear from the the Battle of the Sexes, all Texas colleges fight songs at the touch of a button, tons of old jerseys, programs, etc. And teh Tom Landry theater is kinda cool.

[PlummMeanGreen]

One of the coolest museums I have been to is the Texas Sports Museum / Hall of Fame in Waco.  I assume this is all connected. 

Tons of cool stuff.  Michael Johnson's shoes, Shaq's SA COle Hs jersey, tennis gear from the the Battle of the Sexes, all Texas colleges fight songs at the touch of a button, tons of old jerseys, programs, etc.  And teh Tom Landry theater is kinda cool.

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Objective Aggie? Somehow those 2 words just don't seem to go together.

I have tried to be as unbiased as any NT Ex can be about Abner Haynes and this whole Texas Sports Hall of Fame deal thru the decades, but for the life of me I think even if I were an Aggie (or Longhorn or Red Raider or Bear, etc) and if I knew the Abner Haynes Story AND only saw some game film from NT which even had a Sun Bowl appearance with Haynes' 1959 Mean Green football team and................if one merely viewed some of Haynes' old AFL/Dallas/Kansas City film footage.......anyway, all this still adds up to this IMO: The exclusion of Abner Haynes in the TSHOF still just really doesn't make a hill of beans of sense whatsoever.

Someone from the TSHOF committee who handles all this should only ask Lamar Hunt and even Bud Adams (Titan owner and owner of the Houston Oilers back in the day) if NORTH TEXAS great Abner Haynes should be in their exclusive hall down in Waco. I think the answers from those 2 (alone) would be all their committee would need to correct all this concerning Haynes and FWIW, thats all their committee would have needed even in the TSHOF's first few years of operation when it was located in Grand Prairie, Texas, and first operated by ex UNT Sports Information Director, one Mr. Fred Graham. (Wonder why ol' Fred with the vantage and position he had didn't make this happen long ago has been the question of many).

If Abner Haynes gets in the TSHOF, it surely won't be because someone from UNT lobbied to make it happen because our leaders seem to have about as much political prowess and power with the powers that be in Texas as Kinky Friedman would have in the almighty state of, uh, Rhode Island.

If we of UNT had had friends in high places thru the years and especially now, we would not be a 33,000 enrollment Texas university (4'th largest in TX) trying our dead level best (as we look at our new leadership's trends/attitudes) to avoid a re-entry into NCAA D1-AA (or worse), but probably back in the Southland Conference all over again. Without a new NCAA D1-A style football stadium and our accepting nothing less, just what would be our choices?

Leaderhip can really make or break our future athletic direction at UNT and its damn sad that in the past after we have taken a giant step or 2 forward in Denton with our athletic program, we then (traditionally) seem to always wave the white flag and go a few steps backwards with each new regime change. Truly a trend, tradition and cycle we have to break at some point in our history, but one that won't be altered unless we have steady and continuous leadership who want to alter this one giant step forward/2 giant steps backwards scenario. If only Norval Pohl had stayed on as our NT president for the same amount of time as Alfrerd F. Hurley, then I think most of us would feel about 100% more positive about all this than we do at present.

Waving the White flag AGAIN? Watch the pool of applicants (or God help us, even one that would be hand picked by Bobby Ray) as for as the one who would become our next AD if and when Rick V decides he's had enough of this charade of decade-in AND decade-out directional vascillation as far as the UNT Athletic Dept. is concerned. Some in the Mean Green Nation who have been around this awhile have become quite expert as roller-coaster ride novelists with all the ups and downs of on-campus athletic philosophy we've seen from our top leaders and ever-changing Board of Regents and this with almost each and every regime change we have at our Denton campus.

Hope some of you who have theorized on who would probably be our next AD post-Rick V are wrong, but with the SMU'esque Lee Jackson twisting NT Board of Regents arms and with his main focus still being a free-standing UNT-Dallas (with all the funding he'll need to see that happen; anyway, nothing should surprise any of our elect as far as those who have has seen all this in action before. Hellsbells! Who knows, maybe the next AD at UNT who would follow Rick V could even be an NT professor who has an afternoon P.E. class because at UNT haven't we all discovered by now to never say never?

Edited July 14, 2006 by PlummMeanGreen