Gene Mayfield

Who was Gene Mayfield?

Clurel Eugene Mayfield, known as Gene Mayfield, was an American football coach in Texas high schools and at West Texas A&M University. In May 2005, Mayfield was inducted into the Texas High School Coaches Hall of Fame.

Mayfield was born in Quitaque in Briscoe County in the lower Texas Panhandle to James Andrew Mayfield and the former Irma Graves. He graduated from Quitaque High School and attended a year of college before he joined the United States Army during the Korean War. Upon his Army discharge, Mayfield finished college on the G.I. Bill of Rights. He played quarterback and received his bachelor's and master's degrees from West Texas A&M, then West Texas State University, at Canyon, south of Amarillo. While in college, Mayfield met his future wife, Mary Jean Hoover, whom he wed in 1950.

Mayfield began his head coaching career at Littlefield in Lamb County until he moved in 1958 to Borger in Hutchinson County. His 1962 Borger squad made the 4A state championship game, losing 26-30 to San Antonio Brackenridge. In 1965, Mayfield assumed the head coaching duties at Permian High School in Odessa in Ector County, where he started the school's winning tradition by beating San Antonio Lee 11-6 for the 1965 4A state championship. Mayfield was only the fifth head coach in Texas' highest classification to win a state championship in his first year. Mayfield led Odessa Permian to the state finals on two other occasions, in 1968 and 1970, losing each time to Austin Reagan.