| No. 36 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Position | Running back | ||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||
| Born | (1963-06-06)June 6, 1963 (age 62) North Battleford, Saskatchewan, Canada | ||||||||
| Height | 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) | ||||||||
| Weight | 201 lb (91 kg) | ||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||
| High school | North Battleford | ||||||||
| College | Washington State | ||||||||
| NFL draft | 1986: 3rd round, 57th overall pick | ||||||||
| CFL draft | 1986: 1st round, 2nd overall pick | ||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||
| Awards and highlights | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Career NFL statistics | |||||||||
| |||||||||
Rueben A. Mayes (born June 6, 1963) is a Canadian former professionalfootball player who was arunning back in theNational Football League (NFL) from 1986 to 1993. He playedcollege football for theWashington State Cougars, earning consensusAll-American honors. He is a member of theCollege Football Hall of Fame.
Mayes is a direct descendant of a group ofAfrican Americans who fled racial persecution inOklahoma in 1910 and traveled north toSaskatchewan, Canada, after reading flyers which promised 160 acres (0.65 km2) of free land to anyone willing to move there. This group of pioneers were known as the "Shiloh People", named after the "Shiloh Baptist Church", a small log cabin church they built after they arrived.[1]
He first gained acclaim as arunning back atNorth Battleford Comprehensive High School inNorth Battleford, Saskatchewan. In 1980, Mayes led the NBCHS Vikings to an undefeated season and the SHSAA 3A provincial football championship. In 1981, he set a provincial record in the100 metres at the SHSAA provincial track and field championship that still stands.[citation needed] His sister isLesa Mayes-Stringer, a former bobsled athlete who competed for Canada from 1999 to 2007.
Mayes playedcollege football atWashington State University inPullman, where he was recognized as a consensusAll-American and finished tenth in theHeisman Trophyvoting in1984.[2] Mayes set single-season and career-rushing school records (1,632; 3,519 yards) with theCougars, and established anNCAA record for most rushing yards in one game (357 atOregon in1984).[3][4][5] It was thePacific-10 Conference record for over a quarter century, until broken byKa'Deem Carey in 2012.
In 1995, a panel of experts commissioned byThe Spokesman-Review named Mayes to the all-time WSU team. The honor was repeated in 1998 by Cougfan.com when it picked its list of the school's all-time greatest players. On May 1, 2008, he was elected to theCollege Football Hall of Fame. In August 2017, a group of panelists commissioned by the Pac-12 Network picked the 12 greatest Washington State players[6] of all time and Mayes ranked No. 1.
Mayes was selected in the third round (57th overall) of the1986 NFL draft by theNew Orleans Saints.[7][8] He was also selection second overall in the1986 CFL draft by theSaskatchewan Roughriders, but never played in the CFL. He won theNFL Offensive Rookie of the Year Awardthat year from theAssociated Press, and although his NFL career was hampered by injuries, he was named to thePro Bowl twice. After five seasons with the Saints, Mayes was traded to theSeattle Seahawks in April1992,[9][10] where he played the final two years of his career.
| Year | Team | Games | Rushing | Receiving | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GP | GS | Att | Yds | Avg | Lng | TD | Rec | Yds | Avg | Lng | TD | ||
| 1986 | NO | 16 | 12 | 286 | 1,353 | 4.7 | 50 | 8 | 17 | 96 | 5.6 | 18 | 0 |
| 1987 | NO | 12 | 12 | 243 | 917 | 3.8 | 38 | 5 | 15 | 68 | 4.5 | 16 | 0 |
| 1988 | NO | 16 | 9 | 170 | 628 | 3.7 | 21 | 3 | 11 | 103 | 9.4 | 25 | 0 |
| 1989 | NO | 0 | 0 | Did not play due to injury | |||||||||
| 1990 | NO | 15 | 8 | 138 | 510 | 3.7 | 18 | 7 | 12 | 121 | 10.1 | 66 | 0 |
| 1992 | SEA | 16 | 0 | 28 | 74 | 2.6 | 14 | 0 | 2 | 13 | 6.5 | 7 | 0 |
| 1993 | SEA | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2.0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 |
| Career | 76 | 41 | 866 | 3,484 | 4.0 | 50 | 23 | 57 | 401 | 7.0 | 66 | 0 | |
After football, Mayes began a career in higher education administration and philanthropy. He later earned a masters of business administration degree. After 15 years in higher education leadership positions at Washington State University and University of Washington, he transitioned to healthcare administration and philanthropy. Five years as senior development officer PeaceHealth System and 10 years as chief development and external relations officer at Pullman Regional Hospital. Currently he is the regional partnerships and philanthropy officer at Seattle Children's Hospital. His wife of 36 years, Marie Mayes, serves as the director of the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies and as a clinical assistant professor in the WSUCarson College of Business. Their oldest son Logan was a three-star recruited linebacker atMarist Catholic High School inEugene, Oregon, and committed to play at Washington State, following his father's footsteps. He went on to graduate with a finance degree at California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly). Logan is now a senior financial analyst for Amazon Corporation. After graduating with an international business degree from the WSU Carson College of Business, Kellen Mayes (younger son) completed a two-year Peace Corps project in rural Albania. He is a third year medical student at theUniversity of Washington School of Medicine.
Mayes is the most successful Canadian-born skilled player to play in the NFL and one of the only six Saskatchewan natives to make it to the NFL; the others wereArnie Weinmeister,Jon Ryan,Ben Heenan,Brett Boyko andBrett Jones. Mayes was the subject of a 1989 documentary film,The Saint from North Battleford, directed bySelwyn Jacob.[11]