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Hamilton Prieleaux Bee Maule, commonly known asTex Maule (May 19, 1915 inTexas – May 16, 1981 inNew York City) was the leadAmerican football writer forSports Illustrated in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s.
Born and raised in Texas, Maule played football as anend atSt. Mary's in college.[1] He also served inWorld War II. After the war, he graduated from theUniversity of Texas with a degree in journalism.[1]
Maule joined the NFL'sLos Angeles Rams front office as a publicity director, where he worked withPro Football Hall of FamersPete Rozelle andTex Schramm. He worked with the Rams from 1949–1951.[1] Later, in 1956, Maule was hired bySports Illustrated, where he covered football for 19 years.
Maule referred to the1958 NFL Championship Game between theGiants and theColts as "the best game ever", according to writerMark Bowden. Bowden wrote a 50th-anniversary book about the game using Maule's description as his title.[2]
When the upstartAmerican Football League (AFL) began play in1960, Maule did not conceal his loyalty to, nor his preference for, Rozelle and the NFL. For years he ridiculed and made light of the rival AFL. For example, in a September 30, 1968SI piece entitledThe Young Generals (referenced below), supposedly about Pro Football's best young quarterbacks, he praised such statistically average NFL signal-callers asGary Cuozzo,Randy Johnson andKent Nix, and never even mentioned future Hall of Fame AFL quarterbacksBob Griese,Lenny Dawson, orJoe Namath. His strong bias against and contempt for the AFL was mimicked by other writers who wrote derivatory columns.
Maule gained such notoriety for his bias that it was well known to his media contemporaries. During the broadcast of the AFL'sNew York Jets' defeat of the NFL champion Baltimore Colts inSuper Bowl III, announcerCurt Gowdy asked (off-air):"I wonder if that [S.O.B.] Tex Maule is watching?" The comment can be heard on existing videos of the NBC-TV network feed of the game.
Maule also was a prolific author during the late 1950s and early 1960s. One book he wrote wasThe Rookie (1961, David McKay Company, NY) which is about professional football.
Maule coveredMuhammad Ali's 1967heavyweight title bout againstErnie Terrell forSports Illustrated, writing of Ali's performance: "It was a wonderful demonstration of boxing skill and a barbarous display of cruelty."[3] The line was widely quoted by subsequent writers, including Ali's biographerThomas Hauser.[4]
FromSports Illustrated, Maule moved toThe Dallas Morning News for three years. From Dallas, he returned to New York to write on a freelance basis. It was there he died in 1981.
In 1972, he wrote a book,Running Scarred [Pelham Books 1972], about his experience having a heart attack and taking up running afterwards.
Note: books may be published under the nameHamilton Maule orTex Maule
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