Johnny Hector approached the NFL Draft like he did most everything in life — in a very low-key fashion.

The former New Iberia Senior High football legend had just wrapped up four successful seasons playing for Texas A&M. Despite the team not having a ton of success during his time in College Station, the 5-foot-11, 200-pound running back was projected to be selected in the first or second round of the famed 1983 NFL Draft which produced eight future Pro Football Hall of Famers.

Yet, when draft day came around Hector was not hosting an extravagant draft party with dozens of family and friends.

“I was always a low key guy,” Hector said. “I remember the day of the draft I watched it with my roommate and one of his friends in our apartment at A&M. There wasn’t a lot of fanfare.”

Hector was selected by the New York Jets in the second round (No. 51 overall pick) of that draft, and would go on to play 10 years in the NFL — all with the Jets. Instead of his agent fielding the phone call from the organization it was Hector because he didn’t have representation.

“I hear the announcement ‘The Jets takes Johnny Hector, running back out of Texas A&M.’ The next thing I know my phone rings and I am on the phone with the coach at the time, Joe Walton. I got off the phone and my roommate’s friend was like ‘who is the Jets’ head coach?’ I was like ‘I don’t know.’”

Having an agent, a draft party or even knowing who was on the other end of the telephone that day didn’t matter to Hector. The only thing that mattered was getting a chance to play the game he loved.

“I just wanted an opportunity to play in the NFL,” Hector said. “I didn’t really worry about the draft. I just wanted someone to say ‘hey come over here and let’s see what you got’. I was blessed to have that opportunity.”

A Yellow Jacket Legend

Johnny Lyndell Hector was born on November 26th, 1960, in Lafayette but was raised in New Iberia. Hector was the youngest of six children and was raised by his single mother, with help from his older sisters. Hector’s father died when he was only 9 years old but he wasn’t extremely close to him as his parents were separated. His memories of his father are minimal.

“I remember that I used to walk over to the West End Park and stop by this saloon. I don’t remember the name of it, but they had one over there in those days,” Hector recalled. “My dad would be in there and I would get a quarter from him so I could go swim at the pool. That’s one of things I remember about him.”

Even without a close relationship with his father, Hector’s childhood was filled with joy and happiness. He learned how to play sports by playing with his friends in his neighborhood, and when he wasn’t outside until the street lights came on Hector could be found inside a church’s sanctuary.

“Sometimes we would go to church two or three times on Sunday,” Hector remembered. “My mother made sure we had God in our lives.”

The God-fearing child, and self-described “mama’s boy” quickly grew into an athletic young man, one who instilled fear into his opponents while dazzling spectators and reporters alike.

“To this day, Johnny Hector is the best high school running back I ever saw and I saw a helluva lot in over 40 years of covering games,” former longtime Daily Iberian Sports Editor Glenn Quebedeaux said. “That’s saying a lot what with Leonard Fournette and Cecil Collins. But Hector was a special combination of speed, strength and vision. I know others were great, but a running back that could long jump 25 feet, triple jump 50-plus and run like the wind gave him skills that set him apart from all others.”

Hector was two-sport phenom at New Iberia Senior High.

For the Yellow Jackets football team, Hector earned first-team Class 4A All-State honors in both 1977 and 1978, and earned district MVP and Class 4A Offensive MVP honors in 1978. With Hector lining up in the backfield, NISH made the playoffs both seasons including advancing to the state quarterfinals in 1977.

Hector was also a three-time state long jump champion and won the state triple jump title, setting school records in both.

“One specific memory I have — well, two — involve a game at Comeaux and one at LaGrange,” Quebedeaux recalled. “At Comeaux, he was horse-collared and almost pulled backward to the ground, somehow springs loose and shot down field like a bullet. At LaGrange, he turned two screen passes into 50-plus yards for touchdowns. He was truly special.”

Hector’s favorite memory was when his teammates carried him off the field following a late score against Acadiana. He doesn’t recall the individual accolades or stats but he remembers his teammates.

“It was never about me,” said Hector, who was inducted into the NISH Hall of Fame for Athletics inaugural class in 2007. “It was always about the team. You can’t do anything without your teammates in a team sport.”

Next Stop: College Station

That sense of humility may have endeared him to his teammates and coaches, and helped him throughout his college and pro career, but for college scouts in the late 1970’s, Hector was something very special, the type of prized recruit that can change the fortunes of a program.

Ohio State, Notre Dame, Texas and Oklahoma all coveted the NISH standout.

“He was about as good as any around,” said R.C. Slocum who was an assistant coach at Texas A&M from 1972 to 1980. “He was a highly acclaimed player in high school. Notre Dame, Texas, Oklahoma — everybody that played football was down there one time or another. He was a great player but also a really good young man.”

Even though powerhouses like Ohio State and Notre Dame wanted the young man out of New Iberia, those two schools had two things going against them — location and their tradition.

“I go up to South Bend in January and it was freezing cold,” Hector said. “I am from New Iberia and that cold weather was not for me. I also really didn’t grow up watching football. I didn’t have a team that I rooted for or anything like that. So that tradition of Heisman winners and titles didn’t mean that much to me.”

That reduced the number of real contenders to southern teams such as Texas, Texas A&M and in-state power LSU.

Even with a reduced number of teams in the running, the process was not a pleasant one for Hector.

“Not going to lie — it was a nightmare,” Hector recalled. “I would a have to sneak out of the window of my own house. Coaches and scouts were always coming to the door unannounced. I was like ‘Oh no not this again.’ So I would sneak out of the window. I just didn’t want to be bothered.”

The worst moment of the recruitment was his older brother being threatened.

“If it wasn’t for him an infamous phone call from an LSU person I would probably have gone to LSU,” Hector said. “I have a lot of friends that went there and graduated from there. But it was just unfortunate that what happened to me as a 17-year-old kid back then.”

Hector added, “They called him one night and said if he didn’t see to it that I went to LSU that they were going to put him in prison. That shut it down for me going there.”

Texas A&M and Texas were the front runners and the fact that the Aggies played in a town that felt like a small town was a big appeal to Hector.

“The visit I took it just felt like home,” Hector said. “I felt good about it.”

Slocum, who was the primary recruiter of Hector, may have had an advantage due to his ties to Louisiana.

“I played at McNeese State and had coached in that district at Lake Charles High,” Slocum said. “I had some old teammates on the coaching staff so I wasn’t like some outsider. A guy from Notre Dame comes in wearing a suit and he is outsider. I came in and it was different. We just kind of hit it off. I had a good relationship with him.”

That didn’t seal the deal, though, as Hector was still undecided on National Signing Day. Slocum still remembers how hectic signing day was at the Hector house — so much so that Hector wouldn’t even come out of his room.

“I went back there,” Slocum recalled. “I told him that you are a great man and you earned a right for a scholarship. This should be a celebration. Just walk through that room and go to school and whenever you decide to sign then we can sign you then. He walked out and went to school. He signed with us a week or two weeks after that.”

Hector went from being the vocal point of the offense at NISH to being part of a platoon of running backs. Texas A&M was stacked with a phenomenal amount of backfield talent during that era. Hector’s freshman season alone had Curtis Dickey (first-round draft pick in 1980), Earnest Jackson (two-time Pro Bowler) and Thomas Sanders (member of Chicago Bears Super Bowl team).

That freshman season, Hector also suffered the hardest hit of his career — one courtesy of future Pro Football Hall of Famer Mike Singletary who played collegiate at fellow Southwest Conference member Baylor.

“I never got hit that hard in my life,” laughed Hector. “I wanted to get on that bus and come back to New Iberia. After that, I always promised myself that I wouldn’t take a lick like that again.”

Hector went on to play four seasons at Texas A&M, from 1979-82. In his Aggie career, Hector rushed for 2,587 yards, scoring 20 touchdowns and averaging 4.7 yards per carry while also catching 67 passes for 516 yards.

Hector also competed on the Aggies track and field team, setting a then school record of 26 feet, 4 inches in the long jump, and placing second to Olympic legend Carl Lewis in the same event at the SWC Track & Field meet.

The small town kid, who didn’t go to college powerhouses due to cold weather, and didn’t like the big city, was about to find himself playing in both.

Half of a Monster

Hector realized early on that he had to prove himself all over again once he arrived for camp in New Jersey. And just like he did when he arrived at A&M, there were plenty of star running backs on the roster. Hector though made a name for himself as a kick returner and as a backup running back — seeing his workload increase every one of his first three seasons.

After his third season, Hector became half of the Jets’ famed “Two-Headed Monster” backfield with Freeman McNeil. Despite sharing time with McNeil, Hector, known for his inside running, led the Jets in rushing touchdowns from 1986-88 and also made franchise history.

In a 14-13 win over Buffalo early in the 1986 season, Hector became the first Jets player to eclipse 100 yards rushing and 100 yards receiving in the same game as the former Yellow Jacket star rushed for 117 yards on 18 carries while catching 9 passes for 100 yards.

What was the key to Hector’s success? Easy — never giving up.

“I always have given the analogy if you are doing a bench press and someone is spotting you and on the last rep you have trouble pushing up the bar but the spotter’s finger can lift up that bar and that allows you to push it up,” Hector said. “That was a mindset running into the back of the offensive line. If there is stalemate but if you ran into their backs they would keep pushing for two or three more yards.”

Hector’s best season as a pro was in 1987, when he was tied for the most rushing touchdowns in the NFL with 11.

Hector accomplished that while going up against some of the most feared defensive players of that era — Buffalo’s Cornelius Bennett and Bruce Smith and New England’s Andre Tippett.

“I remember this game against New England and we were going to run this little counter play,” Hector said. “The ball is snapped and I hear this collision and next thing I see is the tackle on the ground. The only thing going through my head is ‘feet don’t fail me now.’” I hear Andre (Tippett) yell ‘come back here you little rabbit’ and I just took off running.”

In his decade in the NFL, Hector rushed for 4,280 yards and scored 41 touchdowns and also caught 188 passes for 1,661 yards and three more touchdowns. Hector averaged 4.1 yards per carry and remains the Jets’ fifth all-time leading rusher and has the third most rushing touchdowns in franchise history.

“I was never afraid of anybody,” Hector said. “They used to think I was crazy because I was quiet. If you hit me I always just wanted to come back and put move on you or get you off balance and run you over. I wouldn’t say anything. I just wanted to beat you.”

Does Hector have any regrets from not playing longer or having a larger workload while in the NFL?

“Looking back I think God had a different plan for me,” Hector said. “It wasn’t meant for me to have all those carries on my body. God knows what would have happened. I made it through playing in the league for 10 years without any significant injuries. I never had to have my knees blown out like a lot of guys I played with did. I was very thankful for that.”

After his playing career wrapped up, Hector found success in a variety of different fields. Hector served as a mortgage broker for nearly six years, invested in an apartment complex in New Iberia (Jefferson Terrace), served three years with the District Attorney’s office as case manager for diversion program and then as salesman and account manager for an oilfield company.

Through it all, Hector never lost that humility.

“When I see him now he still has that same smile he did when he played for me,” Slocum said. “He is a fun guy to be around. Just good a person. He never got carried away with the pro football. It never changed him. He is the same person now as when I knew him when he was 18.”

“The best feeling I get it is not the part about playing football,” Hector said. “I never thought I was that good of a player. But when I hear people say that I was a good character guy that I am a good person — that is what means more to me than the football stories. Football was a large portion of my life but it wasn’t my whole life.”