(This is the ninth part in a series profiling this year's inductees for the Baylor Athletics Hall of Fame and Wall of Honor, which will be posted every week at baylorbears.com.)

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider

             A decorated Air Force pilot and Vietnam veteran who flew 198 F-4 missions, Col. Wilbur Mehaffey also became an instructor, supervisor and director of flight operations for the Air Force Training Command in Phoenix, Ariz. 

            His even-keel, patient approach had a "calming effect" on everyone he flew with, "all but his future son-in-law," Randy Nelson said. 

            "I flew with him in an airplane one time, on a night formation ride, and I was scared to death," Nelson said of the late Col. Mehaffey, who will be added to the Wall of Honor at next Friday's Baylor Athletics Hall of Fame banquet. "One, night formation is scary, anyway. And I'm flying with the boss and with my future father-in-law. He had a big time, I did not."

            Mehaffey, who died two years ago at the age of 90, was a Baylor football player from 1948-51 and part of the team that lost to Georgia Tech, 17-14, in the 1952 Orange Bowl. He earned his accounting degree from Baylor in 1952 before being commissioned into the Air Force as a second lieutenant. 

            "He was extremely proud of Baylor and felt privileged to have gone there," Nelson said. "But, he was a humble man and talked very little about his playing days. That Orange Bowl team was brought back six or eight years ago to be honored at a football game, and he thoroughly enjoyed that because it was a team honor."

            While he was in school, Mehaffey would bring teammates home with him to Gorman, Texas, "and he would always take them flying."

            "I'm not sure their coach appreciated that, but he'd always take them up flying," Nelson said. "If you talked to any of his old teammates, that's what they would remember about him. 'Oh yeah, we went home with Wil, and he took us around the pattern a few times.'''

            Gale Galloway, a Baylor teammate who has been inducted into the Hall of Fame and Wall of Honor, said Mehaffey "never missed a single day of football practice and he never missed a single flight mission when he was called upon to risk his life in defense of our great nation and in defense of our lives."

            Receiving the Distinguished Flying Cross and Legion of Merit among his many military decorations, Col. Mehaffey transitioned into his role as a pilot instructor after flying nearly 200 missions, serving for 28 years before retiring from the Air Force in 1980. 

            Two years earlier, Mehaffey was the director of flight operations in Phoenix when Nelson first met him. As a recent University of Arkansas grad, Nelson said he would tease Mehaffey about the Southwest Conference rivalry, "as much as a lieutenant can tease the Colonel."

            Randy met his future wife Janet, "the boss's daughter," at the base chapel when she was home for spring break. "Her mother (Jo B. Mehaffey) actually introduced us, with her dad standing right beside, and we got married a year later," Nelson said. 

            "When we went out for the very first time, a real good friend and I double-dated with Janet and a friend of hers," Nelson said. "And we never discussed who was with who. So, as I tell the story, if Janet hadn't gotten in the front seat with me, I would have married Ana, the other girl. I'd tell that story all the time, and he would tell Janet, 'You just got in the wrong seat.'''

            As the only dual-qualified instructor pilot in the Air Force, Mehaffey could both fly and instruct in T-37s and T-38s, Nelson said. 

            "When the bosses came down to fly with the students, it was almost a token," Nelson said, "so they were always paired with the best students, because you didn't want him to get into trouble. But, not with Mehaffey. He'd come down and say, 'I'll fly with the best student, I'll fly with the worst student. And it doesn't matter.' He was an outstanding pilot, but he was an outstanding instructor and people loved to fly with him . . . all but his future son-in-law."

            Before retiring, Mehaffey also trained the Air Force's first class of 10 female pilots in 1976. 

            "That was kind of a unique thing that he was a very important part of instituting women into the pilot ranks of the Air Force," Nelson said. "And I think that's one of the things he enjoyed very much."

            Starting his second career, Mehaffey took an entry-level accounting job with the Texas Department of Transportation in Austin and was quickly elevated to manager of the finance division. 

            "Here's a guy that's a full Colonel, been in the Air Force for 28 years, and he accepts an entry-level position," Nelson said. "He chuckled about it, because he said his first day, 'I was in there with 18 recent college graduates that had just gotten out.' And here he was, 50 or 51 years old. Now, he started as an entry level, he didn't stay entry level."

            In his retirement, Mehaffey lived in Georgetown and enjoyed playing golf, driving for Faith in Action and volunteering at First United Methodist Church. 

            "He used to crack us up," Nelson said, "because he would get home, and it'd be like, 'Where have you been?' And he would say, 'Well, I was driving. I was driving people.' And that's what he did. He drove people to a hospital or whatever appointments that they couldn't drive themselves. And not always, but at least half the time, the people he drove were younger than him."

            On Nov. 21, 2020, the day that he died, Mehaffey received the Wall of Honor Certificate of Registry from the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum as a permanent testament to his commitment and passion for flight.

            Mehaffey will be added to the Wall of Honor along with retired Col. Tyree Newton from baseball, who is also a highly decorated Air Force pilot. The 2022 Hall of Fame class includes Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III and Doak Field from football, track and field's Gary Kafer and Quentin Iglehart-Summers, golfer Jeremy Alcorn, Tweety Carter from men's basketball, Josh Ludy from baseball and volleyball All-American Taylor Barnes Fallon.

            In addition to his three daughters and their spouses, Mehaffey's contingent at the banquet will include his second wife, Diane; his three stepchildren; and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren. His first wife, Jo, died in 1990. 

            "The thing that's telling is that his stepchildren will all be there," Nelson said. "They just thought the world of him. I don't want to overstate this, but we feel like this is a time when the rest of the world kind of gets to know the guy that we knew."
 
           The Hall of Fame banquet is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 18, in the Cashion Building Banquet Room on the Baylor University campus. Tickets are $50 per person, with table sponsorships also available at the green ($600) and gold ($800) levels and can be purchased by contacting the "B" Association at 254-710-3045 or by email at tammy_hardin@baylor.edu.