Hall of Fame
He’s the reason we’re the Rangers. Having once lived in the city of Ranger, Texas, where his father owned a Ford dealership before eventually relocating it to Dallas, and having liked the town very much, Jesuit’s first athletic director, football coach, and basketball coach, Ed Maher Jr., not only gave the School’s athletic teams their nickname, but also established the firm foundation on which the entire Jesuit athletic program has been built.
When the Jesuits opened their doors on Oak Lawn to high school students in 1942, the School had no history, tradition, organizations, activities or records to build upon. Likewise, when Maher began his coaching and math teaching careers at Jesuit during its first year of operation, he had nothing to build upon except a dedicated determination and the talents of a student body comprising less than 150 boys.
From 1942-47, Maher served as athletic director while coaching both football and basketball (except for the 1946 football season). Until the 1947 football campaign, he coached both teams without assistants. Considering the limited talent of a fledgling Catholic high school that, of course, had yet to create an alumni base of support, Maher fielded respectable teams early in his tenure as the 1942 football team followed up a 5-2 inaugural season with a 5-1 record the next year. From the years 1944-46, the basketball teams enjoyed outstanding records of 17-4, 16-5, and 16-4. In 1947, his last year to coach at Jesuit, the Rangers compiled a 12-4 record and reach the semifinals of the TCIL State Championships, scoring 91 points in one game, producing a playoff scoring record that stood for the next 14 years.
Prior to becoming a coach and faculty member at Jesuit, Maher had been a Diocese of Dallas seminarian at Saint John’s Home Missions Seminary (Ark.), and was a sub-deacon in his final years of formation while at Jesuit. After leaving the School, he was ordained by Bishop Thomas Gorman and later elevated to monsignor, serving as vice president at the University of Dallas. In August 1979, Ed Maher Jr., the first Jesuit Ranger, passed away.
